Aquila & Priscilla

One of the brightest experiences to befall the Apostle Paul during his first evangelistic tour in Europe was the unexpected meeting at Corinth with two fellow‑Christians. In company with Silas, Timothy and Luke he had crossed the sea from Troas in Asia to Neapolis in Greece and visited one Greek city after another, preaching Christ. In most places he encountered Jews and took part in their synagogue worship but it was becoming increasingly evident that his real mission was going to lie with the Gentiles. For the most part his fellow countrymen would have none of him. Eventually he found himself at Athens, where he expounded the faith to an audience of the most cultured intellectuals of his time, but they were all Greeks and at the end there seemed to be little to show for his efforts (Acts 17). It must have been with a somewhat heavy heart that he went on to Corinth, some sixty miles farther, perhaps wondering what good he would be able to do in that notoriously dissolute city, and there he met Aquila and Priscilla.

It was probably in the synagogue that he met them, for Aquila at least was a Jew‑born in Pontus, the Asiatic province towards the eastern end of the Black Sea, and therefore a Jew of the Dispersion. It might have been many generations back that his forebears left the land of Israel; that his family had long since become thoroughly acclimatised is shown by the fact that his name Aquila is Roman and not Jewish. His wife's name is thought by some to indicate her connection with the Prisces, a noble Roman family who were prominent in early Roman history and many of whose members filled various public offices. If this was indeed the case then Priscilla was a native Roman, not a Jewess, and being thus highly born was probably cultured and intellectual, which could account for her apparent position of equality with Aquila in the various matters which are recorded of them. But Aquila, and Priscilla his wife, were Christians. That unexpected and welcome fact must have gladdened the Apostle's heart, and his interest must have been the more aroused when he learned that his new‑found friends had themselves been in Corinth only a short time, having come there from Rome itself. This was the first contact Paul made with the city in which above all cities he longed eventually to visit and preach the Gospel.

The story commences in Acts 18. Aquila and Priscilla, living and gaining their livelihood in Rome, were caught up in a decree issued by the Emperor Claudius Caesar banishing all Jews from Rome. Where they were to go he cared not, but go they must. Acts 18.2 says they had but recently arrived from Rome and this enables us to confirm the date of this part of Paul's journeyings. This edict of Claudius was issued in A.D.52‑it is mentioned by one or two Roman historians‑and it was almost certainly in the latter part of that year when Paul arrived in Corinth and met them.

There was an additional bond. Aquila and Paul were of the same craft; they were tentmakers. Aquila was such by necessity; by this craft he earned his daily bread. Paul, as a Pharisee, was bound to learn some craft by which he could gain a livelihood if necessary, even though a Pharisee was normally in the happy position of not having to labour with his hands. Paul, however, although he had given his life to the ministry, was accustomed to earning enough to meet his modest needs, and so it seemed the most natural thing in the world for him to join forces with Aquila for the duration of his stay in Corinth. The arrangement also provided him with a home; "because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers" (Acts 18.3). The craft thus described denoted the weaving and fabrication of a heavy goats hair, produced mainly in Cilicia and in Pontus, into tents and ships' sails and the like. Paul's birthplace Tarsus was in Cilicia‑the fabric was called cilicium after that name‑and so this would have been an obvious trade for him to learn in his youthful days. Aquila was born in Pontus and here again it was a natural occupation for him to take up in that district.

So passed two years, during which the Church at Corinth was established and grew from a handful of converted Jews and Greek proselytes to an influential community which, for all its heterogeneous (diverse) nature and many failings, was ever after very dear to the Apostle's heart. Much of the "spade work" must have been done by Aquila and Priscilla, and much of the credit must go to them.

There were probably a number of other Roman Jews in Corinth at this same time. When Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans some six years later, he sent greetings to Aquila and Priscilla (Rom.16.3.) who therefore must have been back in Rome by then. He also mentions by name a considerable number of other believers in Rome, some twenty‑five altogether, some of whom had apparently shared experiences with him. "Urbane, our helper in Christ", "Mary, who bestowed much labour on us" , and so on. Paul had never been in Rome and could not have met these Roman brethren there. The implication is that many of those whose names appear in Rom.16 had emigrated to Corinth on account of the edict and that they formed part of the Corinthian Church during its first few years. It is known that the edict was only of limited effect and many Jews remained in Rome; Claudius died two years later and his successor Nero did not continue the ban so that gradually many of the expelled Jews returned. That could explain how Paul, writing to Rome six years later, could send greetings to so many by name; he had laboured with them for a while in Corinth.

After two years Paul was on the move again. He intended to go to Jerusalem and finally Antioch, thus completing his second missionary journey. To do so he must cross the sea to Ephesus in Asia. In A.D.54 he was in that city, and Aquila and Priscilla went with him. (Acts 18.18). There they stayed for a few years although there was not as yet any Christian community in Ephesus. Paul had fellowshipped in the synagogue during his short stay and the other two continued to do so after his departure (ch.18.19‑26). But their missionary spirit was not to be stifled; there were probably more than a few who began to share their faith and acknowledge Jesus as Lord. Just a glimpse of their zeal is granted in the end of chapter 18. An eloquent and cultured Alexandrian Jew, Apollos, came to Ephesus. He was a disciple of John the Baptist; he had probably never seen the Baptist but heard of his message and believed it. Aquila and Priscilla expounded the Scriptures to him and in consequence he too accepted Christ. Later on he went to Corinth and became a power for good in that church; but in the meantime he would almost certainly have been an invaluable help to the other two in their promulgation of the faith. His learning and eloquence might have supplied something which they themselves lacked "he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ" (Acts 18.28).

