Priscilla
Name Origin & Meaning
The diminutive of the Latin 'Prisca' (ancient, venerable), suggesting respected antiquity and dignity. Priscilla (or Prisca) is remarkable for being named before her husband Aquila in four of the six New Testament references — an unusual literary choice that scholars read as evidence of her greater prominence in ministry.
First Biblical Appearance
“And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more accurately.”
Priscilla and Aquila privately correcting and completing the theology of the eloquent Apollos.
Biblical Significance
Priscilla and her husband Aquila were tentmakers who met Paul in Corinth after being expelled from Rome under Claudius's edict. They traveled with Paul to Ephesus, where they privately took aside the eloquent Apollos and 'explained to him the way of God more accurately.' They risked their necks for Paul (Romans 16:4). Their home was a house church location. Priscilla is among the most significant women in the New Testament church.
Notable Bearers
- Priscilla wife of Aquila, co-worker of Paul
Personality & Character
Universal compassion and wisdom — the number of divine love reaching to the ends of the earth
Spiritual symbolism drawn from Scripture and tradition
Modern Variants
A Blessing for This Name
May you, like Priscilla, open your home as a church and your understanding as a seminary — welcoming the eloquent who need correction and the broken who need restoration. May you be a tentmaker whose craft funds a ministry that changes continents.