The Way
Friends Who Sewed Tents
Tentmaker friends
Story
Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. It was a large city on a narrow strip of land between two seas, crowded with ships and merchants. Years later Paul looked back on that time and wrote to the church in Corinth, “I came to you in weakness and fear, trembling greatly.”
There Paul met a Jew named Aquila. He came from Pontus, south of the Black Sea, and he and his wife Priscilla had recently come from Italy. Emperor Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Aquila and his wife made tents, and Paul did the same work.
Paul stayed in their home and worked with them. And every Sabbath he tried to persuade Jews and Greeks in the synagogue. From then on, Priscilla and Aquila were Paul's fellow workers for many years. Later Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “They risked their own lives for mine.”
Walk this scene on the map →Words of the Lord and of Paul
Because Paul did the same work they did, he stayed and worked with them. They were tentmakers by trade.
I came to you in weakness and fear, trembling greatly.
Greet Priscilla and Aquila, who worked with me in Christ Jesus. They risked their own lives for mine.
The sayings are fresh renderings of the original meaning in today's language. Text: Acts 18:1–4
Background
The Roman historian Suetonius also writes about Emperor Claudius driving the Jews out of Rome. It is usually dated to around AD 49. Corinth, the capital of the region of Achaia, sat on the narrow neck of land between two seas.
Pause and Reflect
At my workplace, do I live like someone who follows Jesus?