picture from Priscilla's Catacomb in Rome by Aida Besancon Spencer
Please take a seat.
Thank you, Phoebe (Foibē),[1] for bringing us Paul’s (Paulos’) letter. I can see why the church appointed you as minister.[2] You did a wonderful job reading and then explaining Paul’s letter to us. We needed his message to us: for Jew and Gentile to live in harmony with one another since the gospel is God’s power for salvation to everyone believing. The Holy Spirit certainly inspired Paul. It is going to take you weeks, no months, to teach us its meanings.
Of course, you are going to stay at our villa the whole time, (we insist!) or, if you have to go to the city, we have our small place there.
“Akulas, bring us some fruits ([to Phoebe] right from our own garden)!”[3]
We need teaching leaders like yourself here in Rome, especially someone as experienced as yourself.
Cenchreae is such a lovely port, but so many earthquakes! Some day the whole city is going to go under the ocean!
I am so embarrassed about all the wonderful things Paul said about me and Aquila (Akula). Yes, we’ve known Paul for many years. We met him in Corinth (Korinthos) about 5 years ago, when the emperor Claudius picked us as part of the Jewish troublemakers. Yes, we spoke out to defend Jesus (Iēsous) as the promised Messiah and our Jewish compatriots were furious!
Aquila met Paul at the synagogue in Corinth. Both were sitting in the tentmakers’ section on the sabbath. That’s such a great way to meet fellow tentmakers. We needed more help for our new business in Corinth and when Paul came along the Lord brought us not only an experienced tentmaker but also a beloved brother and coworker in Christ. We have been serving Jesus Christ (Iēsous Christos) together ever since Paul stayed with us in Corinth; we slept in the loft, while he slept downstairs among the tools. We needed some privacy, and he didn’t mind.
We are so embarrassed by the compliments he gave us!
(pause)
You don’t know the details of what happened in Corinth, although you were not living far from us, just 7 miles east?
Once the ministry at Corinth escalated, Paul decided to move in with Titius Justus (Ioustos) (Acts 18:7). He was a new convert, a Gentile, and had a large villa where Paul could continue his teaching. Titius’ house was right next to the synagogue. It was so convenient and so daring! You, of course, know that the synagogue leader Crispus became a believer and his whole household—his wife, adult children, and all his workers. So many of the Corinthians were welcoming Jesus as the promised Messiah! And they were all being baptized! Whole households were dedicating themselves to ministry, like Stefana’s household.
Meanwhile, we had rented a larger place so that we could start a church where we would regularly disciple the new believers. Aquila and I still attended the synagogue on the sabbath, but then in the first day of the week, Dies Solis, in the evening we met in our villa.
Paul had been warned by the Lord through a dream of trouble to come but the Lord comforted him by promising him: “Don’t keep on being afraid but keep on speaking and do not become silent, for I myself am with you and no one will attack you in order to harm you, for many people are mine in this city” (Acts 18:9-10).
Yes, I have the message memorized!
Paul remembered exactly what he was told and we all memorized it, as well.
As you know, Luke (Loukas) is writing down all the Lord Jesus’s works among us.
Everything was peaceful for a year and a half!
But when proconsul Gallio (Galliōnos) arrived from Rome, the other Jewish religious leaders went to Gallio with a complaint against Paul that he was teaching the people against the law. Paul was going to have to argue at the prominent bema at the center of the city.
Were you there?
When Aquila and I heard what was going to happen, we decided to visit Gallio at his villa.
You might know that we are both senatorial rank. We knew Lucius Annaeus Novatus Galliōnos in Rome. Yes, that was his name before Lucius Junius Gallio adopted him. You know that the philosopher and orator Seneca is his brother?[4] How do you think he got this position? Gallio is from Spain, but, when adults, he and his brother moved to Rome. Seneca is a sensible man, but not so Gallio. He can be brutal!
Aquila and I thought that the Lord urged us to visit Gallio to prepare him (and maybe convert him?). He received us graciously enough. After some preliminary general comments, we began right away to explain about the different interpretations Jews have from the writings and prophets about Jesus and how that affected our way of life.
Phoebe, just like you, we feel freed by the Messiah to eat with Gentiles and eat their foods.
Well, Gallio got furious!
He said he had been hearing about these superstitions about Chrestus (he couldn’t even get Christ’s name right!) in Rome and about Romans becoming atheists—not having any idols in their homes—and abandoning the Roman ways of life. We were afraid he might have us taken to Rome and be executed!
