{"id":5898,"date":"2020-08-30T00:00:44","date_gmt":"2020-08-29T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=5898"},"modified":"2020-09-04T01:59:42","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T15:59:42","slug":"the-ministry-of-aquila-and-prisca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2020\/08\/30\/the-ministry-of-aquila-and-prisca\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ministry of Aquila and Prisca"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 16:19-20 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.<\/span> 20\u00a0<\/sup>All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Paul now passes on the final greetings from people with him. Verse 19 is another strong hint that Paul was in Ephesus when he wrote this letter. Ephesus was the leading city of Asia minor. Acts 19:26 states that Paul had an effective ministry throughout the area, so he could have been in any part of Asia when he wrote this letter. However, the most likely spoke would be in the vicinity of Ephesus.<\/p>\n

Aquila and Prisca (a shortened form of Priscilla) are mentioned at different points in Paul’s ministry. Paul first met them in Corinth, recorded in Acts 18. Acts 18:2 gives some of their background. There were Jews and natives of Pontus and had recently come from Italy. They had fled Rome because the Emperor Claudius had ejected all Jews from the city. They were tent makers like Paul, which opened a door for Paul to share the gospel with them. They became believers in Corinth. Later they went with Paul to Syria, where they may havemet many other believers. This may have been a key time of discipleship for them. They then went with Paul to Ephesus (Acts 18:18-19). They were with Paul in Ephesus when he wrote this letter. They were part of the early group of believers in Corinth, so many in the church would have known them. When Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:19, they are still in Ephesus, evidently making this their home. It is interesting, however, they Paul sends them greetings in Romans 16:3. At some point, they had returned to Rome, possibly in the years between Paul’s Ephesian ministry and when he wrote the letter to the Romans. The chronology of all of this is not always easy to piece together.<\/p>\n

This couple hosted a church in their home. They were not passive believers but active in ministry. Hosting a house church was a significant commitment. We do not know what their house was like. They were tent makers and Jewish Christians, so likely their house was modest at best. Whatever their economic status, they were servants of the Lord and opened their home as a place of discipleship and worship.<\/p>\n

Paul then sends greetings from “all the brothers” in Ephesus and surrounding area. This shows the deep connection in the early church, even from great distances and little direct communication. It would be a tremendous testimony to show this type of close bond of all believers everywhere. This close bond was expressed through giving one another a holy kiss. Although this may be cultural and not always appropriate in our day or setting, Christians have always been affectionate in the bond of love. We can show this “brotherly love” in whatever way is appropriate for our setting.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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1 Corinthians 16:19-20 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. 20\u00a0All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Paul now passes on the final greetings from people with him. Verse 19 is another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5898"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5910,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898\/revisions\/5910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}