the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Aquila
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
or Born of Jewish parents in Asia Minor, Aquila grew up to learn the trade of tentmaker. In due course he married a woman named Priscilla. In every place where the Bible refers to Aquila or Priscilla it speaks of them together, suggesting that they formed a useful and well respected partnership.
Aquila and Priscilla were living in Rome at the time of an outbreak of anti-Jewish feeling when the Emperor expelled all Jews from the city. They moved to Corinth in Achaia, the southern part of Greece, where they met Paul. Possibly at this time they became Christians (Acts 18:1-3). (For a map covering the area of their travels see ACHAIA.)
When Paul left Corinth for Ephesus eighteen months later, Aquila and Priscilla went with him, and remained in Ephesus when Paul moved on (Acts 18:11; Acts 18:18-19). They probably helped to establish the church in Ephesus. In particular they helped Apollos, a newly converted Jewish teacher who had come to Ephesus from Egypt (Acts 18:24-26; see APOLLOS). They remained in Ephesus to help Paul when he returned to the city for a three-year stay (Acts 19:1; cf. Acts 20:31), during which he wrote the letter known to us as 1 Corinthians. At this time the church in Ephesus used the house of Aquila and Priscilla as a meeting place (1 Corinthians 16:19).
Some time after this, when Jews were allowed back in Rome, Aquila and Priscilla returned to live there for a time. They continued to serve God wholeheartedly, and their house in Rome, like their house in Ephesus, became a church meeting place (Romans 16:3-5).
Many years later Aquila and Priscilla were living back in Ephesus, no doubt helping Timothy in the difficult work Paul had given him to do there. Paul’s greeting to them just before his execution is the final reference to them in the New Testament (2 Timothy 4:19; cf 1 Timothy 1:3).
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Fleming, Don. Entry for 'Aquila'. Bridgeway Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/bbd/a/aquila.html. 2004.
