'Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus;
4. (Who have for my life laid down their own necks:
unto whom not only I give thanks, but so all the churches
of the Gentiles:) 5. Likewise greet the church that is
in their house.'--ROMANS xvi. 3-5.
It has struck me that this wedded couple present, even in the scanty
notices that we have of them, some interesting points which may be
worth while gathering together.
Now, to begin with, we are told that Aquila was a Jew. We are not
told whether Priscilla was a Jewess or no. So far as her name is
concerned, she may have been, and very probably was, a Roman, and, if
so, we have in their case a 'mixed marriage' such as was not uncommon
then, and of which Timothy's parents give another example. She is
sometimes called Prisca, which was her proper name, and sometimes
Priscilla, an affectionate diminutive. The two had been living in
Rome, and had been banished under the decree of the Emperor, just as
Jews have been banished from England and from every country in Europe
again and again. They came from Rome to Corinth, and were, perhaps,
intending to go back to Aquila's native place, Pontus, when Paul met
them in the latter city, and changed their whole lives. His
association with them began in a purely commercial partnership. But
as they abode together and worked at their trade, there would be many
earnest talks about the Christ, and these ended in both husband and
wife becoming disciples. The bond thus knit was too close to be
easily severed, and so, when Paul sailed across the Ægean for
Ephesus, his two new friends kept with him, which they would be the
more ready to do, as they had no settled home. They remained with him
during his somewhat lengthened stay in the great Asiatic city; for we
find in the first Epistle to the Corinthians which was written from
Ephesus about that time, that the Apostle sends greetings from
'Priscilla and Aquila and the Church which is in their house.' But
when Paul left Ephesus they seem to have stayed behind, and
afterwards to have gone their own way.
About a year after the first Epistle to the Corinthians was sent from
Ephesus, the Epistle to the Romans was written, and we find there the
salutation to Priscilla and Aquila which is my text. So this
wandering couple were back again in Rome by that time, and settled
down there for a while. They are then lost sight of for some time,
but probably they returned to Ephesus. Once more we catch a glimpse
of them in Paul's last letter, written some seven or eight years
after that to the Romans. The Apostle knows that death is near, and,
at that supreme moment, his heart goes out to these two faithful
companions, and he sends them a parting token of his undying love.
There are only two messages to friends in the second Epistle to
Timothy, and one of these is to Prisca and Aquila. At the mouth of
the valley of the shadow of death he remembered the old days in
Corinth, and the, to us, unknown instance of devotion which these two
had shown, when, for his life, they laid down their own necks.
Such is all that we know of Priscilla and Aquila. Can we gather any
lessons from these scattered notices thus thrown together?
I. Here is an object lesson as to the hallowing effect of
Christianity on domestic life and love.
Did you ever notice that in the majority of the places where these
two are named, if we adopt the better readings, Priscilla's name
comes first? She seems to have been 'the better man of the two'; and
Aquila drops comparatively into the background. Now, such a couple,
and a couple in which the wife took the foremost place, was an
absolute impossibility in heathenism. They are a specimen of what
Christianity did in the primitive age, all over the Empire, and is
doing to-day, everywhere--lifting woman to her proper place. These
two, yoked together in 'all exercise of noble end,' and helping one
another in Christian work, and bracketed together by the Apostle, who
puts the wife first, as his fellow-helpers in Christ Jesus, stands
before us as a living picture of what our sweet and sacred family
life and earthly loves may be glorified into, if the light from
heaven shines down upon them, and is thankfully received into them.
Such a house as the house of Prisca and Aquila is the product of
Christianity, and such ought to be the house of every professing
Christian. For we should all make our homes as 'tabernacles of the
righteous,' in which the voice of joy and rejoicing is ever heard.
Not only wedded love, but family love, and all earthly love, are then
most precious, when into them there flows the ennobling, the calming,
the transfiguring thought of Christ and His love to us.
Again, notice that, even in these scanty references to our two
friends, there twice occurs that remarkable expression 'the church
that is in their house.' Now, I suppose that that gives us a little
glimpse into the rudimentary condition of public worship in the
primitive church. It was centuries after the time of Priscilla and
Aquila before circumstances permitted Christians to have buildings
devoted exclusively to public worship. Up to a very much later period
than that which is covered by the New Testament, they gathered
together wherever was most convenient. And, I suppose, that both in
Rome and Ephesus, this husband and wife had some room--perhaps the
workshop where they made their tents, spacious enough for some of the
Christians of the city to meet together in. One would like people who
talk so much about 'the Church,' and refuse the name to individual
societies of Christians, and even to an aggregate of these, unless it
has 'bishops,' to explain how the little gathering of twenty or
thirty people in the workshop attached to Aquila's house, is called
by the Apostle without hesitation 'the church which is in their
house.' It was a part of the Holy Catholic Church, but it was also 'a
Church,' complete in itself, though small in numbers. We have here
not only a glimpse into the manner of public worship in early times,
but we may learn something of far more consequence for us, and find
here a suggestion of what our homes ought to be. 'The Church that is
in thy house'--fathers and mothers that are responsible for your
homes and their religious atmosphere, ask yourselves if any one would
say that about your houses, and if they could not, why not?
II. We may get here another object lesson as to the hallowing of
common life, trade, and travel.