No, Paul was not there! That would not have been wise.
But, we calmed Gallio down and explained we do believe in God, only one God, but our God is invisible but he became visible in Jesus.
No, we never met Jesus, we told him, but we met many eyewitnesses of his birth, life, and resurrection from the dead.
Gallio did not want to hear any more.
He had us dismissed.
We didn’t know what was going to happen at the tribunal.
The next week the Jews forced Paul to go with them. Gallio then appeared onto the tribunal all with great aplomb. After the complaint that Paul was teaching behavior contrary to the law, wrong ways to worship God, Gallio wouldn’t even let Paul open his mouth. Gallio interrupted Paul as he tried to defend himself!
Gallio proclaimed: “If there was any legal wrong to the state or an act of a criminal, O Jews, I would be justified in accepting your complaint. On the other hand, if these are questions concerning your teaching and names and matters of your law, see to it yourselves; I myself do not plan to be a judge of these matters!” (Acts 18:14-15)
Gallio had the guards drive away all the Jews, including Paul and ourselves and the new believers. Other Jews, who had also complained to Gallio, then turned against Sosthenes (Sōsthenēs), who had become the new synagogue ruler, and began to beat him right there and then. They blamed him for the judgment not going well and enacted their own judgment. And, ironically, Sosthenes too became a believer (1 Cor 1:1). He thought: “I’ve already been persecuted, I survived, so I may as well join them!”
Paul gave Aquila and me credit for softening Gallio’s approach to the situation.
(Yes, we also talked to the Asiarchs in Ephesus not to persecute Paul, but I don’t think Paul referred to that situation [Acts 19:31]).[5]
We were able to continue our ministry for a while.
When Paul decided to go back to his home church, Antioch (Antiocheia), he asked us to come with him. We made a great team!
He debated in the public places, while we led the church discipling and teaching, especially for the Gentiles, how Jesus was the promised Messiah and what that meant for a change of life:
One God—no more need of other deities;
How the resurrected Jesus is now our high priest in heaven and creator of the world, whose death purified us, and who is greater than any angelic beings.[6]
Jesus is greater than Moses and Abraham and Melchizedek and the Levitical priests;
One man-one wife, no more mistresses and prostitutes and slave relations;
Any food was okay, but stay away from food offered to idols when the Romans make a point of enticing them;
To study God’s word and the Spirit’s revelations in our new covenant superior to the Jewish laws,
for Jew and Gentile to live in harmony because we are all made righteous by the same powerful God.
We urge the believers to meet regularly to encourage each other to remain faithful and not get sidetracked back into Roman pagan or even Jewish ways (Heb 10:24-25).
We retell all the examples of faithful believers from the writings so they can follow them.
We want the Gentiles and Jews to keep running the race with their eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith (Heb 12:1-2) and to persevere through any family or republic harassment and try to be at peace with all (Heb 12:14), to be hospitable to all, as we have modeled (Heb 13:7).
Of course, you are aware of all these teachings, being a minister yourself, and now our coworker.
I’m like you, Phoebe. We are in a new age where it will no longer be unusual for women to teach and prophecy. We are like judge Deborah and prophet Huldah, in the new-Spirit infused covenant!
The Holy Spirit is so present in every one of us, to empower us to serve God, if only we remain faithful!
Paul has confidence in us, as he does in you. We were developing a church that met in our upper room at Ephesus. After Paul left for Antioch, we stayed on, but we also kept attending the synagogue services. Aquila also listens in and contributes at the men’s classes at the synagogue.
Aquila is such a stable and solid partner with me in ministry. He gives personal attention to the believers in our church and keeps getting contacts at the synagogue while I keep up the teachings. He heard a visitor from Alexandria who came to Ephesus named Apollos. He was a believer in Jesus on fire by the Spirit, teaching about Jesus but he did not know that John’s baptism was only preliminary to the real baptism, the one in the triune God, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So, we brought Apollos to our villa and invited the church meeting with us to join. We weren’t going to disagree with him at the synagogue and ruin his whole testimony.
We taught him more specifically about baptism. That’s why Paul left us in Ephesus, to check on all the teaching, that it would be correct, although we were having some difficulties with believers who were too legalistic and too ascetic. Some people began to propose that marriage was all wrong, just as they thought in the Artemis cult (1 Tim 4:13).
We were distraught. However, when Emperor Claudius died in 54, 3 years ago, we just had to return to Rome, now that Jews were no longer restricted from living there. We didn’t know how our tentmaking business was going. We hadn’t heard anything recently from our workers. We were worried and so we returned to Rome. But everything was well! They were doing a great job!
