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PAUL AND THECLA, ACTS OF

A component in the larger apocryphal Acts of Paul. Edited on the basis of 11 Greek manuscripts in addition to Latin, Greek, Slavic, and Arabic versions, the narrative may have circulated independently; the earliest attestation (2nd century; Tertullian De bapt. 17) is inconclusive about its relationship to the Acts of Paul. It has been suggested that early 2nd-century, ascetic Christian groups, including women, generated the text, propagating a pro-ascetic understanding of Pauline Christianity.

The narrative begins with Thecla’s acceptance of Paul’s appeals to chastity which lead her to reject her betrothed, Thamyris. Consequently, Thecla’s mother condemns her to the funeral pyre, and Paul is imprisoned due to his anti-establishment, ascetic teachings. Miraculously, rain spares Thecla from the flames and she escapes to meet Paul. Thecla asks Paul to baptize her, but Paul refuses, despite Thecla’s status as a confessor. They both travel to Antioch, where a leading citizen publicly attacks Thecla. Paul fails to defend her, and Thecla is again arrested and sentenced to death. Thecla requests a custodian to guard her virginity the night before she is to die, and she receives the protection of a recently bereft aristocratic woman, Theocleia. Sentenced to be mauled by beasts, Thecla baptizes herself in the theater lest she die unconsecrated, though female beasts keep Thecla from harm. Thecla is spared once her accuser calls off the games for fear that Theocleia would use political means to avenge Thecla’s death. Thecla then returns to Paul, who commissions her to preach in her own mission throughout Seleucia.

Bibliography. D. R. MacDonald, The Legend and the Apostle (Philadelphia, 1983); W. Schneemelcher, “Acts of Paul and Thecla,” in New Testament Apocrypha, ed. E. Henncke-Schneemelcher, 2 (Philadelphia, 1965): 353-64.

Melissa M. Aubin

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PAUL AND THECLA, ACTS OF

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)