11.03 | Priscilla & Aquila
Romans 16
‘Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus’
Romans 16:3
A few weeks ago I contributed to a group birthday card for a friend. He’s the kind of guy that’s not difficult to find nice things to say about, and when he read the card from all of us, he was moved by the measure to which he’s loved and respected. To us, it’s obvious; he’s just a superb human being. To him, it was news.
His wife reflected on this with us soon after. She’s in Christian leadership, which means that in many of their social circles, he gets used to being known and introduced in relation to her.
Most of us know the dynamic in marriages we’re familiar with. I certainly do. In some (usually church-related) contexts, we’re Chris and Lydia, but in others, it’s very much Lydia and Chris.
Romans finishes on a deeply personal note. A lot of names may not mean much to us, but their presence emphasises just how much Paul was deeply and relationally connected with this church. He’s not just writing these people good content, but he’s engaged with them in real relationship. The words he’s been sharing, training their hearts into the narrative and vision of the Kingdom of God, has not been a detached theological monologue, but an exhortation of love to those whose lives and faces he well knows.
And there’s a couple on this list who appear a number of times across the New Testament.
Aquila and Priscilla.1
Or, as it is more commonly written, Priscilla and Aquila.
Now this is historically odd. Greco-Roman culture largely viewed women as secondary, and thus would traditionally have named the man first. And yet Paul puts Priscilla first. In fact, in their six appearances in the New Testament, Priscilla appears first four times.
Aquila, it seems, was used to being introduced as Priscilla’s husband.
This is subversive. The common societal hierarchies of value are being challenged. Paul is writing into a new kind of community.
As we widen our view across the list of people mentioned, we find this gender-related subversion runs deep.
Phoebe, who delivered the letter. Those who delivered letters would generally both read out its contents to the community, and explain any points that needed further clarity. Paul entrusts this role to her.
Junia, likely married to Andronicus, shared a ministry that made her famous among the apostles.2
Tryphena and Tryphosa, those ‘workers in the Lord’, contributors and builders of the expanding work of God across Europe.
As good postmodern, we read back into ancient language, with fear of an oppressive patriarchy being upheld. But Paul isn’t having a bit of it. In this community into which he writes, restored biblical womanhood is being overtly championed alongside restored biblical manhood. The broken hierarchies of Genesis 33 are being replaced by the beautiful interdependence of Genesis 2.4
This does something for us. On one level, it contends our anxieties about the Scriptures upholding societal norms of gendered oppression.
But on another level, it also challenges the our own tendencies to create subtle hierarchies in our minds, viewing some as superior, visible, and more worthy, and others as subservient or voiceless, allowing our unchecked biases or blindness to relegate some and elevate others. As Romans finishes, we get a glimpse into a new kind of community, where those overlooked by the norms of the world around us find a place of prominence and participation in the Kingdom of God.
Reflect:
Cast my mind over the communities in which I live. Who are the people that I see to have greater value? Who are those that I see to be less important?
Asking the Holy Spirit to help, ask Him to renew your ways of thinking towards them.
Then ask,
How might I show them the kind of honour that they already have in the Kingdom today?
Pray:
Father,
Again, today,
I come,
Not to critique your Word,
But to let your Word critique me.
Where I have upheld—in my thoughts, words, or actions—
The broken hierarchies of value of the world around me,
I am sorry.
Where I have cared more about the celebrity than the slave,
Forgive me.
Where I have relegated or elevated myself,
Within the foolish categories of a fallen world,
Set me free.
And today, Holy Spirit,
Would you elevate all people within my soul,
To the very measure of dignity that they are afforded in your Kingdom
That my love,
And words,
And ways,
May be towards the restoration of all people
And my communities may increasingly look like yours
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Numbers 26:1-27:11 | Psalm 34:1-10
Sometimes shortened to Prisca.
Scholars part on whether the language is describing her as an apostle herself, or as well-known to the apostles. The Greek permits both, and so both options are left open to us. Writings by the church fathers, however, do include a high measure of apostolic inclusion for Junia. John Chrysostom (4th Century) wrote: “O how great is the devotion of this woman that she should be counted worthy of the appellation of apostle!”; Origen (2nd Century): “This passage teaches that there were women ordained in the church’s ministry by the apostles’ authority … Not only that—they ought to be ordained into the ministry, because they helped in many ways and by their good services deserved the praise even of the apostle.”
Genesis 3:16
Genesis 2:18-25 (incidentally, ‘helper’ is not a subservient term here; the same word in Hebrew is elsewhere used for God as Israel’s ‘helper’)
Thanks for today’s word Chris!