But when we returned and many other Jews as well, we saw that the church was quite divided. The Gentiles were haughty that they had replaced the Jews on the Israelite vine (Rom 12:3), while the Jews thought they were superior as having been entrusted for hundreds of years (no-thousands!) with God’s oracles (Rom 3:2). We were all writing Paul about these problems.
We could see that Aquila and I were perfect for this ministry there in Rome and at the perfect time, as Jews who ministered to Gentiles! We began our own church, among all the others there in Rome.
Haughtiness and superiority have no place in God’s kingdom!
We taught the Gentiles that they should appreciate the Jews as God’s elect and the Jews that they should welcome God’s newest elect (Rom 11-12). Paul’s message is just what we all needed to hear.
Phoebe, we are so glad you are joining our team in Rome. Epaenetus (Epainetos) is also here, beloved by all of us in Rome. You know that he is the first fruit in Asia for Christ!
Mary (Maria) keeps working very hard among us. Andronicus (Andronikos) and Junia (Iounia) are like us, coworkers in ministry, who were imprisoned as Paul had been. They are apostles, eyewitnesses of Jesus’s life and resurrection (unlike us), believers for many years, even before Paul (Rom. 16:7). They were both present also at Pentecost (Acts 2:10). We’ve learned a lot from them.
I don’t know if you have found out yet that the Way has infiltrated into powerful places here in Rome? Your teachings are going to be welcomed in many places!
We have many believers in emperor Nero’s household[7]: Ampliatus (Ampliatos), Urbanus (Ourbanos), Stachys (Stachus), Apelles, the twin sisters Tryphaena (Trufaina) and Tryphosa (Trufōsa), Patrobas, Philologus, and also Nereus (Nēreas) and his sister.
We even have believers in Herod’s grandson, Aristobulus’ (Aristoboulos’) household, (Aristobulus was a good friend of Emperor Claudius), and of course Herodion (Hērōdiōn), and in Narcissus’ (Narkissos’) household. (He was quite powerful and wealthy).
We have believers from many foreign countries, not only Epaenetus from Asia (v. 5), but also Persis from Persia. And you know that Aquila’s family is from mountainous Pontus (Pontikos), near the Black Sea. Some of his relatives were also present at the filling of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem, when they came there to celebrate Pentecost.
Julia used to be in Julius Caesar’s household. Rufus (Roufos) is in Rome now. His father Simon (Simōn) was chosen to carry Jesus’s cross for a while. What a testimony he gives! (Mark 15:21). His mother was a dear friend of Paul.
We treat our slaves Asyncritus (Asugkritos), Phlegon (Flegōn), Hermes, Hermas, Olympas (Olumpas) no longer as slaves but as beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord (Philem 16-19; 1 Cor 7:21). Aquila and I are working in a plan slowly to set up our slaves as free, with their own businesses, of course, working together with us in the tentmaking trade. ([to Akulas, the slave] Akulas! You’re next. You can do it, we will help you!)
In Rome, we have slaves and freed, Jews and Gentiles, men and women, Romans and barbarians, rich and poor, married and single, all together trying to become what God wants of us—to be united and faithful to God.
We have a large body of believers here in Rome, more than in the port city of Cenchreae! You are going to enjoy working with us.
And, we do welcome you here among us!
Aída
[1] The names in parenthesis are the Greek ones. This monologue was first preached at Pilgrim Church in Beverly, MA Oct. 19, 2025.
[2] See translation by Helen Barrett Montgomery, The New Testament in Modern English (Valley Forge: Judson, 1952), 434-435.
[3] https://www.learnancientrome.com/what-were-the-foods-served-at-banquet-in-ancient-rome/. Slaves or adopted persons often took the name of their masters.
[4] N.G.L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard, eds., The Oxford Classical Dictionary, second ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1970), 456
[5] E. g., C.E.B Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Epistle to the Romans, vol. 2, The International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1979 [1983], 785.
[6] The following content comes from the book of Hebrews, since Prisca, together with Aquila, may have written it. For arguments, see Von A. Harnack, “Probability about the Address and Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews,” in Linda Starr, The Bible Status of Woman, Women in American Protestant Religion 1800-1930 (New York: Garland, 1926 {1987]), 892-415.
[7] See Phil 4:22; J. B. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians, Zondervan Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1953 [1975]), 174-77; Cranfield, Romans, 790-95.
