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Work and trades
Tentmaker
Greek skēnopoios · named once in the Bible (Acts 18:3) · Paul’s own trade
Tents in the Bible lands were usually made of cloth woven from goat hair, which is thick, warm and sheds rain; Israelite women spun goat hair for the curtains of the tabernacle (Exodus 35:26). A tentmaker cut and sewed such cloth, and the Greek word may have covered a wider range of work in cloth and leather. Tarsus in Cilicia, Paul’s home city, was a center of the trade: the goats of the snowy Taurus Mountains grew long hair well suited to tent cloth, known as cilicium after the region.
The word appears only once in the Bible. In Corinth, about AD 50, Paul met Aquila and Priscilla, Jews who had left Rome when the emperor Claudius ordered all the Jews out, and “he stayed and worked with them because they were tentmakers by trade, just as he was” (Acts 18:3). Jewish teachers commonly learned a trade alongside their study. On his journeys Paul earned his keep with his own hands, working “night and day” so as not to be a burden (1 Thessalonians 2:9). Later Aquila and Priscilla hosted a church in their house at Ephesus.
Key verses
And all the skilled women whose hearts were stirred spun the goat hair.There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to visit them, and he stayed and worked with them because they were tentmakers by trade, just as he was.You yourselves know that these hands of mine have ministered to my own needs and those of my companions.Surely you recall, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to anyone while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. Instead, in labor and toil, we worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you.The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.Sources
Adapted and shortened from the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers · CC BY-SA 4.0 — Tentmaker; Priscilla and Aquila; Tarsus; Cloth and Cloth Manufacturing*: Goat’s Hair; Work: Vocations
Adapted from Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary: articles chosen, shortened and retold in our own words (history, nature and daily life only) and, in languages other than English, machine-translated. The original work by Tyndale House Publishers is available for free at tyndaleopenresources.com.
