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Priscilla
PRISCILLA, PRISCA (prĭ-sĭl'a, prĭs'ka, Gr. Priskilla, Priska). Priscilla (diminutive of Prisca, Rom 16:3, see niv footnote) was the wife of the Jewish Christian, Aquila, with whom she is always mentioned in the NT. They were tentmakers who seem to have migrated about the Mediterranean world, teaching the gospel wherever they went. Paul met them in Corinth (
priscilla. The wife of Aquila the tentmaker (Acts 18:2). The best readings of the Pauline references give the form “Prisca”; Luke in Acts 18:2,18,26 uses the diminutive variant “Priscilla.” Both writers give particular prominence to the wife, and this has been thought to show that she was of higher social standing or of greater importance in the church than her husband. Paul's association with the couple began in Corinth when they had come from Italy after Claudius's expulsion of Jews from Rome in a.d. 49. They were later his fellow-workers in Ephesus, where they instructed Apollos, and in Rome. Harnack* ingeniously urged the attribution to them of the epistle to the Hebrews. The name Priscilla is well attested, chiefly later and in Asia Minor, where its frequency may be due to the influence of Montanism.*