Ephesians

Like Paul, Aquila, Barnabas, Timothy, and Apollos, Prisca was a leading figure in the mission to the Gentiles. The fact that her name is mentioned four times (of six) before that of Aquila indicates that she had a leading position. In Romans 16, Paul calls both of them “coworkers” and emphasizes that not only he but “all Gentile communities are grateful to them.” Their house was known as an ekklēsia center, not only in Corinth (1 Cor 16:19), but also in Ephesus (Acts 18:18) and Rome (Rom 16:5). That Luke, who focuses on Paul, mentions them in Acts at all indicates that they were so important in the beginning of the messianic Jesus movement that they could not be passed over in silence. As Acts 18:26 indicates, they had great influence, not only on Paul, but also on Apollos, the other great missionary alongside themselves and Paul. Their work shaped the beginnings of the community in Ephesus.

In addition, some feminists challenge the idea that one can “pluck positive images out of an admittedly androcentric text, separating literary characterizations from the androcentric interests they were created to serve.”18 Still other feminists find these images to have enormous value.

The point of the feminist enterprise is not to serve as an apologetic for women; it is rather, in part, to recover women’s history and literary roles in all their complexity and to learn from that recovery.