Aquila And Priscilla

VIEW:57 DATA:01-04-2020

AQUILA AND PRISCILLA.?The names of a married couple first mentioned by St. Paul in 1Co_16:19, and by St. Luke in Act_18:2. Only in these passages do the names occur in this order; in later references the order is always ?Priscilla and Aquila? (Act_18:18; Act_18:26, Rom_16:3, 2Ti_4:19). A natural inference from this fact is that Priscilla was a more active worker in the Christian Church than her husband. In favour of this view is the statement of Chrysostom (i. 306 D, 177 A, iii. 176 B, C) that it was Priscilla?s careful expositions of ?the way of God? (Act_18:26) that proved so helpful to Apollos. On this testimony Harnack bases his ingenious but doubtful theory that Priscilla was the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. From the prominence given in Roman inscriptions and legends to the name Prisca (St. Paul) or its dimioutive Priscilla (St. Luke), Hort concludes that she belonged to a distinguished Roman family (Rom. and Eph. p. 12 ff.). Aquila was a Jew of Eastern origin??a man of Pontus by race? (Act_18:2).
From Rome, Aquila and Priscilla were driven by the edict of Claudius (A.D. 52). As the unrest among the Jews, which led to their expulsion, arose ?through the instigation of Chrestus,? it is not improbable that Aquila and Priscilla were at least sympathizers with Christianity before they met St. Paul. On this supposition their ready welcome of the Apostle to their home at Corinth is most easily explained. Their hospitality had a rich reward; both in private and in public they were privileged to listen to St. Paul?s persuasive reasonings (Act_18:4). Nor was the advantage all on one side; from these ?fellow-workers in Christ Jesus? (Rom_16:3) it is probable, as Ramsay suggests (Hastings? DB I. p. 482), that the Apostle of the Gentiles learnt ?the central importance of Rome in the development of the Church.? We may fairly associate with this friendship the maturing of St. Paul?s plan for evangelizing Rome and the West, which we find already fully arranged a little later (Act_19:21, Rom_15:24).?
At the close of St. Paul?s eighteen months? residence in Corinth, Aquila and Priscilla accompanied him to Ephesus. At their house Christians assembled for worship, and, according to an early gloss (DG al) on 1Co_16:19, the Apostle again lodged with them. At Ephesus they remained whilst St. Paul visited Jerusalem; there Apollos, the eloquent Alexandrian, profited greatly from their ripe Christian experience, and learnt, from one or both of them, the secret of power in ministering the gospel of grace (Act_18:26 ff.); there also it is probable that they made ?the churches of the Gentiles? their debtors by risking their lives in defence of St. Paul. The allusion to this courageous deed is in Rom_16:3, and from this passage we learn that Aquila and Priscilla sojourned for a while in Rome, where once more their hospitable home became a rendezvous for Christians. This statement affords no ground for disputing the integrity of the Epistle. Their former connexion with Rome, their Interest in the Church of Christ in the imperial city, and their migratory habits, rather furnish presumptive evidence in favour of such a visit. From these trusted friends St. Paul may have received the encouraging tidings which made him ?long to see? his fellow-believers in Rome (Rom_1:11). The last NT reference to this devoted pair shows that they returned to Ephesus (2Ti_4:19); their fellowship with Timothy would, doubtless, tend to his strengthening ?in the grace that is in Christ Jesus? (21).
J. G. Tasker.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Always spoken of together. Husband and wife one in Christ. She is named Prisca Rom_16:3 in the three oldest manuscripts; Priscilla is its diminutive (2Ti_4:19), the name of endearment. As she is often named first (only in Act_18:2; 1Co_16:19 Aquila has the first place; Act_18:26 in Sin., Vat., Alex. manuscripts has Priscilla first), she seems to have been the more energetic Christian. Paul found them at Corinth on his first visit there (Act_18:2). They had been driven from Rome by Claudius' decree (mentioned also by Suetonius, Claud., c. 25, who, confounding Judaism with Christianity, writes: "he banished from Rome the Jews who were constantly making disturbances instigated by one Chrestus," i.e. Christ).
Aquila was a Jew, born in Pontus (as was the Aquila who translated the Old Testament into Greek); the name is Latin, assumed as Jews often took a Roman name, when thrown into much intercourse with Romans. Their common work, making the Cilician hair or tent cloth, threw Paul and him together, and probably led to his and Priscilla's conversion. A year and a half after Priscilla and Aquila accompanied Paul from Corinth to Ephesus on his way to Syria. There they remained and taught Apollos the way of the Lord more perfectly (Act_18:18-28). (See APOLLOS.) In 1Co_16:19 we find them still at Ephesus, and having "a church (assembling) in their house." So also at Rome (Rom_16:3-5): "My helpers in Christ Jesus; who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Greet the church that is in their house."
Afterward we find them near Timothy, in or about Ephesus (2Ti_4:19). The use of opportunities is one great lesson from their history. Paul probably availed himself of his intercourse in their common trade to bring the gospel home to the Jew Aquila, he to his wife. She and he together, as true yokefellows in the Lord, to all within their reach; to Apollos, who became the mighty champion of Christianity, convincing the Jews from the Scriptures at Corinth; setting up "a church in their house" wherever they were: in Ephesus; then at Rome, risking their lives for Paul, and earning thanks of "all the churches of the Gentiles."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

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