Three years passed, and then Paul appeared again in Ephesus, as he had promised (Acts 18.21), during the course of his third missionary Journey. This time he found a Christian church in being; this we know because it was on this occasion, whilst resident at Ephesus, that he wrote and despatched his first Epistle to the Corinthians. In the course of that Epistle he conveyed, to the brethren at Corinth, greetings from the Ephesian church. "Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house" (1 Cor.16.19). The implication is that when Paul reached Ephesus on his third missionary journey there was a Christian community in the city holding its meetings in the house of Aquila and Priscilla. This would imply that these two were the founders of what afterwards became the most famous and celebrated church in Asia, one that had the honour of coming first in the gallery of the "seven churches" in the Book of Revelation. Since Ephesus became the centre of Christian evangelism in Western Asia it could be that this devoted couple were used by the Lord to initiate and direct a mighty work which developed and flourished long after they themselves had gone.

For they did not stay in Ephesus. They were certainly there in the Spring of A.D.57 when Paul sent his first Epistle to Corinth, conveying their greetings and those of the church in their house. But not much more than a year later, when Paul, now himself at Corinth, despatched his Epistle to the Romans to Rome, he sent greetings to his two former co‑workers, now at Rome, and again "the church that is in their house" (Rom.16.3‑5.). Apparently by this time Aquila and Priscilla had returned to Rome and within a few months of their arrival gathered a community of Roman Christians to meet in their house as they had done at Ephesus.

It would seem then that when Paul arrived in Ephesus there was this small band of Christians meeting in the house of Aquila. There is no mention of this in Acts 19. The narrative there reads as though Paul was the founder of the church. That is because Luke was narrating primarily the story of Paul. What apparently happened is that Paul first encountered the small group of disciples of John the Baptist, twelve in all, converted and baptised them, (Acts 19.1‑7) then spent three months in the synagogue to which he had promised to return when previously in Ephesus, but finding an opposition which had not previously been apparent, withdrew and commenced a series of meetings in a secular debating establishment (the "school of one Tyrannus") which continued for some two years. There is nothing unlikely in the supposition that for a few months‑six at the most‑the "public" evangelical meetings in the school of Tyrannus and the more "student" meetings in the house of Aquila for growth in the deeper truths of the faith went on side by side and during this period the First Epistle to the Corinthians was written and despatched. Then Aquila and his wife returned to Rome leaving Paul and his companions to carry on both works; probably the two "meetings" then fused together and when, ten or twelve months later, Paul wrote to the Romans he had knowledge that Aquila had established another church in his house at Rome and Paul sent greetings to that church. Then when Paul left Ephesus for Macedonia not many months later (Acts 20.1) he left duly ordained elders from among the Ephesus converts to guide the future destinies of the church‑the elders referred to in Acts 20.17. Something like that is probably the picture.

It is not possible to say with precision why Aquila and his wife returned to Rome. Claudius had been dead now for four years and his edict was dead. Perhaps Rome offered a better livelihood and once the obstacle was removed they felt the urge to rejoin the brethren there from whom they had been separated these six years past. It is known that many Jews did return to Rome at this time once the way was open. Perhaps Aquila felt the work at Ephesus was now well established and being well cared for by responsible Asiatic Greek and Jewish brethren and he and his wife could be of more use in Rome. At any rate they returned. They were probably among those who met and greeted the Apostle Paul when, a further three years later, he himself arrived in Rome, a prisoner, to be tried before Caesar.

Paul was only at Rome for two years. After his trial and acquittal he left the city and the Scriptures afford no clue to his whereabouts or his journeyings until about six years later, when he reappears in Greece. Sometime during this period, probably before Paul's acquittal, Aquila and Priscilla left Rome again and returned to Ephesus. We know this because Paul, writing to Timothy at Ephesus from his condemned cell in Rome in the early part of A.D.68, sends greetings to his two old friends. (2 Tim.4.19). Here again the reason for their abrupt departure is difficult to surmise. It might well be connected with the changed attitude of the State to Christianity occurring at this time. When Paul left Rome a free man the faith was still tolerated by the State; it was no crime to be a Christian. But a year or so later, in A.D.64, there occurred the great fire of Rome, which was blamed on the Christians, and the intense though short‑lived persecution by Nero was the result. A great many Christians were martyred and when it was over the church of Rome was sadly reduced in numbers. It might be that Aquila and Priscilla were able to escape from the country during that persecution and in such event the most natural place for them to go to would be Ephesus.

There we have to leave them. There are no further inferences from which we can deduce how much longer they served the Lord Christ, or with whom. Probably they spent the rest of their days as co‑labourers with Timothy and Onesiphorus, and Tychicus, and later on, the Apostle John, with others whose names are unknown, in building up the church at Ephesus until it became the most influential in all Asia, renowned for its missionary zeal and its deep spirituality. "I know thy works" said the resurrected Lord to them "and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted" (Rev.2.2‑3). That all had its start in the devoted labours of two Roman exiles, Aquila and Priscilla.

AOH