Seeds of Promise Series by Shenica Graham

Women of The Bible

Priscilla: A Good Teacher

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Devotional Reading: Acts 18

Some church traditions still have trouble making room for women in the teaching ranks. Well, hold on to your bonnets. This woman of the Bible is one for the front runners.

Pricilla (Prisca) is mentioned seven times in the Bible (Acts 18:2,18:18,18:19;18:26; Romans 16:3; I Corinthians 16:19; II Timothy 4:19). She must have been well respected: her name is usually mentioned before her husband’s name, suggesting that she is more well-known than he. Typically, the wife’s name would have been mentioned after the husband’s, or not at all. Yet, Priscilla’s name is first and foremost in various regions, indicating that her prestige reaches beyond their local community and surpasses that of her husband. Her husband’s name is also never mentioned without hers, indicating that some may not recall who he was without her reference.

Pricilla would be a woman whose husband’s name is “known in the gates” because of her, like as the Proverbs 31 woman (Proverbs 31:23).

The Bible is a testament to the significance of teachers. Jesus himself was called, “Teacher”  (John 3:2) as a title, in lieu of His name. Priscilla was a teacher of theology, and that with right division of the truth. Concerning the teaching of Apollos (Acts 18:26) – himself a theologian, Pricilla is again mentioned first, suggesting her leadership, knowledge and spiritual maturity.

“In Acts 18:26 she is portrayed as teaching a theologian about theology. Again she is listed first, with regard to the act of teaching. And this is devastating to the argument that women should not teach because it means that she is well respected as a teacher / missionary not because of some secondary factor” (Church Discipline).

Pricilla was the likely head of the congregation of their house church (1 Corinthians 16:19). Paul called she and her husband his “helpers in Christ” (Romans 16:3). There is a street in Rome named after Priscilla in the aventine: Via de Santa Prisca. A large church, where legend holds was the location of her house, is also built in her honor. These are archaeological evidences of her faithful work.

Teachers are charged with carrying on the message of Christ by passing the good news to the next generation of teachers and students. Priscilla, a woman of God, was a good teacher.

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19-20)

Sources:

Church Discipline. “Pricilla: A Female Leader.” <http://church-discipline.blogspot.com/2008/08/priscilla-female-leader.html&gt; 15 November 2012