Acts of Paul and Thecla

Saint Thecla among the lions, from the Chruch of Santa Thecla in Milan, Italy.

The Acts of Paul and Thecla (Acta Pauli et Theclae) is an apocryphal story of St Paul's influence on a young virgin named Thecla. It is one of the writings of the New Testament Apocrypha.

The author sets this story into a framework similar to the Book of Acts. However, the text is differs significantly from the New Testament portrayal of Paul. Notably, it is extravagant in praise of virginity, to the extent that Thecla Paul become entranced with Paul's preaching ignores the agonized pleas of her betrothed husband. It thus promotes the doctrine of encratism, the teaching that the avoidance of sex is necessary for salvation, a thread which ran through several brands of early Christianity.

Summary

Paul is described as traveling to Iconium, proclaiming "the word of God about abstinence and the resurrection." Paul receives a full physical description that may reflect oral tradition. In the Syriac text "he was a man of middling size, and his hair was scanty, and his legs were a little crooked, and his knees were projecting, and he had large eyes." The Armenian text adds that his eyes were blue. eyebrows met, "His nose was somewhat long, and he was full of grace and mercy; at one time he seemed like a man, and at another time he seemed like an angel."

Paul gave his sermons in the house of Onesiphorus in a series of beatitudes. Among them are the following:

• "Blessed are they that keep the flesh chaste, for they shall become the temple of God."

• "Blessed are they that abstain, for unto them shall God speak."

• "Blessed are they that possess their wives as though they had them not, for they shall inherit God."

• "Blessed are they that have kept their baptism pure, for they shall rest with the Father and with the Son."

Thecla, a virgin of noble birth who was betrothed to a certain man named Thamyris, listened to Paul's "discourse on virginity" from her window in an adjacent house. She became enraptured, without moving from the spot for days. Thecla's mother and fiancée became concerned that Thecla had fallen under a trance: "Thecla, my betrothed, why sittest thou thus?" implored Thamyris, "and what passion is it that holdeth thee in amaze."

Thamyris soon discovered that Paul taught a deeply disturbing doctrine: "He defraudeth the young men of wives and the maidens of husbands, saying: 'Ye have no resurrection otherwise, except ye continue chaste, and defile not the flesh but keep it pure.'"

Thamyris then brought city officials together with a mob who dragged Paul to the governor, Castelius, who questioned the apostle. Paul admitted that "God hath sent me that I may sever them from corruption and uncleanness and all pleasure and death, that they may sin no more." This was enough to convince Castelius that Paul should be held in prison until the matter could be more fully investigated.

Thecla, meanwhile, bribed a guard to gain entrance to the prison and sat at Paul's feet all night listening to his teaching and "kissing his bonds." When her family found her in this posture, both she and Paul were brought before the governor for sentence.

"Why wilt thou not marry Thamyris, according to the law of the Iconians?" Castelius asked Thecla. but she said nothing, gazing steadfastly at Paul. At her mother's shocking request, Thecla was sentenced to be killed by being burned at the stake, that "all the women who have been taught by this man may be afraid." Paul, meanwhile, was sentenced to scourging and expulsion.

Stripped naked before a huge crowd, Thecla was put on the fire, but she was saved by a miraculous storm which God sent to put out the flames. After their joyous reunion, Thecla requested baptism, but Paul prophetically predicted that she would receive "the water" in due course. Paul and Thecla then traveled to Pisidian Antioch, in today's Turkey, where a nobleman named Alexander desired Thecla and offered Paul money for her. Paul claimed not to know her, and Alexander then attempted to take Thecla by force. Thecla fought him off, assaulting him in the process, to the amusement of the townspeople. Alexander then dragged her before the governor for assaulting a nobleman. Despite the protests of the city's women, Thecla was sentenced to be torn by wild beasts. To grant Thecla's request her virginity be kept intact at her death, a certain "queen" Tryphaena took her into protective custody overnight.

Thecla was then tied to a fierce lioness and paraded through the city, but the lion only licked her feet. Later she was stripped and thrown to more wild beasts in the city's arena, accuse now of "sacrilege." The women of the city again protested against the injustice, and Thecla was again protected from death, first by the lioness who fought off the other beasts, and then by a series of miracles. During this she famously baptized herself in a tank of water containing wild seals which were meant to kill her, saying: "In the name of Jesus Christ do I baptize myself on the last day." A miraclous fire then flashed, and the seals floated to the surfce dead. A cloud of fire protected Thecla from further harm from the other beasts, as well as (the author is careful to note) from being seen naked by the crowd. Finally Tryphaena and the other women of the city an intervened, and the governor officially pardoned Thecla from further persecution. Thecla the preached the Gospel to Tryphaena and her household, most of which became Christians.

