1 Corinthians 16:19 Commentary and Bible Study

What were the churches of Asia? That is not the continent of Asia. In the New Testament where you see Asia referred to, that is simply the western quarter of what would today be Turkey. It's a much more limited region than the continent of Asia. It is the churches in the western quarter of modern Turkey, and the capital of that region was Ephesus, where Paul is at the present time as he writes this letter. The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla: what a pair! Aquila was a convert to Christianity who was a Jew. With his wife Priscilla they lived in Rome. Claudius the Roman Emperor was persecuting the Jews, and he drove them very violently out of Rome. So the Jews fled Rome, Aquila and Priscilla among them. They fled, not because at that moment Christians were being persecuted, but because Jews were being persecuted. Aquila and Priscilla went from Rome and settled there in Corinth. Aquila was a tentmaker, and under the guidance of God, the apostle Paul, when he went to Corinth, found Aquila and Priscilla, and they took him into their home, and it was there in Aquila’s workshop that he spent the nights making tents. Aquila and Priscilla helped him. During the time he was at Corinth, they helped him found the church; possibly it started in their house. Then they were so close that when Paul moved from Corinth to Ephesus to begin work there, he took Priscilla and Aquila with him, and they resettled once again at Ephesus. The church at Ephesus is right now in their house, probably greatly extended and including the workshop and whatever space was available. So Aquila and Priscilla who had been for 18 months or more in Corinth saluted the believers there much in the Lord, together with the church which is in their house. They are prime examples of hospitality. They also dedicate their lives and their home and their workshop and their timetable and everything, to the service of the Lord, and they were hospitable in place after place. They are the kind of people you should support and listen to says the apostle Paul.