Saturday Scripture Gold with Bibi: A Woman Who Fears the Lord Is to be Praised

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."   -Proverbs 31:30

In the year 52 A.D. the Roman emperor Claudius issued an edict expelling all Jews from the city of Rome. It seems, from what the Roman historian Suetonius says, that they were persecuting their Christian neighbors and causing considerable disturbance in the city. Claudius cared little about the reason for the trouble, and even less about who the guilty parties were.

He knew they were Jews, and that was enough; so all Jews were uprooted from their homes and banished from Rome, the innocent along with the guilty. This included a Jew named Aquila, who had migrated to Rome from the province of Pontus on the Black Sea, and he decided to migrate to the city of Corinth. By his side was his faithful wife, Priscilla.

We do not know for certain whether she was Jewish or Roman, nor are we sure whether or not they were both Christians at the time. 52 AD would be approaching two decades after Peter’s Pentecost sermon of Acts chapter two. When Peter’s preaching brought thousands of people into the church by faith on Pentecost, there were visitors from both Pontus and Rome (Acts 2:9-11) who carried their new faith back to their homelands.

Aquila and Priscilla were possibly already Christians when they opened their home to Paul in Corinth. Though, this is not confirmed. Bible scholar Lenski notes that Priscilla’s name was Roman, possibly connected with the Acilan gens, which would have made her a noble Roman lady (Lenski, "The Interpretation of Romans", pg. 903). Priscilla or Prisca means "primitive", i.e. original, venerable (Commanding respect by virtue of age, dignity, character, or position). Aquila, means "eagle."

Priscilla and her husband Aquila were tent makers by profession. Paul the apostle, met them at Corinth. Paul, worked with them making tents in between his preaching engagements in the synagogue. Perhaps you have heart the term 'tent making ministry'. It comes from Acts 18 where Paul was making tents to support himself financially in the ministry.

This couple whose names are always mentioned together did some marvelous work for the Lord. By the fact that Priscilla’s name is mentioned first more times (against the custom), it is safe to assume that Priscilla was sort of the leader among them. Let's explore the events in their lives and see what we can learn from them.

They worked together, ministered together, and are mentioned together always: A true model couple. While it is clear that males followed the occupation of their fathers, there is no rule that was evident that the wife joined the profession of the husband. We do not see this practice in the other NT couples (Mary and Joseph) or Peter’s wife etc. but we do see that Priscilla chose to work together with her husband and make a living together.

When one reads the New Testament, it is striking how few couples are mentioned in the first century church. We find men, both married and single, who are prominent and we find women who are prominent in the church but we find very few couples. Of those few, Aquila and Priscilla, especially stand out. It's also noteworthy that even after they got into ministry, they continued their profession (tent makers), and earned their living, while continuing their ministry.

God uses this profession to connect Priscilla with Paul. When Paul arrived in town fresh from an evangelistic crusade in Athens, he must have started looking for people in the tent making profession to do some work, and make sure that he has an earning. We are well aware of the fact that Paul always worked for his living, and that he was a tent maker too.

So the Lord brought them together and Priscilla was hospitable enough to invite Paul into their home and let him stay with them. (Acts 18:1-3). A lasting friendship was born between them. We see God using Priscilla’s hospitality to put his plans into action further for the church here.

If Priscilla and Aquila did not know the Lord before, the stay of Paul would sure have sealed the issue for them. No one could be in Paul’s presence for a reasonably long time and not be infected by his passion for the Lord. Paul stayed with Priscilla and Aquila for a long 18 months.

We see here, Priscilla and Aquila playing perfect hosts, happy to remain in the background and silently supporting the great missionary. Later events will show that during this stay Priscilla and Aquila became very strong in the word, and that is not surprising; they had a great teacher in Paul. We see God using Priscilla to launch a great ministry by Paul.

They followed Paul when he went to Ephesus. (Acts 18: 18) They did not know what they were supposed to do in Ephesus at that time, and the purpose is revealed much later. But like Abraham, they followed God’s plans and moved lock stock and barrel with Paul from Corinth, where they had settled down, to Ephesus, just to be with Paul, and be part if his ministry. Responding to God’s call to move from the comfort zone is important so that God can use us mightily later.

However, when they reached Ephesus, Paul left them again and proceeded to his home church at Antioch. This time, again according to God’s plans, Priscilla and Aquila stayed back at Ephesus. (Acts 18:20). This was a key move. It is because they stayed back in Ephesus that they were able to meet another great preacher (Acts 18:24-26).

While Paul was gone “a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue” Aquila and Priscilla went to hear him and were deeply impressed by his sincerity, his love for God, his knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures, and his brilliant oratorical ability.

He could be mightily used in the service of Jesus Christ, but his message was deficient. All he knew beyond the Old Testament was the message of John the Baptist, which merely looked forward to the coming Messiah. “But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26).

They lovingly and patiently rehearsed the life and ministry of Jesus Christ on earth, His sacrificial and substitutionary death on Calvary’s cross for the sins of the world, His victorious resurrection from the tomb and glorious ascension into heaven, the necessity for personal salvation from sin by faith in His finished work, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the birth of the Body of Christ, and other great New Testament doctrines.

Aquila and Priscilla may not have been accomplished public speakers, but they were diligent students of the Word, and they loved to share it with others. They were even willing to invest the time necessary to take one young man under their spiritual care and pour into his life the things of Christ.

Apollos had a keen mind and a quick understanding. He absorbed the truth they taught him and made it a part of his life and ministry. And as a result of this encounter with Aquila and Priscilla, he became an effective servant of God whom some of the Corinthians later placed on a level with Peter and Paul (1 Corinthians 1:12).

This is one of the biggest lessons that you and I can draw from Priscilla’s life, the leadership principle of “passing on.” When we come to Christ for salvation, God calls us to Go.. and make disciples (Matthew 28:19) Similarly when God calls us to leadership, He directs us to help equip others to lead more effectively.

The further happenings show us that they nurtured and developed a church in their home in Ephesus, and Paul was able to see it himself when he returned to Ephesus later on .We know this through his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 16:19). They used their home to do the ministry that Paul entrusted them to do.

Churches in New Testament times could not afford to own land and build buildings, nor would it have been wise to do so if they could, in view of the continual pressure and persecution. They met in homes. And the home of Aquila and Priscilla was always open to people who wanted to learn more about Christ, and for Christians who wanted to grow in the Word.

There was one short statement in the greeting in the Book of Romans that we cannot afford to pass over lightly, however: “Who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.” We do not know what Paul was referring to, nor when it happened, but somewhere, somehow, Aquila and Priscilla together endangered their own lives to save Paul’s. And for that we also can give thanks to God.

Our knowledge of divine truth would be incomplete without the epistles which God inspired him (Paul) to write. His two friends were willing to give everything in the service of the Savior, even their lives.What a testimony!!

Now, let's pray...

O Father, give us the humility which realizes its ignorance, admits its mistakes, recognizes its need, welcomes advice, accepts rebuke. Help us always to praise rather than to criticize, to sympathize rather than to discourage, to build rather than to destroy, and to think of people at their best rather than at their worst. This we ask for in thy name's sake. Amen

-special thanks to Madana Kumar

Until next time...

Have a blessed week!

Bibi