CHAPTER 6
Women in the Early Years of the Church
MARY, MOTHER OF JAMES AND JOSES
MATT. 27:56, 6l 28:1 MARK 15:40, 47 l6:l LUKE 24:10 JOHN 19:25 |
One follows Jesus to the cross and witnesses the Resurrection. The other opens her Jerusalem home to early Christians for prayer. |
MARY, MOTHER OF JOHN MARK
ACTS 12:12
THEY LABORED WITH AND FOR JESUS
APPEARING as it does in fifty-one passages, “Mary” is used more frequently than any other woman’s name in the New Testament. In the Old Testament it is not used at all, though the sister of Moses and Aaron was named Miriam, which is the old form for Mary.
It is no wonder that the Crusaders brought the name Mary back from the Holy Land, for the New Testament Marys, all six of them, represented love and faithfulness.
There are individual “Searching Studies” on three Marys: Mary, the Mother of Jesus; Mary of Bethany, who anointed Christ; and Mary Magdalene, the first to proclaim the Resurrection. Then we have Mary of Rome, who is mentioned in the “Alphabetical Listing,” making the six Bible Marys.
The two Marys which we shall consider here are first Mary the mother of James and Joses, and next Mary the mother of John Mark.
The first-named Mary has often been confused with other women. She is also named as the wife of Cleophas, apparently to be identified as Alphaeus (Matt. 10:3). The two names are variant forms of the same Aramaic original. Cleophas and this Mary were parents of the apostle James the less, who had a brother Joses, the latter being the Greek form of Joseph.
Roman Catholic scholars believe that Joses and the “brethren of the Lord,” as well as those called “sisters,” were cousins of Jesus and children of this Mary. This theory, however, is not accepted by most Protestant scholars. The former base their belief on the John 19:25 passage, which may be interpreted as stating that Mary the wife of Cleophas was the sister of Jesus’ mother. Many Protestant scholars contend that it is unlikely that two sisters in the same family would bear the same name of Mary. They identify “his mother’s sister” (John 19:25) as Salome and “Mary the wife of Cleophas” as the mother of James and Joses.
We shall not try to settle such points, which have been a subject of dispute for centuries. But we shall try to picture this Mary who “followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him” (Matt. 27:55, 56), this Mary who “stood by the cross of Jesus” (John 19:25), this Mary who “bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him” (Mark 16:1), this Mary who “in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,” came “to see the sepulchre” (Matt. 28:1), this Mary “which told these things unto the apostles” (Luke 24:10).
In the First Gospel (Matt. 27:56), she is identified as Mary the mother of James and Joses; in the Second (Mark 15:40) as “the mother of James the less and of Joses”; in the Third (Luke 24:10) as “the mother of James,” who was the more distinguished of her two sons; and finally in the Fourth (John 19:25) as “Mary the wife of Cleophas.”
This Mary, we are assured, served Jesus in every hour of His greatest need, until finally with those other faithful few she was there when the risen Saviour appeared. We can be sure she was a woman who was generous, faithful, loving, true, and brave.
And we can be sure that she stood for the best type of motherhood, for her sons James and Joses became worthy sons of a worthy mother. James the less, meaning the younger, was one of the apostles of Christ. He has been named as a possible author of the Epistle of James and it is said that he preached in Palestine and Egypt. His brother was Joses.
Following this Mary’s certain footprints all the rugged way to the cross and then to the place of burial on the morning of the Resurrection, also the footprints of her sons, who helped to establish the new Church, we know she was a godly woman who embodied all the qualities of the good wife spoken of in Proverbs 31:10-31 and many more besides.
Another Mary with whom we shall concern ourselves here is Mary the mother of John Mark. Only one passage appears about her, but because of it she has come down to us as one of the great women of the New Testament.
Acts 12:12 reads, “And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying.” What greater biography of a woman could be written in twenty-eight short words?
First let us take a look at this mother through her son John Mark, who wrote the Second Gospel and was a co-worker with Paul. Peter referred to him as “Marcus my son” (I Peter 5:13). The name “Marcus” is sometimes used for Mark. Tradition declares that Mark founded the Church in the Jewish-Greek city of Alexandria.
