Aquila
A Jew from Pontus who left Rome with his wife Priscilla when Claudius expelled the Jews. The couple worked with Paul at Corinth and Ephesus, taught Apollos, and later hosted a church in their house at Rome.
Aquila was a Jew born in Pontus who had been living in Italy. Acts says that he and his wife Priscilla came to Corinth when Claudius ordered the Jews to leave Rome, and Paul lodged and worked with them, since all three were tentmakers (Acts 18:1–3); see Claudius Expels Jews from Rome. They sailed with Paul to Ephesus and stayed there, and when the Alexandrian preacher Apollos arrived they “explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:18–19, 24–26).
Paul sends greetings from them and from “the assembly that is in their house” when he writes from Ephesus, and greets them and the church in their house when he writes to Rome, adding that they had risked their necks for his life (1 Corinthians 16:19) (Romans 16:3–5). They are greeted once more in 2 Timothy (2 Timothy 4:19). In the New Testament Aquila is never named without his wife.
In the timeline
- about AD 49, estimated dateClaudius Expels Jews from Rome
The emperor Claudius orders Jews to leave Rome after disturbances that Suetonius links to one “Chrestus”. Acts names Aquila and Priscilla, whom Paul meets at Corinth, among those who left. Whether “Chrestus” means Christ is disputed.
- about AD 53 to AD 57, estimated datePaul in Ephesus and the Collection for Jerusalem
Paul works for some three years at Ephesus, then travels through Macedonia and Greece gathering money from his Gentile churches for the poor of Jerusalem, and sets out to deliver it in spite of warnings.