PRISCIL'LA and AQ'IIILA. The names of two persons, wife and husband, connected with the personal work of Saint Paul and the early history of the Christian Church. The name Priscilla is a diminutive from the original Prism, in which form it is found in the best texts in the three references to her in Saint Paul's Epistles. Her husband. Aquila, is de scribed in Acts xviii, 2 as "a man of Pontus by race, lately come [to Corinth] from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had com manded all the Jews to depart from Rome." This decree was promulgated in A.D. 52. Like Paul, they were tent-makers by trade (Acts xviii. 3). It seems very probable that Aquila and Priscilla had accepted the Christian faith before leaving Rome; if so they were among the earliest be lievers there, and may have given Paul his in formation concerning the conditions obtaining among the Roman Christians (Rom. xvi. 17-19). They remained with Paul eighteen months after reaching Corinth, went thence with him to Ephesus, and tarried there while he went on to Jerusalem (Acts xviii. 11, 18, 19, 20). From there they returned later to Rome (Rom. xvi. 3). Still later they were at Ephesus again (II. Tim.
iv. 19). Thee changes are quite consistent with the shifting character of Jewish life at the time, and with their function as missionaries of the new faith. They were regarded most affection ately by Saint Paul. who reckoned their service as hazardous and precious. There are no re liable sources of information concerning the close of their lives. The name of Priscilla (Prisea) figures quite largely in later tradition. There is a church in Rome bearing her name; a volume of _lets of Saint Prisca goes back at least to the tenth century; and one of the oldest catacombs in Rome is called Ormeterium Priscilla'. The reason why the wife's name is placed first in so many cases has not yet been fully cleared up. The names of these two early Christians have recently become more prominent through the interesting hypothesis, put forward by Prof. Adolf Harnaek of Berlin, in 1900, that the authors of the Epistle to the Hebrews were Aquila and Priscilla. Consult Sanday-Hcadlam, Epistle to the Romans (International Critical Commentary. New York, 1899).