Now let us turn to the home of this Mary, the mother of John Mark. It was said to have been on the south end of the western hill of Mount Zion, a residential section in the time of Jesus. Here may have taken place that overwhelming event known as Pentecost (Acts 2:1).
We can picture this home as commodious, for it appears that Rhoda (Acts 12:13) was only one of the maids of Mary, mother of John Mark. This suggests a household of considerable size. We can assume, too, that Mary was generous, sharing her home with early Christians. She must also have been a woman of some means, one who had real-estate holdings in her own name. At this time she no doubt was a widow.
It was to her home that Peter came after he had escaped from prison, and found the group praying for him. Usually these prayer groups, in the time of the early Church, met in upper rooms reached by an outside stairway leading up from a walled court.
It is enough to know how beloved and consecrated was this Mary, who would shelter a prayer group in her home, a prayer group to which Peter himself would turn after his escape from prison. There is no doubt but that Mary’s home was a well-known center of Christian life and worship.
Also, it is evident that this Mary was closely related to Barnabas (Col. 4:10), a prophet and teacher in the primitive church at Jerusalem. She was either the sister or the aunt of Barnabas. As the mother of one of Christ’s apostles and aunt or sister of another who worked so faithfully in the early Church, she had distinction enough.
Like the other Marys of the New Testament, she has not a single blot on her character. And, like the mother of James and Joses, she was a great woman. The memorial of these two Marys is an imperishable one, when we know that they, along with the other four Marys of the New Testament, labored with or for Jesus.
SAPPHIRA
ACTS 5:1 |
This woman and her husband withhold money for themselves that has been dedicated to the common good. When Peter confronts her with her falsehood, she lies to him about it. She falls down dead as had her husband Ananias when he came before Peter three hours earlier. |
MONEY BECAME HER GOD
THE love of money was Sapphira’s downfall. She and her husband Ananias, members of the early Christian community at Jerusalem, had agreed with others in that community to share all that they had with one another and to contribute to a common treasury to meet the common needs (Acts 2:44, 45; 4:32).
Sapphira and her husband were not forced into such an agreement. They could have withdrawn from the community had they not wanted to meet the requirements of those who believed with one heart and soul. But they had agreed to it voluntarily, and this agreement had become a sacred pledge for the faithful.
Moreover, as Peter clearly stated, it was not required of them that they give up all their property and even after they had sold it the proceeds still belonged to them to share voluntarily with those in need.
But Sapphira could not stand a stern test with money. She, with her husband, desired credit for giving all to the Church without actually doing so. They coveted some of the money for themselves and resorted to dishonesty and untruthfulness to keep it.
The Revised Standard Version states that “A man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back some of the proceeds, and brought only a part and laid it at the apostle’s feet” (Acts 5:1, 2).
What a strong indictment this is of a wife. The phrase “with his wife’s knowledge” makes her as guilty as her husband. We might even make a stronger indictment of Sapphira and say that she may have been guiltier than her husband, for it could have been she who chiefly coveted the money. A wife cannot always influence her husband in what is right, but she can try. We have no record that Sapphira even tried. Her husband committed evil entirely with her knowledge, and it would also seem with her support if not at her instigation.
According to early Hebrew records, the name Sapphira means “beautiful.” Does this not give us a key to what her character might have been? “A beautiful woman,” says Ralph Waldo Emerson, “is a practical poet, taming her savage mate, planting tenderness, hope and eloquence in all whom she approaches.” But Sapphira did not choose to live up to her name.
The early meaning of Ananias’ name is “Yahweh is gracious.” God had been gracious to Ananias in giving him a beautiful wife and in blessing him with land. No doubt he and his wife were among the more affluent members of this early Christian community and were therefore more strongly committed to generosity and honesty than were less conspicuous members.
Let us not forget either that this was a period when there had been a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Luke tells us here in Acts that the people “were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). In Acts we find many other references to the activity of the Spirit of God. It had become all powerful in men’s minds. We learn of the people receiving it, being filled with it and baptized with it.
Sapphira had had the opportunity to know what this outpouring of the Holy Spirit could mean in the life of a Christian. No doubt she was familiar with the gift of Barnabas, “a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith” (Acts 11:24). She had seen him give practical expression to his faith in Christ by selling his land and bringing the money and laying it at the apostles’ feet (Acts 4:37). And she knew that because of such generous giving there was not a needy person among them (Acts 4:34).
