[6] Onesimus turned up where Paul was imprisoned (most probably Rome or Caesarea Maritima)[7] to escape punishment for a theft of which he was accused.

[9] The letter reads (in part): I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me.

Though this is questioned by authorities such as Joseph Fitzmyer,[10] it may be the case that this Onesimus was the same one consecrated a bishop by the Apostles, and who accepted the episcopal throne in Ephesus[11] following Saint Timothy.

However, since the reign of Domitian was from 81 to 96 AD, and that of Trajan lasted to 117, Onesimus' death would have to fall within these years and not in 68, as above.

There, he is described as "[a] runaway slave, whom the apostle Paul received to the faith of Christ while in prison, regarding him as a son of whom he had become father, as he himself wrote to Philemon, Onesimus's master".