Priscilla and Aquila
In these two passages, we hear about Priscilla and Aquila – a husband and wife team (or perhaps as we shall see, a wife and husband team!). Aquila and Priscilla were very important members of the early church – they had a church in their house (1 Corinthians 16:19) and it seems quite possible that their witness was fundamental in how the early church grew and turned out.
They were clearly Roman citizens and appear to have been native to Rome – their names are Roman. However, they were also Jews, and at that time, the emperor Claudius had banished them from Rome. They had come to Corinth and were practising their trade there as tentmakers. As Paul was also a tentmaker, and they were part of the young Corinthian church, he stayed with them and worked with them. This way, he was able to earn a living whilst also preaching the Gospel. This is also an indication of their Christian hospitality – offering shelter to Paul on his journey – and clearly not for a short time – he stayed for a year and a half. That’s a long time to have a visitor in your house.
In the second of the three little stories, we are told that when Paul left Corinth for Ephesus, he took Priscilla and Aquila with him. He left them there to continue the work of growing the church. He clearly thought much of them and trusted their faith to spread the Gospel. We then are told of how they met Apollos, another Jewish convert, who was keen to teach as well. Priscilla and Aquila had heard him preach, and as he needed to learn more, they took him in hand and as it says, “explained the way of God more adequately. Apollos was then able to go on to Achaia – this is the southern part of Greece (including Athens, Corinth and Sparta). He was obviously well taught, because he was able to preach the Gospel – as it says “proving from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.”
This couple was clearly very important to Paul and to the church as a whole – he sends greetings to them in his epistle to the Romans (16:3), so they must have been able to return to Rome. He states that they had risked their lives for him and that all the churches were grateful to them. (Although Romans appears first in the New Testament, it is not the earliest written).
He also sends greetings from them in in 1st Corinthians (16:19) – this when he was back in Ephesus on his later journey. This is where we learn that they had a church in their house. The early church was made up of congregations who met in houses – they didn’t have dedicated church buildings – that came much later.
Paul also specifically asks Timothy to greet the couple in 2nd Timothy 4:19.
As I have said, Priscilla and Aquila must have been very dear to Paul – in sending greetings to them in Rome and in Ephesus in his 2nd letter to Timothy. They appear first in the list, both times – and in Romans, it’s quite a long list.
Unusually for those times (and perhaps even in today’s so-called enlightened times), Priscilla’s name comes first in almost every reference to the couple. She is clearly the leader of the two. This is one indication of the importance of women in the early church. In the literature of the time, it was rare for women (with some notable and powerful exceptions) to be mentioned. This is not to say that they didn’t have influence, though!