Like Barnabas, Sapphira and Ananias were committed to the same cause. They had dedicated themselves and all they owned to the common good. Like these other Christians Sapphira probably was familiar with Christ’s own words, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24).
She knew that this new Church, now numbering about five thousand (Acts 4:4), was undergoing a stern test in all its responsibilities. She knew that a tremendous conviction of truth had welded these first believers into a great fellowship of heart and soul and that all in this fellowship lived in daily expectation of miracles.
There is the account, for example, appearing a short time before hers of the lame man begging at the Temple gate who was healed by Peter (Acts 3:2-10). All the people knew that this man who had asked for alms had been given much more than he asked for; he also had received a well, strong body, and he had gone forth “walking, and leaping, and praising God” (Acts 3:8). And the people “were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him” (Acts 3:10).
Peter, speaking soon after on repentance, had told the people that they must repent if their sins were to be blotted out (Acts 3:19). He had stressed that they were the children of the covenant of God (Acts 3:25).
Yes, great grace was upon the people, and many were turning away from their iniquities. It was no time to think of how great were one’s possessions. It was a time to think of how great was one’s faith, how great was one’s knowledge of God, and how willing one was to remain true to the covenant with God.
But amid all these noble ideals Sapphira and her husband had become more interested in what they had than in what they were.
When Ananias first handed over the money from the sale of the land to the apostles, Peter’s stern question was “Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?… Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God” (Acts 5:3, 4).
Ananias had no answer, and he fell dead at Peter’s feet. Not knowing what had befallen her husband, Sapphira appeared before Peter three hours later; and when he asked her if the land had been sold for the amount specified by her husband, she answered, “Yea, for so much” (Acts 5:8). In this dishonest answer she revealed herself as a wife who thought it better to conceal her own and her husband’s dishonesty than to be honest with the Church and loyal to God.
“How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?” (Acts 5:9) Peter now asked her. Then Sapphira fell dead, and the same young men who had carried her husband out when he dropped dead came in and carried her out and buried her beside him.
Sapphira’s greatest sin as a member of this early band of Christians was not that she and her husband withheld a part of the proceeds from the sale of their land but that they lied to the Holy Spirit about it (Acts 5:3). When Sapphira had come into the church with her husband when he laid this money from the sale of the land at the apostle’s feet, she was pretending to be something she was not. In the eyes of the people there she appeared generous; but in the eyes of God she was a hypocrite. Through Ananias and Sapphira hypocrisy first insinuated itself into the Christian Church.
Probably Peter seemed unreasonably stern in his indictment of Sapphira. One might think he could have given her and her husband another chance, but if the Christian Church was to survive, Peter had to weed out those who would undermine it from within.
Interesting it is to note that in these passages about Sapphira and Ananias the word “church” (Acts 5:11) appears for the first time as a name for the Christian community. Again we begin to understand what an extremely important obligation rested upon Sapphira as a leading member of this first Christian Church.
The sudden death of Sapphira and her husband made others in the Church see what could happen when a husband and a wife became partners in evil and not in truth. They saw that a sin two had arranged was worse than one done singly. Two consciences must be stifled. The people saw, too, that one cannot trifle with truth and go unpunished, that there is no halfway mark with truth, that either you are honest or you are dishonest.
Great fear now came upon the Church and believers came forward in multitudes. From the cities around Jerusalem came many sick folk and many vexed with unclean spirits, and all were healed.
Because of the evil committed by Sapphira and her husband, and also because of what happened to them, a new vow for those who gave themselves wholeheartedly to the Church soon appeared. Scholars intimate that the idea of taking a vow of poverty in the Church was inspired by the incident of the lie of Sapphira and Ananias. Others who came later would not be so tempted to try to serve God and mammon.
DORCAS
(Also Called Tabitha)
ACTS 9:36, 39 |
Sews for the needy at Joppa. When she dies suddenly those she befriended send for Peter and show him garments she made. He sends them away, prays fervently, and raises her from the dead. |
A WOMAN FULL OF GOOD WORKS
BENEVOLENT, compassionate, and devout woman that she was, Dorcas gave so generously of herself to others that her name today, almost 2,000 years later, is synonymous with acts of charity.