It does not appear that, after their stay in Ephesus, Aquila and his
wife were closely attached to Paul's person, and certainly they did
not take any part as members of what we may call his evangelistic
staff. They seem to have gone their own way, and as far as the scanty
notices carry us, they did not meet Paul again, after the time when
they parted in Ephesus. Their gipsy life was probably occasioned by
Aquila's going about--as was the custom in old days when there were
no trades-unions or organised centres of a special industry--to look
for work where he could find it. When he had made tents in Ephesus
for a while, he would go on somewhere else, and take temporary
lodgings there. Thus he wandered about as a working man. Yet Paul
calls him his 'fellow worker in Christ Jesus'; and he had, as we saw,
a Church in his house. A roving life of that sort is not generally
supposed to be conducive to depth of spiritual life. But their
wandering course did not hurt these two. They took their religion
with them. It did not depend on locality, as does that of a great
many people who are very religious in the town where they live, and,
when they go away for a holiday, seem to leave their religion, along
with their silver plate, at home. But no matter whether they were in
Corinth or Ephesus or Rome, Aquila and Priscilla took their Lord and
Master with them, and while working at their camel's-hair tents, they
were serving God.
Dear brethren, what we want is not half so much preachers such as my
brethren and I, as Christian tradesmen and merchants and travellers,
like Aquila and Priscilla.
III. Again, we may see here a suggestion of the unexpected issues of
our lives.
Think of that complicated chain of circumstances, one end of which
was round Aquila and the other round the young Pharisee in Jerusalem.
It steadily drew them together until they met in that lodging at
Corinth. Claudius, in the fullness of his absolute power, said, 'Turn
all these wretched Jews out of my city. I will not have it polluted
with them any more. Get rid of them!' So these two were uprooted, and
drifted to Corinth. We do not know why they chose to go thither;
perhaps they themselves did not know why; but God knew. And while
they were coming thither from the west, Paul was coming thither from
the east and north. He was 'prevented by the Spirit from speaking in
Asia,' and driven across the sea against his intention to Neapolis,
and hounded out of Philippi and Thessalonica and Beræa; and turned
superciliously away from Athens; and so at last found himself in
Corinth, face to face with the tentmaker from Rome and his wife. Then
one of the two men said, 'Let us join partnership together, and set
up here as tent-makers for a time.' What came out of this unintended
and apparently chance meeting?
The first thing was the conversion of Aquila and his wife; and the
effects of that are being realised by them in heaven at this moment,
and will go on to all eternity.
So, in the infinite complexity of events, do not let us worry
ourselves by forecasting, but let us trust, and be sure that the Hand
which is pushing us is pushing us in the right direction, and that He
will bring us, by a right, though a roundabout way, to the City of
Habitation. It seems to me that we poor, blind creatures in this
world are somewhat like a man in a prison, groping with his hand in
the dark along the wall, and all unawares touching a spring which
moves a stone, disclosing an aperture that lets in a breath of purer
air, and opens the way to freedom. So we go on as if stumbling in the
dark, and presently, without our knowing what we do, by some trivial
act we originate a train of events which influences our whole future.
Again, when Aquila and Priscilla reached Ephesus they formed another
chance acquaintance in the person of a brilliant young Alexandrian,
whose name was Apollos. They found that he had good intentions and a
good heart, but a head very scantily furnished with the knowledge of
the Gospel. So they took him in hand, just as Paul had taken them. If
I may use such a phrase, they did not know how large a fish they had
caught. They had no idea what a mighty power for Christ was lying
dormant in that young man from Alexandria who knew so much less than
they did. They instructed Apollos, and Apollos became second only to
Paul in the power of preaching the Gospel. So the circle widens and
widens. God's grace fructifies from one man to another, spreading
onward and outward. And all Apollos' converts, and _their_
converts, and _theirs_ again, right away down the ages, we may
trace back to Priscilla and Aquila.
So do not let us be anxious about the further end of our deeds--viz.
their results; but be careful about the nearer end of them--viz.
their motives; and God will look after the other end. Seeing that
'thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that,' or how
much any of them will prosper, let us grasp _all_ opportunities
to do His will and glorify His name.
IV. Further, here we have an instance of the heroic self-devotion
which love to Christ kindles.
'For my sake they laid down their own necks.' We do not know to what
Paul is referring: perhaps to that tumult in Ephesus, where he
certainly was in danger. But the language seems rather more emphatic
than such danger would warrant. Probably it was at some perilous
juncture of which we know nothing (for we know very little, after
all, of the details of the Apostle's life), in which Aquila and
Priscilla had said, 'Take us and let him go. He can do a great deal
more for God than we can do. We will put our heads on the block, if
he may still live.' That magnanimous self-surrender was a wonderful
token of the passionate admiration and love which the Apostle
inspired, but its deepest motive was love to Christ and not to Paul
only.
Faith in Christ and love to Him ought to turn cowards into heroes, to
destroy thoughts of self, and to make the utmost self-sacrifice
natural, blessed, and easy. We are not called upon to exercise
heroism like Priscilla's and Aquila's, but there is as much heroism
needed for persistently Christian life, in our prosaic daily
circumstances, as has carried many a martyr to the block, and many a
tremulous woman to the pyre. We can all be heroes; and if the love of
Christ is in us, as it should be, we shall all be ready to 'yield
ourselves living sacrifices, which is our reasonable service.'
Long years after, the Apostle, on the further edge of life, looked
back over it all; and, whilst much had become dim, and some trusted
friends had dropped away, like Demas, he saw these two, and waved
them his last greeting before he turned to the executioner--'Salute
Prisca and Aquila.' Paul's Master is not less mindful of His friends'
love, or less eloquent in the praise of their faithfulness, or less
sure to reward them with the crown of glory. 'Whoso confesseth Me
before men, him will I also confess before the angels in heaven.'