Hearing Priscilla

An Imagined Conversation Between Priscilla and Apollos

Today’s post is a departure from my usual content. Last summer, I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study the book of Romans in Rome as part of my graduate program at Trevecca Nazarene University. The final assignment for that course was to write a short historical fiction about one of the people named in Romans 16. I selected Priscilla and thought it would be fitting to have Apollos interview her, because Acts 18 tells the story of Priscilla and Aquila teaching “the Way of God to him more accurately.”

Without further ado, if Apollos sat down with Priscilla at the end of her rich life and asked her to reflect on her life and ministry, what might that conversation look like? I hope this gives you a renewed appreciation for this incredible woman of God!

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Apollos: Today I have the honor of talking with my good friend and favorite theologian. Priscilla, I’m so grateful you agreed to do this!

Priscilla: Yes, I’m grateful to be here, Apollos. You know better than anyone how I love to talk theology!

Apollos: I promise we will get there! First, would you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Priscilla: Oh, where to begin? Let’s see. I was born to a Jewish family in Rome¹ and grew up studying the Scriptures. I was married to Aquila when I was young, just as he was taking a bigger role in his parents’ work making tents.² But I suppose those aren’t really the things anybody wants to hear about. I have been so blessed in my life. The Lord has been so good to us. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been hard. But it’s been good. We’ve had the opportunity to travel with Paul, to help plant the church communities in Corinth and Ephesus,³ and for years now we’ve been serving the Messiah back in Rome.⁴

Apollos: Your story is incredible, and please, greet Aquila for me.

Priscilla: Oh I will, I will. He will be so glad to hear from you.

Apollos: He should have joined us! He knows he’s welcome anytime.

Priscilla: Oh yes, I know. But you know Aquila. He prefers to stay in the background. I admire him so much. He really is content just working with the tents. When Paul told the community at Thessaloniki “to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands,”⁵ I’m quite sure he had Aquila in mind. [Laughs]

Apollos: [Laughing] Yes, I bet!

Priscilla: [Laughing] We really do make a good team.

Apollos: Yes, he has such a wonderful heart for the Lord. But let’s talk more about you. You’ve had such an amazing life, and our readers will learn so much from you! You said you grew up studying the Scriptures. I know how you love to set your mind on the Spirit⁶ and think deeply about the things of God. So that’s always been a passion of yours?

Priscilla: Oh, yes! I’ve always yearned to be a tree by living waters, nourished by my meditations on the words of God. I delight in the Torah⁷ and have been that way as long as I can remember. My parents thought it a little odd that a young girl would want to study like the students of the rabbis, but I simply couldn’t get enough.

Apollos: Your mind, truly, is a gift to the Church.

Priscilla: Oh you’re too kind, I don’t know about that. God’s wisdom is a gift to me. And He’s taught me a lot.

Apollos: [Laughs] Yes I know!

Priscilla: [Sheepishly] Oh, right. Sorry about that.

Apollos: Just in case anybody hasn’t read Luke’s account of our meeting⁸… I should share that I met Priscilla when I came to Ephesus as a teacher. I was pretty sure of myself, having studied in Alexandria. I had a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, and I wanted everyone to know it! I taught with great fervor.

Priscilla: You’re too hard on yourself. You were enthusiastic about what God was doing!

Apollos: Yes, I suppose that’s true. But in all my enthusiasm, I did not know the baptism of the Messiah, only the baptism of John. You and Aquila came to me and were so encouraging and so kind, and you invited me to your home. I graciously accepted and then…

Priscilla: We ambushed you, didn’t we?

Apollos: No, no… Aquila didn’t! [Laughing]

Priscilla: [Laughing] Oh, stop it! I simply wanted to explain the way of God more adequately! I’m sorry.

Apollos: Priscilla, please. Please don’t apologize. I am indebted to you. When I went to Achaia,⁹ your teachings were a gift.

Priscilla: You have done wonderful work for the Lord, Apollos. What I said to you that day… I had been having conversations with Paul about baptism. It’s funny. Years later, when I was back in Rome and we received his letter, I couldn’t believe it when I started hearing familiar words in the middle of the letter. Phoebe read that “all of us who were baptized into the Messiah Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as the Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.”¹⁰ John’s baptism was powerful – even our Messiah was baptized by John – but being buried with the Messiah so we can be raised to live a new life? That’s the beauty of baptism.

Apollos: That’s truly beautiful. But we’re skipping too far ahead! How did you end up in Ephesus?

Priscilla: Well, Aquila and I actually went to Corinth first. In 49, Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, so we went to join Paul in Corinth.¹¹ We…

Apollos: Wait. How did you know Paul?