More than any Bible woman of the early Christian period, she gave new meaning to the wise counsel of Lemuel’s mother, who in speaking in praise of the worthy woman said in part, “She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.” “She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy” (Prov. 31:13, 20).
The motivating principle of Dorcas’ life is given in six words, “full of good works and almsdeeds” (Acts 9:36). With her sewing needle as her tool and her home as her workshop, she established a service that has reached to the far corners of the earth. We can infer that Dorcas was a woman of affluence. She could have given of her coins only, but she chose to give of herself also.
She lived thirty-four miles northwest of Jerusalem at the port of Joppa, an important Christian center during the years when the new faith was spreading from Jerusalem across the Mediterranean. The picturesque harbor was situated halfway between Mount Carmel and Gaza at the southern end of the fertile plain of Sharon. We can easily visualize her home. In all likelihood it was a mud-brick structure on a “whaleback” ridge above the sandy beach. Let us suppose the house had a large roof guest chamber, reached by an outer stairway. From the roof outside this guest chamber Dorcas could observe Joppa’s needy people as they wandered up and down the beach searching for rags swept in by the waters of the sea. To these poor people, without sufficient clothing, good rags washed up on the shore must have been like gold nuggets.
It is easy to suppose that as Dorcas looked from her upper room down upon the shore and watched these destitute people she became stirred with the desire to help them. Out of this first work of hers grew the Dorcas Sewing Societies, now world-wide.
Though the Bible does not record exact details, we can be sure that Dorcas, with her nimble fingers, stitched layettes for babies, made cloaks, robes, sandals, and other wearing apparel for poverty-stricken widows, the sick and the aged. Many of those in need were downcast because they had to wear ill-fitting rags, but once clothed in the well-fitted garments she made for them they went away renewed in spirit.
Needs of the people of Joppa must have seemed perpetual, for in this seaport were many families who depended upon the sea for their living. In wooden boats the men would set forth on the Mediterranean, then called “The Great Sea,” and often their boats would be torn to bits when they hit treacherous rocks or were buffeted by the winter storms of the Mediterranean. History records that the bodies of early seamen were often swept into the churning waters and then sometimes back onto the shores at Joppa.
Dorcas had great compassion for the widows and the fatherless, and people loved her because of her magnificent qualities of mind and heart. Her life suggests Paul’s message to Timothy, in which he said that women should adorn themselves in “modest apparel, with shame-facedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works” (I Tim. 2:9-10).
Doubtless the people she helped pondered on what would happen to them if she should die. One day, as the people had feared, Dorcas, amid her labors, was seized with illness. Death came suddenly.
Saints in the Church and widows she had befriended made their way to her house, washed her and laid her in the upper room, probably the room where she had made garments for them. After they had given the ceremonial ablutions to their benefactress, they stood about her bier, weeping and planning her burial.
In this age when Peter and other apostles were performing miracles, there were a few who had faith that Dorcas could be raised from the dead. About ten miles from Joppa in the fertile Plain of Sharon was Lydda, where Peter had gone to preach. The disciples sent two men to Peter to ask if he would come to them without delay. The salty, fighting hands of Peter had become the healing hands of a saint, and they believed that he could raise Dorcas from the dead.
He knew perhaps of the good works of this woman of the Christian faith, and he left his preaching at Lydda and hastened on foot to Joppa and to the upper room of Dorcas, where she lay dead. Like Elisha, when he had healed the child of the Shunammite woman, Peter refused to recognize that Dorcas was ready for burial, even though the people stood around her dead body weeping.
Dismissing the weepers, Peter knelt down and prayed over Dorcas. No conflicting doubts or fears disturbed him. In his own mind Peter must have seen Dorcas as well and whole again. Praying fervently, he laid his big hands on the head of the woman. In a positive tone of voice, using the Aramaic form of her name, he said to her, “Tabitha, arise” (Acts 9:40).
After Peter had spoken thus, the Bible says in dramatic but simple words, “And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up” (Acts 9:40). Then he called the saints and widows and presented Dorcas to them.
We can be sure that the shouts of gratitude to God when Peter “presented her alive” were louder than had been the wails at her death. The people whom Dorcas had befriended sensed a new joy, such as only those who see the dead restored to life can experience. For the woman who had lifted up so many in body and spirit had now been lifted up herself.
