Teacher / Missionary · NT
Priscilla
A Jewish Christian who, with her husband Aquila, ran a tentmaking business, hosted churches in three cities, and discipled the eloquent Apollos.
Priscilla (also called Prisca) and her husband Aquila first appear in Acts 18 as Jewish believers recently expelled from Rome by the emperor Claudius' edict against the Jews (c. AD 49). In Corinth they took Paul in as a fellow tentmaker, working alongside him for eighteen months.
When Paul moved on, they sailed with him to Ephesus and stayed to nurture the new congregation there. It was in Ephesus that they heard the gifted Alexandrian preacher Apollos teach an incomplete gospel — knowing only the baptism of John — and 'they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately' (Acts 18:26). The detail is striking: a husband-and-wife team privately mentoring a man whom Paul later commended as a powerful teacher.
Later Paul greets them in Romans 16:3-5 as fellow workers 'who for my life risked their own necks,' and notes the church that meets in their house. Of the seven New Testament mentions of the couple, five name Priscilla first — an unusual order that suggests her own prominence in the early church.
Key moments
Meeting Paul in Corinth
Take him into their tentmaking workshop (Acts 18:2-3).
Discipling Apollos
Privately correct and complete his teaching at Ephesus (Acts 18:26).
Hosting a house church
Greeted in Romans 16:3-5 with 'the assembly that is in their house.'
Risking their necks for Paul
Paul names them as fellow workers who endangered themselves for him (Romans 16:4).
Key verses
"And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome: and he came unto them;"
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"and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more accurately."
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"Salute Prisca and Aquila my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life laid down their own necks; unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles:"
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"The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Prisca salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house."
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Frequently asked
Why is Priscilla often named before her husband?
In five of the seven New Testament mentions of the couple, Priscilla is listed first — unusual in a culture that ordinarily named the husband first. Most commentators see this as a quiet but real signal of her own teaching gift or social standing in the early church.
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