Acts 18:26

Πρίσκιλλα καὶ Ἀκύλας with אABE. Vulg. ‘Priscilla et Aquila.’

τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ θεοῦ with אAB. Vulg. has ‘viam Domini.’

26. οὗτός τε ἤρξατο παρρησιάζεσθαι ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ, and this man began to speak boldly in the synagogue. The verb παρρησιάζεσθαι has been frequently used of the boldness of the disciples (cf. Acts 9:27; Acts 9:29; Acts 14:3, &c.). Here too was the same spirit and the same need of it. For the Jews were not all ready to listen to announcements of the approach of the Messiah. The speaker must be prepared with arguments as well as courage who dwelt on this theme, about which the Jews had been deluded by many impostors.

ἀκούσαντες δὲ αὐτοῦ Πρίσκιλλα καὶ Ἀκύλας, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him. Here as in other places (see above on 18) the name of the wife precedes that of her husband. By joining her in this marked way with Aquila in the communications with Apollos, the historian indicates that she was a woman of great power and zeal among the Christians. It has been suggested that she was perhaps a born Jewess and her husband not so, which might account for the prominence given in several places to her name. It may be noted here, as so often, that Aquila and his wife, like the other Judæo-Christians, still attended the worship of the synagogue.

προσελάβοντο αὐτόν, they took him unto them. He would be much more in sympathy with them than with many of the Jewish congregation. He was prepared to accept the Messiah, but did not yet understand that Jesus was He. Priscilla and Aquila must have been persons of some mark to be warranted in taking Apollos thus to their company.

καὶ� … τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, and expounded unto him the way of God more carefully. For the adverb cf. the previous verse. The use of the same word in both verses seems to shew that the studies of Aquila and his wife in the Scriptures had been of the same earnest kind as those of Apollos. By the ‘way of God’ we must understand God’s further working out of the Old Testament prediction in the closing events of the life of Jesus, and in the gift of the Holy Ghost. That Joel’s prophecy, quoted by St Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:16), had been thus fulfilled, was new learning for the eloquent Alexandrian. As also the newly-appointed means of grace in baptism and the breaking of bread, with the promise of salvation through faith in Christ. These also may be included as part of the ‘way of God,’ being means whereby men are brought nearer to Him.