Onesimus
E268968
Onesimus is a runaway slave mentioned in the New Testament who, after converting to Christianity through the Apostle Paul, became the subject of Paul’s appeal for reconciliation in the Epistle to Philemon.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Onesimus canonical | 4 |
| Onesimus (after conversion) | 1 |
| Onesimus (slave of Philemon) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2451581 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Onesimus Context triple: [Epistle to Philemon, mentions, Onesimus]
-
A.
Uncle Tom
Uncle Tom is the long-suffering, devoutly Christian enslaved man whose moral strength and tragic fate form the emotional and ethical core of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel.
-
B.
Shadrach Bond
Shadrach Bond was an American politician who became the first governor of the state of Illinois after it was admitted to the Union.
-
C.
Thomas Fuller
Thomas Fuller was a 19th-century Canadian-born architect best known for designing major public buildings in North America, including prominent government structures.
-
D.
Patsey
Patsey is a young enslaved woman in the film "12 Years a Slave," known for her extraordinary resilience amid brutal abuse on a Louisiana plantation.
-
E.
Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup was a free African American man from New York who was kidnapped into slavery in 1841 and later authored the influential memoir "Twelve Years a Slave" recounting his ordeal.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Onesimus Target entity description: Onesimus is a runaway slave mentioned in the New Testament who, after converting to Christianity through the Apostle Paul, became the subject of Paul’s appeal for reconciliation in the Epistle to Philemon.
-
A.
Uncle Tom
Uncle Tom is the long-suffering, devoutly Christian enslaved man whose moral strength and tragic fate form the emotional and ethical core of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel.
-
B.
Shadrach Bond
Shadrach Bond was an American politician who became the first governor of the state of Illinois after it was admitted to the Union.
-
C.
Thomas Fuller
Thomas Fuller was a 19th-century Canadian-born architect best known for designing major public buildings in North America, including prominent government structures.
-
D.
Patsey
Patsey is a young enslaved woman in the film "12 Years a Slave," known for her extraordinary resilience amid brutal abuse on a Louisiana plantation.
-
E.
Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup was a free African American man from New York who was kidnapped into slavery in 1841 and later authored the influential memoir "Twelve Years a Slave" recounting his ordeal.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (33)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Christian convert
ⓘ
biblical figure ⓘ runaway slave ⓘ slave ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Paul the Apostle
ⓘ
linked to:
Apostle Paul
Philemon ⓘ |
| convertedBy |
Paul the Apostle
ⓘ
linked to:
Apostle Paul
|
| culturalContext | Roman slavery ⓘ |
| describedAs |
formerly useless to Philemon
ⓘ
now useful to Paul and Philemon ⓘ |
| ethicalSignificance | example of transformed social relationships in Christ ⓘ |
| formerStatus | slave of Philemon ⓘ |
| hasNameMeaning | useful ⓘ |
| languageContext | Koine Greek New Testament ⓘ |
| locationOfConversion | prison with Paul ⓘ |
| mentionedIn |
Epistle to Philemon
ⓘ
New Testament ⓘ |
| moralTheme |
Christian brotherhood beyond social status
ⓘ
forgiveness ⓘ reconciliation ⓘ |
| PaulDescribesAs | my very heart ⓘ |
| PaulDesires | to keep Onesimus with him in ministry ⓘ |
| PaulOffers | to repay any debt or wrong ⓘ |
| PaulRefrainsFrom | keeping Onesimus without Philemon’s consent ⓘ |
| PaulRequests |
acceptance as a beloved brother
ⓘ
forgiveness from Philemon ⓘ |
| relationshipToPaul | spiritual son ⓘ |
| relationshipToPhilemon | slave ⓘ |
| religion | Christianity ⓘ |
| sourceText | Philemon 1:10–16 ⓘ |
| subjectOf |
Paul’s appeal for reconciliation
ⓘ
Paul’s intercessory letter to Philemon ⓘ
linked to:
Epistle to Philemon
|
| timePeriod | 1st century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Onesimus Description of subject: Onesimus is a runaway slave mentioned in the New Testament who, after converting to Christianity through the Apostle Paul, became the subject of Paul’s appeal for reconciliation in the Epistle to Philemon.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.