The Bible on Priscilla

What the text says

Priscilla — also called Prisca (the formal Roman name, with Priscilla as the diminutive) — appears six times in the New Testament, always paired with her husband Aquila. The references:

Four of six namings put Priscilla first. In Greco-Roman convention this is extraordinary: husbands were named first by default; the exceptions almost always carry social significance — higher rank, distinct profession, or prominence in the relevant community.

Acts 18:1–3. Paul meets them in Corinth:

After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to visit them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed and worked with them, for they were tentmakers by trade.

Three identifications: Aquila is from Pontus (the southeast Black Sea coast), the couple had been expelled from Rome along with the Jewish community (an event Suetonius confirms — Life of Claudius 25, “Iudaeos … Roma expulit,” approximately 49 CE), and their trade is skēnopoios (σκηνοποιός, “tentmaker” or possibly “leatherworker” — the term covers both). The same trade is what Paul does (Acts 18:3) — and what allows them to work together in Corinth’s commercial district.

Acts 18:18. They sail with Paul to Syria. The text now lists Priscilla first, immediately before Aquila. This is the first instance of the inversion.

Acts 18:26. The most theologically significant Priscilla passage. Apollos has begun teaching in Ephesus — eloquent, fervent, but knowing only the baptism of John:

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

Both names are subjects of prosēkanto (“they took aside”) and exethento (“they explained / set out”). Priscilla is named first in this teaching scene. The text presents Apollos — who becomes a major figure in the early church (1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:4–6) — as having been corrected and instructed by Priscilla and Aquila together.

Romans 16:3–5. Paul opens his lengthy list of greetings to the Roman church with Priscilla and Aquila:

Greet Prisca and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus, who have risked their own necks for my life. Not only I, but all the churches of the Gentiles thank them. Greet also the church that meets at their house.

Two things the text records: they “risked their lives” for Paul (the Greek hypotheinai ton trachēlon, “to lay down the neck,” is a vivid idiom for capital risk), and a house church meets in their home. The same household-church pattern as Lydia in Philippi.

1 Corinthians 16:19. “The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, together with the church that meets at their house.” The household-church is now in Asia (Ephesus). Aquila is named first here.

2 Timothy 4:19. “Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.” Paul’s last canonical greeting to them.

The naming order

In ancient Greek and Roman letter-writing, the husband is named first by default. Family inscriptions, legal documents, and personal greetings overwhelmingly follow the convention. Departures from the convention are sufficiently rare that scholars have used them to argue for the higher social status of the partner named first.

Three explanations have been proposed for the Prisca-first orderings in the New Testament:

1. Higher social status. Prisca is the form of the Roman nomen Priscus, a respectable patrician name. Aquila is associated with the Roman cognomen for eagle, often given to soldiers and freedmen. Some scholars (Adolf Harnack famously) have argued Prisca came from a higher-status Roman family than Aquila, and that the naming order reflects this.

2. Greater prominence in the church. The teaching of Apollos in Acts 18:26 is one piece of evidence. The argument is that Priscilla was the more theologically articulate of the pair and that the naming order tracks her prominence among the believers.

3. Greater contribution to the household trade or the household-church. A workshop and a meeting place both belong to the household; if Priscilla managed either or both, the order would reflect functional priority.

The text does not adjudicate among these. It maintains the order without comment.

Harnack’s 19th-century proposal that Priscilla might have authored the book of Hebrews — based on Hebrews’ anonymity, its Pauline-but-not-Pauline style, and Harnack’s reading of Priscilla as a teaching prominent enough to merit canonical authorship — remains scholarly speculation. The text does not name an author for Hebrews; the early church was divided on the question; modern scholarship has largely set the authorship question aside as unresolvable.

What the text doesn’t say

Whether Priscilla and Aquila had children. The text records no children.

Where they died or what happened after 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 4:19 is the last canonical reference. Later tradition includes various accounts; none is in the text.

Why Priscilla is the named partner in some letters and Aquila in others. The two-thirds-to-one-third pattern is consistent enough to be intentional, but the text does not explain when one ordering is selected over the other. No clean rule emerges from the contexts.

Key verse

Acts 18:26:

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

The Greek subject is plural; both are named; Priscilla is named first. The verb of explanation is plural (“they explained”), neither attributed exclusively to one or to the other.

Read in other translations

The passages above use the BSB and KJV — both public domain. To read Acts 18:26 in copyrighted modern translations, follow the links to BibleGateway:

• Acts 18 — full chapter on Bible1.org →
• Acts 18:26 — NIV →
• Acts 18:26 — ESV →
• Acts 18:26 — NLT →
• Acts 18:26 — NASB →
• Acts 18:26 — CSB →

Original language note

Prisca / Priscilla. Prisca (Πρίσκα) is the standard Roman feminine form of Priscus (“ancient, venerable”) — a respectable Roman nomen attested across multiple senatorial families. Priscilla (Πρίσκιλλα) is the Latin diminutive. Paul uses Prisca in his letters (Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Timothy); Luke uses Priscilla in Acts. The shift between formal name in letters and diminutive in narrative is consistent with broader Latin-Greek conventions of the period.

Aquila (Ἀκύλας) — Greek transliteration of the Latin Aquila (“eagle”). The Greek New Testament uses the Greek transliteration throughout; the husband would presumably have used the Latin form in Roman contexts.

Related reading

• The Bible on Lydia — another commercial woman whose household became a church
• In their own words: Paul on women — Paul’s recorded sayings, including 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2, set against the practice he describes in Romans 16