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…born in Pontus—the most easterly province of Asia Minor, stretching along the southern shore of
the Black Sea. From this province there were Jews at Jerusalem on the great Pentecost (Acts 2:9), and
the Christians of it are included among “the strangers of the dispersion,” to whom Peter addressed his
first epistle (1Peter 1:1). Whether this couple was
converted before Paul made their acquaintance,
commentators are much divided. They may have
brought their Christianity with them from Rome
[Olshausen], or Paul may have been drawn to them
merely by like occupation, and, lodging with them,
have been the instrument of their conversion [Myer].
They appear to have been in good circumstances, and
after travelling much, to have eventually settled at
Ephesus. The Christian friendship now first formed
continued warm and unbroken, and the highest testimony is once and again borne to them by the
apostle.

…Claudius, &c.—This edict is almost certainly that mentioned by Suetonius, in his life of this
emperor [Lives of the Caesars, “Claudius,” 25].

In Corinth Paul met Aquila and his wife Priscilla. Aquila was a Jew, originally from Pontus, a province in
northeast Asia Minor south of the Black Sea. Displaced from Rome because of an edict in A.D. 49 or 50
from Claudius for all the Jews to leave Rome, Aquila and Priscilla had come to Corinth to ply their trade.
(Claudius reigned from A.D. 41 to 54; see the list of Roman emperors at Luke 2:1.) Suetonius (A.D.
69?=140), a biographer of Roman emperors, described what may have been the occasion for such a
decree. In his Life of Claudius (see 25. 4) he referred to the constant riots of the Jews at the instigation of
Chrestus. Possibly the name Chrestus is a reference to Christ.

Whether Aquila and Priscilla were Christians before they met Paul is not known. Because Aquila was
called “a Jew” did not mean he knew Christ (cf. Apollos, a Jew; Acts 18:24). Nor can it be argued that
Paul lived with them because they were believers; he stayed with them because they were tentmakers
(v. 3).

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Several times Priscilla’s name is given before Aquila’s (vv. 18 19, 26; Rom. 16:3). This may be due to her
noble family background.

In the ancient economy, people of the same trade did not compete with one another as they do today.
They usually lived together in the same part of town and formed trade guilds. Their trade guilds
normally adopted a patron deity, and they ate sacrificial food at their regular banquets together. This
cultic orientation of trade guilds would exclude practicing Jews from the fellowship, making Jews
deli ghted to find other Jews of their own trade.

v. verse

vv. verses
patron *Patron. The social superior in the Roman patron-client relationship, who granted favors to and acted as political sponsor for
his clients, or social dependents. The obligations in the relationship were viewed as reciprocal; clients were to grant the patrons
honor as their benefactors.

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