Priscilla: Oh, we didn’t! But we had heard bits and pieces of his story. We wanted to learn… actually, let me back up. I haven’t told you yet how I came to follow the Messiah. I already told you I loved to study the Torah and the Prophets. Of course I loved to go to synagogue – I was there as often as I could be, soaking up every word. Anyway, there was a noble family at our synagogue, and they lived a life I couldn’t fathom. Every year at Passover they made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast days. Oh how I longed to join them! It’s funny – I had no idea how much I would end up traveling one day. [Laughs] But every year they would return, and we would all be so anxious to hear about their journey. One year, oh it must have been around 33, and anyway, their faces looked… different. We could tell something had happened while they were there. They told us of a prophet who was…different… from other prophets. But they didn’t say much. They were upset, asking a lot of questions, talking about the religious leaders in Jerusalem. They shook their heads at what Rome was doing in Jerusalem. We came to find out the religious leaders had accused this prophet, Jesus, and Rome had him crucified. Of course, you know that. But I’ll never forget the moment I heard about it. I somehow, I don’t know, I just knew this mattered. I felt the weight. But the story wasn’t over. As they were preparing to come home, word began to spread that the body was missing. Some said he was taken. Others said it was a conspiracy. When they got on the ship to Rome, Jesus was all anybody was talking about.

Apollos: I am on the edge of my seat! What happened?

Priscilla: Well, they spent a lot of time on the ship with a couple who had similarly made the pilgrimage for Passover. They said this couple was quiet for the first day. Like they had seen a ghost.

Apollos: What happened to them?

Priscilla: Well, they finally began to open up, very slowly, on the second day of the journey. They said there was no conspiracy. They said the body wasn’t taken. But they wouldn’t say anything else. My friends tried not to put too much pressure on them. They were clearly going through something. Finally, they said four words. Barely audible. Like a whisper from their hearts, not their throats. “We have seen him.”

Apollos: Wow…

Priscilla: I remember hearing this story for the first time. Like it was yesterday. I knew it was the truth. “We have seen him.” I can’t explain it, I just knew I could trust them.

Apollos: The Spirit at work.

Priscilla: Yes. But of course, in Rome, everything was still rumors, and we didn’t know the whole story at all. Over the next couple years, life basically went back to normal. We began to hear more stories of Jesus of Nazareth, and I knew He was the Promised One. When I heard how he taught the Scriptures, I was astounded. Every time I heard his name, I longed to hear more. That’s exactly what happened one day in probably 36 or 37. I went to the market and there was a young slave gathering people around himself. I found that very odd. But I heard him say the name, and I dropped my goods and joined the gathering. The boy said he was from Jerusalem. He was just sold to Rome a couple months ago. He said he had known a man named Paul, a Pharisee who had given up everything to serve this Jesus. The boy said Paul taught Jesus to the Gentiles. I looked around at the crowd of Romans listening to this young man and was proud that the Gentiles wanted to know about the Messiah too. Honestly, when Claudius expelled us, we were scared and didn’t know if we would survive. But when we heard we could go where Paul was going, there was an anxious excitement. We knew Corinth was our next stop.

Apollos: That is truly unbelievable. Tell us about Corinth!

Priscilla: We actually arrived there before Paul!¹² We found a group of disciples, but it was very disorganized, very confusing. Nobody seemed to be on the same page. I knew Jesus was my Messiah, but I was, of course, still passionate about Torah. Aquila and I ate according to the Torah, and honored the feast days, and kept the Sabbath, and remained convinced that Gentile converts were to be circumcised to follow Israel’s Messiah. How could it be any other way?

Apollos: Right, so what changed?

Priscilla: Well, I met Paul. He came to Corinth, and to make a long story short, persuaded me. It’s like he said in his letter to us in Rome: there are Gentiles who live as if the Torah is written on their hearts, and there are Israelites who boast in the Torah, but dishonor God by breaking the Torah.¹³ Paul brought me back to Deuteronomy and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and showed me that the Torah is about a transformed heart. It’s about the Spirit of God. “A person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.”¹⁴

Apollos: That is profound. We are indebted to God for Paul’s wisdom!

Priscilla: Yes, but it was a hard truth to accept. It took time. Aquila and I didn’t view the Torah that way. Not at first. Paul explained to us that the Torah gave us a glimpse of God’s righteousness. But Jesus was the true display of God’s righteousness! Sorry if I’m getting excited!

Apollos: Please, Priscilla! I’m feasting on your enthusiasm!

Priscilla: When Jesus submitted himself to death on a cross, Paul’s letter to the Romans says that God handed him over “to demonstrate His righteousness.”¹⁵

Apollos: Jesus is the full righteousness of the Lord we had never really seen before. That is so beautiful, Priscilla.

