AQUILA AND PRISCILLA: A Script on their Marriage

Genesis provides two human creation stories. In Genesis 1 God creates humans, male and female, to be fruitful and multiply. The Genesis 2 version relates it a little differently—Adam is created first and then Eve is created from his rib.

Which ever way we read the Scripture, either as man and woman being created as equal partners or the man being created first and the woman second, we have a sense that God puts married couples together to be a team, a team that is challenged to be fruitful and multiply. The marriage of Aquila and Priscilla is an example of a relationship that personifies teamwork.

Below is a radio script my husband Monte and I presented while living in Connellsville, PA.

Tom: Aquila and Priscilla—they’re a couple that doesn’t get a lot of publicity, but they are mentioned in a number of places as a team.

Sue: The names sort of rhyme, don’t they? A rhyming pair of names like that ought to always be mentioned together, wouldn’t you say?

Tom: I guess so! But let’s get to their story.

Sue: Aquila was a Jew originally from Asia Minor.

Tom: Yes! But we find that Aquila moves to Rome. We don’t know whether he was sent as a slave or went for some other reason. He apparently met Priscilla there and they were married. We don’t know if she was a Jew or not. Then the Romans expelled all Jews from Rome and this couple went to Corinth in Greece where they took up their trade of tent making.

Sue: Tent making, you say? I can see where this is going. Paul visited Corinth and spent quite a time preaching there, and Paul also worked as a tentmaker.

Tom: That’s right. On one of Paul’s visits to Corinth he met Priscilla and Aquila, probably due to their common work as tentmakers.

Sue: Was Paul responsible for their conversion?

Tom: We don’t know. They might already have been Christians by the time Paul arrived. What we do know is this couple worked as a team—on the job and in their work for the Lord. Paul was so impressed by them he asked them to go to Ephesus with him. And they did!

Sue: Did they continue to work with Paul?

Tom: As a matter of fact, Paul left them in Ephesus when he continued his travels.

Sue: Is that the last we hear of Priscilla and Aquila?

Tom: Not at all! Right away in Ephesus they heard Apollos preaching of Christ, but only telling part of the story. His teachings stopped at Jesus’ baptism by John. Priscilla and Aquila took Apollus aside and shared the rest of the story, the parts about Jesus’ passion, death, resurrection and the Holy Spirit.

Sue: Are you saying that the two of them together were responsible for Apollos being empowered to share the full gospel story?

Tom: That’s right. This is one specific instance recorded of their ministry. They must have done much more because Paul sends greetings to them at Rome and also sends greetings from them to the Corinthians.

Sue: This couple seems to have truly worked as a team, both in their earning a living and as ministers of the gospel. They seem to be a model for one-ness in marriage that focuses on using their gifts in an equal fashion with little concern for who’s the boss and total commitment to their common mission together.