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Priscilla and Aquila were a first century Christian missionary couple described in the New Testament and traditionally listed among the Seventy Disciples. They lived, worked, and traveled with the Apostle Paul, becoming his honored, much-loved friends and coworkers in Christ Jesus.[1] Priscilla and Aquila are described in the New Testament as providing a presence that strengthened the early Jesus groups. Paul was generous in his recognition and acknowledgment of his indebtedness to them.[Rom. 16:3-4] Their mutuality in ministry and their leadership as laypeople can inspire members of church communities today to work together as teachers and preachers of the gospel.[1]
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According to the account in Acts, Priscilla and Aquila explained a 'more accurate' Christian point to Apollos, an apostle[1Cor 4:6,9-13] and important preacher of the period. In 1 Corinthians 4:6, 9-13 Paul describes Apollos as an apostle who had shared the privations of the traveling apostolic life. Apollos must have been active in Corinth prior to 55 CE when Paul wrote his letter, as by the time of writing he is back in Ephesus with Paul.[1Cor 16:12] Apollos is also mentioned by Luke in a retrospective account in Acts 18:24-28 which details Apollos' teaching in the synagogue in Ephesus in about 52/3 CE, prior to his tenure in Corinth. Luke speaks highly of Apollos as a native of Alexandria and an ‘eloquent man’ who had a ‘thorough knowledge of the Scriptures’ and ‘taught about Jesus accurately’ (thus using the earliest Christian exegetical method taught by Christ to the apostles post resurrection. [Lu 24:27,32,44] [Acts 1:3] [1Cor 15:3-8]
Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott define ἀκριβής as ‘exact, accurate and precise,’ and Alfred Norris says that ἀκριβής gives the idea ‘of thoroughness and careful attention to detail’. He gives four examples of its use: it is used of ‘Herod’s instruction that the wise men should search diligently’ for the child Jesus,[Mt 2:8] it is used to ‘describe Luke’s detailed knowledge of the gospel from the very first’),[Lu 1:3] and the ‘careful picking of his steps to which the believer is exhorted by Paul’,[Eph 5:15] and ‘of the complete dossier of evidence concerning the Lord’s return possessed by the Thessalonians.[1Thes 5:2] Apollos therefore already had an outstandingly precise understanding of Jesus when he arrived in Ephesus.
He went to the synagogue to teach and there Priscilla and Aquila heard something in his preaching that they wished to clarify.[Ac 18:26] They took him aside and enhanced his already ‘accurate’ (ἀκριβής) understanding of Jesus with a ‘more accurate’ (ἀκριβέστερον) understanding.
Joseph Henry Thayer says that ἀκριβέστερον is a neutral comparative of ἀκριβής which is used adverbially in Acts 18:26, Acts 23:15, Acts 18:20, and Acts 24:22. He also says that a derivative of ἀκριβής in Acts 26:5 describes ‘the straightest sect … in interpreting Mosaic law, [and] in observing even the more minute precepts of the law and of tradition’. Alfred Norris confirms Thayer’s point when he says that ‘the same thought of minute attention to detail is conveyed by other derivatives [of ἀκριβής], as noun (Acts 22:3), as superlative adjective in (Acts 26:5), and verb (Matthew 2:7,16)’. Priscilla and Aquila therefore ‘expound’ (ἐκτιθημι) a highly specific Christian point or points to Apollos that most likely had to do with the baptism of John and the need for Apollos to more powerfully demonstrate from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah, for that is the difference in Apollos’ teaching post their instruction (Lk 24:27,32,44; Acts 1:3, 18:25, 18:28).
Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott define ἐκτιθημι as ‘set forth’ or ‘expound,’ and other New Testament texts give the sense of the word when it is used in relation to Peter’s and Paul’s teaching in Acts 11:4 and 28:23. In the case of Paul, ‘he witnessed to them [those who came to his hired house in Rome] from morning till evening, explaining (ἐκτιθημι) about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus’.[Acts 28:23]
Joseph Henry Thayer defines ἐκτιθημι in a similar way as ‘to set forth, declare, expound’ and cites Josephus (Ant. 12.1.2) who used a derivative of ἐκτιθημι to describe a ‘particular account, with great exactness’ that he will give about the Arabians and Ishmael, and Diodorus Siculus who used a derivative of ἐκτιθημι to describe the outline of a proposed change to the law, given before a court, by a penniless orphan heiress who wished her next of kin to marry her (Hist. 12.18).
