Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Timothy 4:19

"Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the house of Onesiphorus." — 2 Timothy 4:19 (ASV)

Salute Prisca and Aquila.—These were two of St. Paul’s earliest friends after he had begun his great work for his Master. Originally from Pontus, they had settled in Rome, where Aquila practiced his trade of a tent-maker.

Driven out of Rome by the decree of Claudius, which banished the Jews from the capital, they came to Corinth, where St. Paul got to know them. But they were evidently Christians when St. Paul first met them, about A.D. 51–52. We hear of them in company with St. Paul at Corinth, about A.D. 52–53 (Acts 18:2); at Ephesus, about A.D. 55 (1 Corinthians 16:19); and in the year A.D. 58, St. Paul sends greetings to them at Rome (Romans 16:3).

They were, evidently, among the many active and zealous teachers in the early days of the faith. That they possessed great ability as well as zeal is evident from the fact that it was from them that the eloquent and trained Alexandrian master, Apollos, learned to be a Christian (Acts 18:26). In this passage, and in several other passages, Prisca (or Priscilla) is named before her husband, Aquila. This seems to suggest that in this case, the woman was the primary worker of the two in the cause of Christ.

She, in fact, was one of that band of devoted holy women that the preaching of Christ and His disciples had brought into being: a representative of the great class of noble female workers that did not exist before Christ told the world the true position of women—until the same divine Master taught them that they, too, as well as men, had a work to do for Him here.

And the household of Onesiphorus.—St. Paul may have been aware that Onesiphorus was then absent from Ephesus; but this peculiar greeting, taken together with the words of 2 Timothy 1:16, leads us irresistibly to the conclusion that this friend of St. Paul’s was dead when the Epistle was written. (See Notes on 2 Timothy 1:16.)