Romans 16:3-5

‘Salute Prisca and Aquila my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life laid down their own necks, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles, and the church which is in their house. ‘

Prisca (Priscilla) and Aquila were a wife and husband (Acts 18:2) who had ministered alongside Paul and were fellow-tent-makers (Acts 18:3). They were residents of Rome who had been expelled by the Emperor Claudius when he had issued an Edict expelling all Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2). On his death many Jews would have returned there, as seemingly had Prisca and Aquila. Paul had met them in Corinth, in Greece (Acts 18:1), and they had later moved with Paul to Ephesus in Asia Minor (Acts 18:18 ff.), where they had assisted Apollos by guiding him into fuller truth (Acts 18:26). They were clearly widely travelled, possibly for business reasons. They were also seemingly fairly wealthy as is indicated by the fact that their house was large enough for a house church (‘the church which is in their house'). It is interesting that, as here, Prisca (Priscilla) is regularly named first. This suggests that she was of superior status to her husband socially. Bearing the name Prisca she may well have been connected, possibly as a freedwoman, with the aristocratic family of that name in Rome (freedmen and freedwomen tended to take the name of the families they were connected with).

Paul commends them as those who had risked their lives for his sake, although he does not tell us how. This may have been why ‘all the churches of the Gentiles' gave thanks to them, although he may also have in mind the fruitful ministry that they had had among some of them. It is probable that he kept in close touch with them.