Finally, Thecla, who still "yearned for Paul" disguised herself as a man and returned to Paul at Myra, declaring with joy that she herself was now a baptized Christian. Paul commissions her to preach the Gospel. She returned the Iconium, finding her betrothed husband had died. After a brief reunion with her mother, she went on to Selucia, where she "enlightened many."

Some manuscripts add that at the age of 90 she was living as a hermit on a mountain where young men went up to ill-treat her. She prayed, and she entered in to the mountain, which then closed after her. Some add that she went underground to Rome, account for the reported presence of her body there.

The text

The story of Paul and Thecla was probably written in the second century. The discovery of a Coptic text of the Acts of Paul containing the Thecla narrative suggests that the abrupt opening of the Acts of Paul and Thecla is due to its being an excerpt of that larger work. It is attested as early as Tertullian, De bapistero 17:5 (c 190), who complained of use in the advocacy of a woman's right to preach and to baptize. Many surviving versions of the Acts of Paul and Thecla in Greek, and some in Coptic, as well as references to the work among Church Fathers show that it was widely disseminated. Tertullian states that document was written in honor of Saint Paul by a presbyter of Asia who was degraded from his office when his fraud was exposed at a date about 160 C.E.

In the Eastern Church, the wide circulation of the Acts of Paul and Thecla in Greek, Syriac and Armenian is evidence of the veneration of Thecla of Iconium. There are also Latin, Coptic, and Ethiopic versions, sometimes differing widely from the Greek. In the Ethiopic edition the story of Thecla's preaching and to baptizing is omitted.

Significance

The story of Paul and Thecla reflects both the ascetic tendency and the experience of persecution in early Christianity. Many have noted that it is also highly erotic in places. Edgar Goodspeed, comparing it to other ancient love stories, called it a "religious romance".

Some believe that a legend concerning the local martyr Thecla may have inspired the story, in which she was connected to Paul of Tarsus. The cult of Saint Thecla was in wide evidence and the story made her the most famous early virgin martyrs.

Tertullian (160-230) complains that some Christians in Alexandria were using the example of Thecla to legitimize women's roles of teaching and baptizing in the church (De Baptismo 17). This in itself is significant for reconstructing the second-century struggles against women in positions of authority, notably among Gnostic and Montanist Christians. (Tertuallian himself was a Montanist, but opposed women acting as priests.)

Some modern scholars see the Acts of Paul and Thecla as a proto-feminist text. In their reading, Thecla is abused by men and their world, and yet refuses to conform to its expectations, marriage patterns, definition of the priesthood, and dress code. She boldly asserts her independence, receiving support from many women.

Paul himself is also an ambiguous figure in this work. He is seen as a preacher of asceticism, but one with whom women are besotted. His teachings lead Thecla into trouble, and yet Paul is never there when the trouble comes.

This presentation of Paul as ascetic preacher, actively discouraging marriage, is very different from that of the (probably pseudonymous) Pastoral Epistles. For instance, 1st Timothy 4:1-3 has Paul explicitly condemning anyone who forbids marriage. In the unchallenged Pauline epistles, Paul indeed seems to prefer celibacy to marriage, but is careful not to forbid marriage. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says: "it is well for a man not to touch a woman" (7:1). This text has been interpreted as ideologically closer to Paul and Thecla. The text continues:

Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. (1 Cor: 8-10)

Thecla's case in the context is somewhat ambiguous, for while still a virgin, she was legally betrothed. In any event, Paul and Thecla indicates one possible understanding of Paul's legacy in the second century, and it is well known that there were Christian groups who practiced abstinence from sex, even among those who were married.

The text also gives the earliest supposed description of Paul.

See also

• Leucius Charinus

Bibliography

• Eliott, J.K. The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation 1993 Oxford: Oxford University Press
• MacDonald, D.R. 1983 The Legend and the Apostle: The Battle for Paul in Story and Canon Philadelphia: Westminster Press
• Kirsch, J.P. Sts. Thecla. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV. Published 1912. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Ehrman, Bart D. Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew 2005. Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195182491.

External links

• Acts of Paul and Thecla: translated probably by Jeremiah Jones, (1693-1724)
• Early Christian Writings: Acts of Paul: episode "The Acts of Paul and Thecla" (e-text) ed. M.R. James 1924
• Nancy A. Carter, "The Acts of Thecla : a Pauline tradition linked to women"

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