Book Review: Paul’s Social Network: Brothers And Sisters In Faith Series Editor: Bruce J. Malina -- By: Beulah Wood

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 26:3 (Summer 2012)
Article: Book Review: Paul’s Social Network: Brothers And Sisters In Faith Series Editor: Bruce J. Malina
Author: Beulah Wood


Book Review: Paul’s Social Network: Brothers And Sisters In Faith Series Editor: Bruce J. Malina

Beulah Wood

Beulah Wood, a New Zealander, has worked for extended intervals in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh since 1968. She now lectures and writes at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies, Bangalore, South India. Her most recent book is The People Paul Admired: The House Church Leaders of the New Testament (House of Prisca and Aquila Series, wipf & Stock, 2011).

Priscilla and Aquila: Paul’s Coworkers in Christ Jesus, by Marie Noël Keller (Liturgical Press, 2010)

Thoroughly researched and informative, this book appears to target an audience of preachers preparing to teach. It deals first with the three references to Priscilla and Aquila in Acts by Luke, and then with the three in 1 Corinthians, Romans, and 2 Timothy, giving readers an opportunity to look at this couple in Corinth, where they went after recently being evicted from Rome. We learn of their tent-making business and the system by which Paul could stay at their home with the other household members of the trade.

Marie Noël Keller then shows them in Ephesus, describing the city, the household system, the house church system, and the vocabulary of family used in the house churches. Since the household codes are a particular problem now in understanding what Paul intended in household relationships, Keller spends time on these with a parallel chart of the codes in four different epistles. At this point, the title “Paul’s coworkers” comes into its own as the author elaborates on the thirteen uses of this term in the epistles, Paul’s “favorite way to describe someone who works with him (and for and with God) in proclaiming the gospel” (51). Paul is deeply grateful that Priscilla and Aquila risked their necks for him and wants other Christ-believers to share that gratitude. In this way, Keller moves, as she puts it, “from snippets to a composite picture.” It enables a view of this couple and the influence they had on the early churches. Their “words and deeds cohere,” their “outreach is to all,” and “they were willing to suffer.”

Keller then helpfully draws ten pages of insights that we may apply widely today, for their commitment was such that they moved their household, at the call of the gospel, between Italy, Greece, and Rome and, as a couple, their team was so strong that they strengthened each other in frequently changing contexts. This made them a presence that strengthened others. They demonstrate for us lay leadership, team ministry, and the practice of leadership by women. With all its information, the book may prove useful to those who wish to know more about these two key leaders and instigators of first-century churches.

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