Priscilla: Teacher or Sandwich Maker for Aquilla & Apollos?

(hint: it's not the second one)

We learn more about Priscilla and her husband Aquila in the New Testament than we learn about most of the twelve original apostles. Priscilla and Aquila hosted Paul in Corinth (Acts 18:1-3) and house churches in Ephesus (1 Cor 16:19) and Rome (16:3-5). In this last text, Priscilla and Aquila are among Paul’s “co-workers in Christ Jesus” who “risked their lives.” For Paul, “co-worker” typically means evangelism (i.e., proclaiming Jesus in public – a life-threatening activity, indeed).

Most famously, Priscilla and Aquila met a preacher named Apollos in Ephesus:

He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. (Acts 18:24-26)

Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned six times in the Bible (Acts 18:2-3; Acts 18:18; Acts 18:26; Romans 16:3; 1 Corinthians 16:19; 2 Timothy 4:19). Four of those times, Priscilla’s name is written first, as in the text above. This was a significant breach of etiquette in the patriarchal ancient world, except for the following two reasons:

1. The woman was of higher social rank, and the man had joined her family as an inferior.

2. The woman was more prominent than the man in whatever activity they were being described as doing – she was doing more of it, or she was doing it more effectively.

Regarding the first choice, we know that Priscilla and Aquila were tentmakers, which may mean they came from similar backgrounds. Next, of the two times that Aquila’s name comes first, Acts 18:2-3 simply describes the order of when Paul met them. 1 Corinthians 16:19 is about their house. Whenever the Bible mentions the couple in reference to ministry, Priscilla comes first.

But wait a minute – can we make a big deal about whose name is written first? In our day, if you send emails to a couple ten days in a row, you may take no thought as to which name you type first. You may even find that you’ve sometimes typed the husband’s name first and the wife’s name other times. Couldn’t it just be a coincidence that Priscilla’s name comes first every time the passage is related to gospel ministry, whether Luke or Paul is the writer?

This is simply a situation where our culture differs from Greek, Roman, and Jewish culture in both Testaments. For instance, Luke and the other Gospel writers always name Peter, the most prominent of the original apostles, first in their lists of the apostles’ names. In Acts, Luke names Barnabas before Paul when writing about their ministry partnership in Antioch. However, after Paul moves further into his calling of prominence in the early church and they go on a missionary tour, Luke writes Paul’s name first.

More to the point: there are only three married couples in the Bible (other than Priscilla and Aquila) where the wife is named before the husband. What connection do you notice about this list?

1. The judge/prophet Deborah and her husband Lappidoth

2. The prophet Huldah and her husband Shallum

3. Mary the mother of Jesus and her husband Joseph

The woman’s ministry is more significant in redemptive history in each case. This is the only reason Bible writers broke social etiquette when writing the names of married couples.

John Chrysostom, often noted for his misogyny, nevertheless posits the reason for Scripture’s positive portrayal of Priscilla’s teaching ministry in his “First Homily on the Greeting to Priscilla and Aquila.”

“This too is worthy of inquiry, why, as he addressed them, Paul has placed Priscilla before her husband. For he did not say, “Greet Aquila and Priscilla,” but “Priscilla and Aquila.” He does not do this without a reason, but he seems to me to acknowledge a greater godliness for her than for her husband. What I said is not guess-work, because it is possible to learn this from the Book of Acts. She took Apollos, an eloquent man and powerful in the Scriptures, but knowing only the baptism of John; and she instructed him in the way of the Lord and made him a teacher brought to completion (Acts 18:24, 25). For the women in the company of the apostles did not worry, as they do now, about how they might array themselves in splendid finery and how they might pretty up their faces with cosmetics and painting under the eyelids. Women to-day urge their husbands and compel them to buy a cloak more costly than that of their neighbor who is of equal social station, and white mules and bridles shot with gold, and a retinue of eunuchs, and a great swarm of maid-servants, and everything else necessary for a ridiculous appearance. The earlier women shook off all of these and cast away worldly vanity and sought one thing: how they might become partners of the apostles and share the same pursuit.”

One wonders why Chrysostom threw “women today” under the bus when he ascribed his salvation to the witness of his mother and when his most trusted ministry co-laborer was the deacon Olympias, but that’s a story for another day.

Priscilla and Aquila “explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). Explained is from the Greek ἐκτίθημι (ektithēmi), carrying here the sense of teaching and expounding. Luke uses it to describe Paul’s ministry in Rome:

“He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God …” Acts 28:23

So, did Priscilla make snacks for Aquila and Apollos?

Well, maybe — making snacks for people is a nice thing to do. But for sure, she wasn’t tending to the snacks while the men were discussing “the way of God.” Priscilla had knowledge to share.