Therefore, Priscilla and Aquila ‘expound’ (ἐκτιθημι) to an apostle named Apollos (these three people are also called co-workers [συνεργός] with Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:9 and 16:3—an extremely precise Christian point or points which Apollos used in Corinth to powerfully demonstrate to the Jews from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. Certainly expounding (ἐκτιθημι), and other words that describe confuting (διακατηλέγχετο), proving (ἐπιδεικνὺς), earnestly testifying (διαμαρτυρόμενος), persuading (πείθων), and proclaiming (κηρύσσων), are equal to διδάσκω in New Testament texts.
They have been called the most famous couple in the Christian Bible since they are mentioned seven times, always as a couple and never individually. Of those seven times, five times Priscilla's name is mentioned first.
Priscilla was a woman of Jewish heritage and one of the earliest known Christian converts who lived in Rome. Her name is a Roman diminutive, or nickname, for Prisca which was her formal name. Some scholars have advanced a case for Priscilla being the author of the New Testament Book of Hebrews.[2][3]
Priscilla is believed to be a different woman from Priscilla of the Roman Glabio family, the wife of Quintus Cornelius Pudens, who hosted St. Peter circa AD 42.
Aquila (Greek Ἀκύλας Akúlas), husband of Priscilla, was originally from Pontus and a Jewish Christian like her. According to church tradition, Aquila did not long dwell in Rome: the Apostle Paul made him a bishop in Asia Minor. The Apostolic Constitutions identify Aquila, along with Nicetas, as the first bishops of Asia Minor (7.46). Tradition also reports that Aquila ended his life a martyr, along with Priscilla.
Priscilla and Aquila, according to Acts 18:2-3, were tentmakers, as Paul is said to have been. Priscilla and Aquila had been among the Jews expelled from Rome by the Roman Emperor Claudius in the year 49 as written by Suetonius. They ended up in Corinth. Paul lived with Priscilla and Aquila for approximately 18 months. Then the couple started out to accompany Paul when he proceeded to Syria, but stopped at Ephesus in the Roman province of Asia, now part of modern Turkey.
In Acts 18:24-28, an important evangelist in Ephesus named Apollos is mentioned as one who "taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately." Priscilla and Aquila were among the earliest known teachers of Christian theology.
In 1 Corinthians 16:19, Paul passes on the greetings of Priscilla and Aquila to their friends in Corinth, indicating that the couple were in his company. Paul founded the church in Corinth,[1Cor 4:15] including their greetings implies that Priscilla and Aquila were also involved in the founding of that church. Since 1 Corinthians discusses a crisis deriving from a conflict between the followers of Apollos and the followers of Cephas (possibly the apostle Peter), it can be inferred that Apollos accompanied Priscilla and Aquila when they returned to Corinth. This happened before 54, when Claudius died and the expulsion of the Jews from Rome was lifted.
In Romans 16:3-4, thought to have been written in 56 or 57, Paul sends his greetings to Priscilla and Aquila and notes that both of them "risked their necks" to save Paul's life.
One item of importance about the appearance is that they provide a chronological synchronism for the chronology of Paul's life. According to Acts 18:2f, before Paul meets them in Corinth, they were part of a group of Jews whom the Emperor Claudius ordered expelled from Rome; if this edict of the Emperor can be dated, then we would be able to infer when Paul arrived in Corinth.
The evidence of other ancient sources points to two possible periods during the reign of Claudius: either during his first regnal year (AD 41; so Dio Cassius, Roman History 60.6.6), or during his ninth regnal year (49; so Orosius, Historia 7.6.15f).[4] As a result the experts are divided over when this expulsion took place: some, like Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, argue for the earlier year,[5] while others, like Joseph Fitzmyer, argue for the later year.[6]
Priscilla and Aquila are regarded as saints in most Christian churches that canonize saints. The Orthodox Church commemorates them both together on February 13.[7][8] The Lutheran Church commemorates them the same day along with Apollos. Other Orthodox Churches commemorate Aquila only as an apostle on July 14.[9] In the Catholic Church the Roman Martyrology lists their feast as July 8.[10]