Nothing is recorded of Dorcas after her healing, but in all probability her service increased. And those who had witnessed her healing now believed more strongly in God, for they believed that the same God who could lift Dorcas from the dead could also lift them from poverty and squalor.
LYDIA
ACTS l6:14, 40 |
A seller of purple dye, she lives at Philippi but is native of Thyatira in Asia Minor. She and all her household are baptized by Paul. Her house becomes the first meeting place of Christians in Europe. |
FIRST CHRISTIAN CONVERT IN EUROPE
IN LYDIA’S home was cradled the church of Philippi, whose members were later referred to by Paul as his “joy and crown” (Phil. 4:1). Lydia was a businesswoman, a “seller of purple,” and probably one of the most successful and influential women of Philippi. But more than that, she was a seeker after truth and thus became Europe’s first convert.
The old kingdom of Lydia, of which Croesus was the last king, was the region in Asia Minor from which Lydia had come. It had five large cities, Ephesus, Smyrna, Sardis, Philadelphia and Thyatira, all located on or near the chief rivers and connected with coastal cities by good roads. The Lydian market, as it was called, had enjoyed for generations a wide and valuable trade throughout the Graeco-Roman world. This woman evidently was so closely allied with her old environment of Lydia that her personal name was actually that of her native province.
Though in her era she no doubt represented the “new woman,” that is, the businesswoman who had succeeded well, she later came to represent what was more significant, the new convert to the faith of Christ. Her conversion to Christianity probably came somewhere between 50 and 60 A.D.
Because of her unique place as the first Christian convert in Europe, Lydia remains a sacred memory, even today, almost twenty centuries since she walked about the streets of Philippi selling her purple. This may have been either purple-dyed textiles or a secretion of a species of murex or mollusk from which a purple dye can be made.
Lydia was evidently a woman of determination, foresight, and generosity and had a personal charm that drew people to her. We can imagine her as a radiant woman with brunet coloring. Perhaps she wore purple well herself and dressed in it often as she made her way through the streets of Philippi.
Though a native of Thyatira of western Asia Minor, Lydia now conducted her business at Philippi, a city of eastern Macedonia on the great east-west Egnation Highway between Rome and Asia. You can almost hear the tramp of the Roman legions, with the infantry on foot and the cavalry complement on prancing horses, as they made their way along a highway that led probably past Lydia’s house and through the Pangaean mountain range.
It was to these mountains that Lydia and other women in the first little group of worshipers, described by Paul in Acts 16:13, lifted their eyes. They met, we are told, on the river bank at Philippi. That river was the Gangites (the modern Angista), and its banks offered peace and quiet away from the populous hill section of the city.
Here on the Sabbath, came Paul and his companion Silas. The latter had come with Paul from Troas after he had had a vision to go over into Macedonia. It can be assumed that this little prayer group of which Lydia was a member had asked for guidance, and Paul had been sent to them for a great purpose, because they were receptive to the truth. Though small in number, they were strong in the Spirit of God.
Paul tells us that he and Silas sat down and spoke to the women gathered there. The outstanding woman among them was this businesswoman Lydia, a Gentile, who worshiped the one God of the Jews, while all about her the Gentiles were worshiping other gods. Because of her great longing to know better the wonders and powers of the one God, Lydia was in this place of prayer on the Sabbath.
Next the writer of this part of Acts, who may have been with Paul in Philippi, tells us that Lydia “heard us.” She and the other women must have been startled to see two strange men appear there by the banks of the river. But they, whose souls “thirsteth for God” (Ps. 42:2), saw in the faces of these men a new light.
They listened to Paul as he related his story of the new gospel proclaimed in Jerusalem by Jesus Christ and now spreading westward into Macedonia. As Lydia listened, we are told in Acts, the Lord opened her heart and “she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.” What a fervency of spirit, what deep humility, what keen foresight, what indomitable courage it took on Lydia’s part to accept the story of this new gospel.
Soon afterward she was baptized and then her household was baptized. She made her decision to be a true Christian without hesitation. She did not think of how it might affect her business if she accepted this new faith. Her customers of the purple cloth or dye would probably have scoffed at the gospel of Christ, but Lydia did not wait to see. She put Christ first, and business afterward, and went forward and was baptized, as were members of her household.
