Aquila

AQUILA, ac´wi-la: 1. Translator of the Old Testament into Greek; see Bible Versions, A, I., 2, § 1.

2. A Jewish Christian from Pontus, who was intimately connected with Paul, and is always mentioned in connection with his wife, Prisca (so in Paul according to the best readings) or Priscilla (Luke), whose name is usually put first. When the first epistle to the Corinthians was written the pair lived at Ephesus (I Cor. xvi. 19), and their house was a meeting-place for the congregation there. It may be inferred that they were well known to the Corinthians, probably from a residence at Corinth, and this is confirmed by the Acts, according to which Aquila and Priscilla, being driven from Rome by the order of Claudius, settled at Corinth shortly before Paul’s arrival there (xviii.1-3). If this expulsion is connected with disturbances among the Roman Jews due to Christianity, it is not impossible that the pair were already Christians, and this view is favored by the fact that Paul stayed with them. From Corinth they went to Ephesus with Paul (Acts xviii. 18), and here Apollos was instructed in Christianity by them (xviii. 26). From Rom. xvi. 3-5 they seem to have been in Rome when that epistle was written; but this passage is thought by some to be out of place and properly to belong to an epistle directed to the Ephesians; II Tim. iv. 19 puts them again at 251 Ephesus. According to later tradition, Aquila became bishop of Heraclea; according to another tradition, he suffered martyrdom with his wife (cf. ASB. July 8).

(P. Ewald.)