The First Missionary Couple

Paul is commonly seen as the master missionary who single-handedly evangelized the Roman world but, in fact, he had a lot of help. On his first missionary journey, he worked alongside Barnabas and chose Silas as his companion for the second missionary journey. Along the way, he picked up Timothy (and perhaps Luke) as well. In Corinth, he made the acquaintance of a married couple, Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:1-3), who are mentioned in his letters (1 Cor 16:19; Rom 16:3-5) as his fellow co-workers in Christ.

From Philippi to Athens

After baptizing Lydia in Philippi, Paul (16:16-24) exorcised the spirit of divination from a slave girl, spoiling the talent that was profitable for her masters. The masters hauled Paul and Silas before the magistrates who had them beaten with rods and thrown in prison. Luke recounts another miraculous “prison break” scene (vv. 25-34), except this time, Paul and Silas do not escape from prison but remain to evangelize the warden.

Vv. 35-40 make no mention of the miraculous earthquake. On the next morning, the magistrates ordered the release of Paul and Silas. They are even more eager to hustle them out of town when they find out that Paul, at least, is a Roman citizen; flogging was an illegal punishment for Roman citizens.

According to Acts 17:1-15, trouble with the Jewish citizens of Thessalonica made their visit there short-lived and trouble followed them to Beroea as well. Leaving Silas and Timothy behind, Paul left for Athens.

Paul tells a slightly different story in his first letter to the Thessalonians. After referencing his suffering and mistreatment at Philippi (1 Thess 2:2), Paul discussed how he was separated from the Thessalonians and wanted to return but Satan blocked his way (2:17-18). Paul eventually chose to remain alone in Athens in order to send Timothy back to Thessalonica to check on the state of the infant church there (3:1-5). In Paul’s version, Timothy had initially accompanied him to Athens.

Paul Before the Areopagus

Alone in Athens (17:16-34), Paul continued to spread the word of Jesus and had discussions with the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers. Eventually, he was interrogated by the city council, the Areopagus. Paul’s speech to the council gives us an idea of how a 1st-century missionary would have evangelized pagan Gentiles.

Paul begins by referencing an altar he saw in the city that was dedicated “to an unknown god.” He asserts this unknown god is the God who made the world and everything in it: “For in him we live and move and have our being” (v. 28). This God created all humanity and placed within us a longing to seek him out. Paul even quotes the Stoic poet Aratus (3rd century BCE): “of him we too are offspring.”

Although God has overlooked human sinfulness in the past, now is a time for repentance because he has fixed a time in which the world will be judged by Jesus. We know this to be true because God has raised him from the dead. Mention of the resurrection drew both negative and curious reactions from the jaded Athenians and Paul soon left Athens for Corinth.

Fresco from Pompeii of a Roman couple. Prisca and Aquila could have looked something like this.

Setting Up Shop in Corinth

Once in Corinth Paul apparently ran out of funds and needed to work his trade as a tent maker so he would not have to beg for support (2 Cor 11:7-9). He ended up working and living with Priscilla (Prisca in Paul’s letters) and Aquila, fellow tent makers and Jewish believers who had recently arrived from Italy, forced out due to an edict from the emperor Claudius (Acts 18:1-3). The Roman historian Suetonius explains: “He expelled Jews from Rome, who were constantly making disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus.” Historians debate exactly when this happened, with 49 CE being a frequently cited date.

It sounds like an odd trade in a city like Corinth, but tent makers were in high demand because they made awnings for residences and shops as well as tents for temporary lodgings. They would probably also able to work leather goods such as cloaks and belts. Paul lodged with Aquila and Prisca until Silas and Timothy arrived with money from the Macedonian churches (2 Cor 11:9). This enabled Paul to return full-time to his ministry, so he left their home and moved next door to the synagogue (Acts 18:5-7).

When, after 18 months in Corinth, Paul returned to Asia, he took Prisca and Aquila along and left them in Ephesus to build up the church there (18:18-21). According to Acts 18:24-28, they would prove instrumental in catechizing Apollos, who would become a popular teacher in Corinth. A few years later, after the death of Claudius, they returned to Rome. The move may have been prompted by Paul who was planning a visit to Rome and may have wanted to use them as a vanguard in laying the groundwork for him. In his letter to the Romans, Paul praises the couple for having “risked their necks for my life” (Rom 16:3-4). They and the church that met in their home are the first to receive his greetings.

Christianity is Not a Crime

Towards the end of his stay in Corinth, Paul once again got in trouble with the local Jewish congregation and was brought before Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia (Acts 18:12-17). The case the Jews presented to Gallio was that Paul was persuading people to worship God “in ways that are contrary to the law.” Judaism was a legally recognized religion in Roman law and they wanted Gallio to declare that Paul’s Chrisitianity was not the same as Judaism. Gallio did not want to engage in semantics (“a matter of questions about words and names and your own law”) and refused judgment. In short, Gallio decreed that Christianity was not a crime under Roman law.

An inscription allows us to date Gallio’s proconsulship to 52 CE, giving us the best chronological peg in Paul’s life. Paul would have arrived in Corinth in late 50/early 51 and lodged with Aquila and Prisca a year or two after they were expelled from Rome. This period is also the time when he wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians, the earliest document we have in the NT. We will look at that letter next week.