Priscilla: So I had to die to the Torah,¹⁶ at least the way I knew it, and it was painful. I mean, it really hurt. But dying to Torah didn’t mean Torah was bad. No, “the Torah is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good!”¹⁷ It’s just… I thought I could get to God on my own strength in the Torah. What Paul helped me see, thanks to the Spirit at work within me, is that I had to be “released from Torah to serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”¹⁸

Apollos: And you certainly served in the Spirit in Ephesus. Tell me about your time there!

Priscilla: Oh yes, by the time we went to Ephesus, I had soaked up everything Paul had to say, and my heart was on fire for the Messiah. It was a great honor that Paul left Aquila and I there to stabilize the new church as he went back to Jerusalem.¹⁹ That meant a lot to us. And, to be honest, Ephesus changed everything for me. You know, it was difficult to be a church leader in Corinth, and sometimes it’s difficult in Rome. Men don’t trust women. They think they are being dishonored to sit under my teaching.

Apollos: [sadly] They don’t know what they’re missing.

Priscilla: I gained a lot of confidence in Ephesus, though, and probably wouldn’t be who I am today without that experience. The Ephesians worship Artemis. Women and religious devotion are not strangers. No Ephesian is surprised to see a woman ministering in a temple. When we served the Gentiles, they welcomed my ministry in every way. I really gained my voice there.

Apollos: We need your voice! And you have been back in Rome for quite some time now, yes?

Priscilla: Yes, we returned as soon as it was safe to do so. We are so grateful to host the gathering in our workshop every resurrection day, and honestly, most other days of the week, too.²⁰

Apollos: And that community is surely grateful for you. And now you’re working on something new, I hear?

Priscilla: Well, I can’t speak much about it, but yes. I have been commissioned to write an exhortation of sorts that I must keep brief.²¹ But I have to be careful. It’s important I remain anonymous, because some still don’t want to learn from a female theologian.²² I can’t put my name on it.

Apollos: Your secret’s safe with me, and I look forward to reading it! Can you tell me a little bit more?

Priscilla: Well, it’s really about many of the things we’ve talked about today. See, “in the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”²³ I get to think about my studies of the Torah, since I was a little girl, and write about Jesus fulfilling and exceeding our wildest dreams. I hope to take disciples of Jesus beyond elementary teachings, and to help them reach maturity.²⁴ To help my fellow Israelites see that, while Moses’ covenant is a blessing from God, Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant.²⁵

Apollos: It will be a blessing to all who receive it.

Priscilla: It’s a blessing to me to get to write it, and to send my greetings from Italy to my brothers and sisters in the Messiah.²⁶

Apollos: Please send my greetings to Aquila and the saints in Rome!

Priscilla: Of course, of course. Thank you for this wonderful conversation, Apollos. It’s always a pleasure.

Apollos: Any time. Will you leave us with a blessing?

Priscilla: Oh, I would love to. “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus the Messiah, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”²⁷

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¹ Gaventa, B. R. (2024). Romans: A Commentary (First Edition). Westminster John Knox Press. (p 64-66). See also Acts 18:1-2.

² Acts 18:3

³ Gaventa, p. 64-66. See also Acts 18:1-2, 18-19 and 1 Cor 16:19.

⁴ Gaventa, p. 64-66. See also Romans 16:3-5.

⁵ 1 Thessalonians 4:11

⁶ Romans 8:5-6

⁷ Psalm 1:2-3

⁸ Acts 18:24-28

⁹ Acts 18:27

¹⁰ Romans 6:3-4

¹¹ Acts 18:2

¹² Nelson, J. E. (2024). Judge Deborah and Pastor/Teacher Priscilla: Templates for Contemporary Biblical Women’s Leadership. Religions, p. 1–16. See also Acts 18:2-3.

¹³ Romans 2:15, 23

¹⁴ Romans 2:29

¹⁵ Romans 3:25

¹⁶ Romans 7:4, cf. Galatians 2:19

¹⁷ Romans 7:12

¹⁸ Romans 7:6

¹⁹ Acts 18:19-22

²⁰ Gaventa, p. 553-555

²¹ Hebrews 13:22. Many scholars believe Priscilla could be the author of the book of Hebrews. I take that view here.

²² Bilezikian, G. G. (2017). Beyond Sex Roles: Priscilla as the Author of Hebrews. Priscilla Papers, p. 37–38.

²³ Hebrews 1:1-2

²⁴ Hebrews 6:1

²⁵ Hebrews 7:22

²⁶ Hebrews 13:24

²⁷ Hebrews 13:20-21