We are not told whether these who were baptized were members of her family or those connected with her in business. They may have included both. In any case, they respected the good judgment of Lydia and were willing to follow her lead, for they recognized in her the ability to choose the right and good course.
After the baptism Lydia humbly spoke to Paul, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there” (Acts 16:15). Lydia desired with all her heart to know more about the new truth of Christ, and she knew she could receive it best from Paul, who had carried the gospel from Jerusalem into Macedonia. Not only did she invite Paul and Silas to come to her house, but Paul tells us that she “constrained us,” that is, she overcame their reluctance and insisted that they share her hospitality. In the quiet of Lydia’s house we can picture Paul spending many hours each day teaching new converts who came to him there.
Apparently Luke, and probably Timothy also were guests of Lydia. Wonderful it is to think that a woman as successful as Lydia would take the time to be hospitable to this group of Christian missionaries. Yet she seems to have carried on successfully her business as a “seller of purple.”
It is interesting to note that the purple was made from the juice of a certain shellfish and was perfectly white while still in the veins of the fish, but when exposed to the rays of the sun took on many hues, ranging all the way from purple blues to crimson.
In all probability Lydia’s customers included Babylonian buyers who bought the purple for temple curtains and for costumes in which to dress their idols. Among her other customers no doubt were members of the Roman imperial family, who wore the imperial purple on state occasions.
We can be sure Lydia belonged to an important group, the Dyers’ Guild. An old inscription bearing those words has been discovered in ruins at Thyatira, and probably Lydia, trained in the craft of dyeing at her old home in Thyatira, took her knowledge with her to Philippi.
The Bible does not say whether she was married or not, but it is easy to suppose she was a widow, who devoted herself wholeheartedly to her business. But after Paul had come to Philippi, she had a new objective, and that was to learn more about the things of the spirit.
After she had found the truth for which she had been searching, Lydia was beset with fears no longer. She even opened her doors to Paul and Silas after they came out of prison, where they had been sent when Paul had healed “a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination” (Acts 16:16). Paul had rescued this demented girl from men who had been exploiting her as a soothsayer for gain. He restored her to her right mind, and her masters were so furious over their loss of her earnings that they dragged Paul and Silas into the market place. There they lodged a complaint against these new Christians and had them stripped, beaten, and cast into prison.
But Paul and Silas, fearless Christians that they were, prayed and sang in prison, and there followed a great earthquake, which opened prison doors and loosed the hands of all who were imprisoned. The keeper of the prison was so moved at these wonders that he became a convert to the new faith inside the prison walls before Paul and Silas made their departure.
After being released, they headed straight for Lydia’s house. Lights, we can imagine, never gleamed so brightly as they did that first night, when other new Christians, we can suppose, gathered to hear Paul and Silas tell that an earthquake had opened the doors of the prison.
Lydia and her group had surely prayed for Paul and Silas, just as Mary, mother of John Mark, and her group had prayed for Peter while he was in prison. Lydia and these other Christians believed that they, too, would hear Paul’s knock at the door, just as Rhoda had heard Peter’s. That door of Lydia’s house would always be open now to Christians, no matter how great their persecutions.
Because her home was a haven for Christians and because she became a great spiritual leader who helped Paul spread the Christian gospel, it would never die on these new shores. Later Paul wrote his Epistle to the Philippians, who were the same little band Lydia had helped to organize. And he said, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1:3-5).
We can hear Lydia’s little group rejoicing as they read Paul’s exhortation to them to think on whatsoever things are honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report (Phil. 4:8). We can see them gaining new strength as they read Paul’s words, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13). These early converts at Philippi would never fear tomorrow so long as they could carry in their hearts another of Paul’s messages to them: “God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
We have no doubt that Lydia, the first to be converted, the first to be baptized, the first to open her house at Philippi, was among the most receptive to Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians.
She will ever stand among the immortal women of the Bible, for she picked up that first torch from Paul at Philippi and carried it steadfastly. She was one of many to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ through Europe and then farther and farther westward, and it became brighter as the centuries unfolded.
