Torch, Fall 1985

6 Aquila and Priscilla, New Testament Tentmakers by Martha Baldwin ~ -" 1974. Scripture Press Publications. Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission. W herever God scattered His people He raised up Aquila and Priscilla could have known of Christ tentmakers - from Joseph and Daniel to Paul and before meeting Paul. Sixteen years had elapsed from Lydia . He gives us only six passages about the New the Day of Pentecost when devout Jews from "every Testament saints Aquila and Priscilla, but their lives nation under heaven" heard the gospel in their own reveal some specific characteristics which we might tongue and carried it back to their own lands until the incorporate into our understanding of tentmaking. Jewish expulsion from Rome . Perhaps this couple Around 50 A.O., Emperor Tiberius Claudius received Christ while they were still in Asia Minor, or ordered all Jews to depart from Rome (Acts 18:2). perhaps they had heard of Him through the church in Claudius ruled the Roman Empire from A .O. 41to54 . Italy. He succeeded the assassinated Caligula and was In either case - whether Paul sought them out or himself poisoned by his fourth wife, who wanted the they came came together because of their Jewishness kingdom for her son, Nero. Claudius died his violent and their shared occupation - it is likely that if Aquila death just four years after expelling the Jews from and Priscilla had not already heard of Christ, they Rome. One recalls God's judgment upon the enemies would before long! of God's people as promised in Genesis 12:3. Paul lived and worked with the couple during the Two of the Jews residing in Rome at the time of week and went each Sabbath to the synagogue to reason Claudius' edict were Aquila and his wife, Priscilla. with the Jews and Greeks concerning Christ (Acts They were already expatriates, for Luke tells us that 18:4,5) . When Silas and Timothy arrived from Aquila, at least, was born in Pontus , probably in Asia Macedonia, he intensified his efforts and , when the Minor. They were tentmakers by trade and, by the time Jews opposed him, he declared that he would take his of Acts 18, they were living in Corinth" message to the Gentiles. About the time of Claudius' death, the Apostle Paul God told Paul in a vision that He had "much people in found them in Corinth and, because they had the craft of this city" (Corinth) and so, for the next year and a half, tentmaking in common , he lived and worked with Paul preached Christ. Many believed . Scripture them. indicates that two chief rulers of the synagogue were It appears that the word "found" in Acts 18:2 can saved. The first, Crispus, "believed on the Lord with all mean "find after seeking" or "find accidentally ." The his house." The second, Sosthenes, may have headed latter meaning would imply that Paul had not known of the group of Jews who made a move against Paul and Aquila and Priscilla before he met them for the first brought him before the Roman deputy Gallio for time in Corinth . Had Paul "found them after seeking," judgment. When Gallio turned back the Jews' charges, this might imply that he had heard of them - perhaps the Greeks beat Sosthenes in a display of antisemitism. that they were fellow believers - and he actively But his name is mentioned later in I Corinthians 1: 1 as sought them out. Paul 's "brother" and fellow salutator! What a