Philemon 1:2

to Apphia ¹  our sister, ²  to Archippus our ³  fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your house.

Ro 16:5; 1Co 16:19; Php 2:25; Col 4:15; Col 4:17; 2Ti 2:3,4

¹ sn Apphia is thought to be the wife of Philemon.

² tc Most witnesses (D² Ψ Ï) here read τῇ ἀγαπητῇ (th agaphth, “beloved, dear”), a reading that appears to have been motivated by the masculine form of the same adjective in v. 1. Further, the earliest and best witnesses, along with a few others (א A D* F G I P 048 0278 33 81 104 1739 1881 pc), have ἀδελφῇ (adelfh, “sister”). Thus on internal and external grounds, ἀδελφῇ is the strongly preferred reading.

³ tn Though the term “our” does not appear in the Greek text it is inserted to bring out the sense of the passage.