PRISCILLA
(Also Called Prisca)
ACTS 18:2, 18, 26 BOM. 16:3 1 I COR. 16:19 II TIM. 4:19 |
She and her husband, Aquila, are tent-makers and teachers. Paul stays with them at Corinth. She teaches Apollos and becomes a great leader both at Corinth and Ephesus and later at Rome. In latter two places she has a church in her home. |
A LEADER IN THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH
ONE of the most influential women in the New Testament Church was Priscilla, a Jewess who had come out of Italy with her husband Aquila, to live first at Corinth and about eighteen months later at Ephesus. They had left Rome at the time when Claudius, in his cruel and unjust edict, had expelled all Jews.
Her prominence is evidenced by many facts. She became the teacher of the eloquent and learned Apollos. The church assembled in her home, both at Ephesus and at Rome, and she was known throughout Christendom in her day. Though she and her husband “labored together,” in three out of five places her name appears first, evidence enough that she played the more important part in the early Christian Church.
No doubt she was a woman of studious and religious endowments, also one of practical ability. It is recorded that she and her husband were tent-makers, and their home, in the weaving sections of Corinth and Ephesus, became a rendezvous for those wanting to know more about the new faith.
Because Paul also was a tent-maker, we can picture them weaving the goats’-hair cloth and talking over the new Christian gospel as they worked. And we know that both Priscilla and Aquila were responsive to this wonderful new message. When Paul departed from Corinth and embarked for Syria, they were with him. They came to Ephesus, and he left them there. (Acts 18:18, 19). After Paul had entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews, and had again set sail for Syria, he committed the work in Ephesus to Priscilla and Aquila. When Paul returned a year or more later, he found they had established a well-organized congregation in Ephesus. There Priscilla and Aquila ranked next to Paul and Timothy in the work of the congregation.
Later Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians from Ephesus and sent greetings from Aquila and Prisca, “with the church that is in their house” (I Cor. 16:19). Is this not evidence enough that Priscilla presided over a devout, peaceful home, to which Christians came and were uplifted?
In his solemn charge to Timothy, a second time Paul, before his approaching martyrdom, sends salutations to Priscilla and Aquila (II Tim. 4:19). Later, after the death of Claudius, we find that Aquila and Priscilla returned to Rome. In writing Priscilla’s name here, this last time, Paul used the diminutive Prisca, signifying his intimate friendship for her. The affection she and her husband had for him is manifested in those lines in which he said they had for his life “laid down their own necks” (Rom. 16:4), and unto them he gladly rendered thanks.
An amazing aspect of Priscilla’s life was that, though she had to manage her household and weave tent cloth, she found time to be a thorough student of the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of her first services was not only to teach but to “expound” to the eloquent Apollos, a man well versed in the Old Testament Scriptures. Introduced to the Christian religion first by John the Baptist, Apollos had come to Ephesus to speak.
Priscilla and Aquila probably were the first to recognize that Apollos had only a superficial knowledge of the new Christian faith, and so they “expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly” (Acts 18:26).
Priscilla was doubtless wise enough to realize that Apollos’ limited knowledge could hurt the Christian cause. No superficial convert herself, she was determined that this eminent man should be a well-informed, inspiring exponent of the gospel. What a great privilege was hers, to expound “the way of God more perfectly.” Noted for her hospitality, she may have invited Apollos to stay in her home, for we have the phrase Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos “unto them.”
We can be sure that Priscilla was not only a woman of scholarly attainments but one willing to make many sacrifices in the spreading of the gospel, for she lived at a time when a Christian faced great persecution. But Priscilla was not afraid. Many honors have been heaped upon her by early Christian writers. It was suggested that Priscilla was the author of Hebrews, but this suggestion is not supported by proof.
Historical facts, not recorded in the Bible, attest to Priscilla’s fame. Tertullias records, “By the holy Prisca, the gospel is preached.” One of the oldest catacombs of Rome — the Coemeterium Priscilla, was named in her honor. And a church, “Titulus St. Prisca,” was erected on the Aventine in Rome. It bore the inscription “Titulus Aquila et Prisca.” Prisca’s name appears often on monuments of Rome. And “Acts of St. Prisca” was a legendary writing popular in the tenth century.
All of this helps us to know why writers in the New Testament broke all conventionalities and three times out of five placed Priscilla’s name before that of her husband. Christians honor her because she served God “acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Heb. 12:28), and because she was not “forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb. 13:2). Priscilla, let us not forget either, had entertained the stranger Paul and from him had learned to strive to be “perfect in every good work…, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Christ Jesus” (Heb. 13:21).