True Love According to Thecla

“Only give me the seal of Christ, and no trial will touch me.” This is what a Turkish teenager named Thecla says to the apostle Paul in her miraculous story recorded in The Acts of Paul and Thecla. She wants Paul to baptize her so she can devote her life to Christ. This power though to transform, to devote herself to a life of the soul, is a power Thecla has to find within her.

Even if you’re not Christian, you’ve most likely heard of Paul. He’s somewhat notorious in feminist theological circles for declaring in 1 Timothy 2:11-12, “A woman must learn, listening in silence with all deference. I do not consent to them becoming teachers, or exercising authority over men; they ought not speak.” He’s also attributed with saying, in Galatians 3:27-28, “For all of you who were baptized into union with Christ clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Judean nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female; for in Christ Jesus you are all one.”

Read together, these two passages from the New Testament are a sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation of professing the radical equality of all humanity and then turning around and condemning women to silence and submission. So what happened? Where’s the Paul that spoke so poetically about love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, “Though I speak in the tongues of people, or even of angels, yet have not love, I have become mere echoing brass, or a clanging cymbal!”

“Love is long-suffering and kind,” Paul continues, “love is never envious, never boastful, never conceited, never behaves unbecomingly; love is never self-seeking, never provoked, never reckons up her wrongs; love never rejoices at evil, but rejoices in the triumph of truth; love bears all things, ever trustful, ever hopeful, ever patient. Love never fails…”

“As yet we see, in a mirror, dimly, but then face-to-face! As yet my knowledge is incomplete, but then I will know in full, as I have been fully known. Meanwhile, faith, hope, and love endure–these three, but the greatest of these is love.” 

How do we reconcile the love-drenched, poetic Paul in Corinthians 13, the Paul that believes no matter who we are, if we’re “clothed” or baptized in Christ then we are all one in Galatians, with the Paul that believes women should not become teachers, or hold any positions of authority and leadership in the Church in 1 Timothy? 

The obvious answer is patriarchal dominance. Men benefitting from the power of the patriarchy within the Roman hierarchy were not willing to give up their position at the tippy top, along with the Emperor, in order to share that power and authority with women and slaves. By the mid-second century, half the population of Rome were descendants of slaves. 

There’s massive scholarly consensus that 1 Timothy was actually written well over a half-century after Paul’s death. It was written in his name, but it was not written with his hand, or heart. It’s in direct contention with or a direct response to the Paul we meet with in The Acts ofPaul and Thecla, who inspires Thecla to become a minister.

Yet, even if you’re an exceptionally well-read Christian, you have probably never heard of Thecla. 

Most likely, you didn’t grow up celebrating her courage and resistance in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. 

I didn’t find out about her until I entered seminary in my late 20’s. Finding her allowed me to realize that there was a form of Christianity that was more radical, more fiery, more miraculous, and more entirely about love that had existed in the first several centuries. 

The Acts of Paul and Thecla is an ancient Christian scripture that scholars believe could date back to as early as 70 A.D. So why was this scripture not included in the formation of the New Testament in the 4th century? Because this scripture is about the story of a young woman who dares to defy the cultural imperative that expected girls to marry and have children. Instead, Thecla goes against every external idea of who she needs to be or become–and baptizes herself. 

Thecla unifies an arena of women against the Roman men condemning her to death, which is my favorite part of her story, but we’ll get to that. 

First, let me give some context. The years following Christ’s crucifixion are terrifying and dangerous for anyone who was a known disciple or apostle of Christ, and for anyone who professed to be a Christian. It’s a crime to be Christian; it’s illegal and punishable by Roman authorities by death. Because anyone who declared themselves a Christian believed in a power greater than the Emperor, which was seen as treason. 

Yet, here at the opening of The Acts of Paul and Thecla, we find this devoted man named Paul traveling from village to village, bravely telling stories about his experience of Christ to anyone who will listen. 

And Thecla, who hears Paul from her bedroom window, begins to recognize a truth in what he shares when he comes to preach in her small village. She’s 17 and soon to be married. The life that is expected of her, of a girl in the first century of Roman-occupied Turkey, seems to be set.

Thecla remains at her window though, where she can hear every story that Paul shares. The scripture relates that she did not turn away, and that she rejoiced exceedingly. For three days and three nights, she remains transfixed, without eating or drinking. (Three is the symbolic number of transformation, or of death and resurrection.) 

This very evident transformation taking place within Thecla of course troubles her mother and her fiancé. He tells her that she should be ashamed for directing her attention away from him. And her mother tells her she’s acting like a mad person. The truth she feels fixated to in Paul’s words about Christ are stronger though than their judgment. Thecla remains rooted to her place by the window where she can hear Paul.

She sees other women approaching Paul, and she begins to desire to be worthy to stand face-to-face with him to hear about Christ. But her fiancé is filled with jealousy and rage, and approaches rulers and public officials and tells them that Paul has corrupted the village, seducing women like a magician to no longer obey their husbands and convincing maidens to no longer become wives. An angry mob then confronts Paul and asks him who he thinks he is.

Paul says that he has come to give humanity hope, hope in a god that has compassion on a wandering world, so that humanity will no longer be under judgement, but rather have trust and dignity in a love of truth. 

The governor, hearing all this, orders for Paul to be bound and carried off to prison.

In response to this desire to meet face-to-face with Paul, to feel worthy to be in such close proximity to his stories about Christ, Thecla leaves her bedroom in the middle of the night. She goes to the prison and offers her bracelets to the gatekeeper so that he’ll open the door for her. Once inside the prison, she gives a silver mirror to the jailor so that she can go to Paul’s jail cell. 

This represents to me the discarding of her previous life. These are symbols of her identity as a girl, a daughter, a woman meant to care about what she looks like in a world that would judge and define her because of the simple fact that she is a girl. This is the moment in her story when she takes off the trappings of her previous life, or the ego that may have forced her to live through it. And she begins to answer the call of her soul instead. The scripture reads that she sat at Paul’s feet, hearing great things of god, and she kissed his chains.

When the village found out that Thecla had visited Paul in prison in the middle of the night, the governor orders for Thecla to be brought to court. He asks her why she refused to marry, but Thecla remains silent and stands defiantly just looking intently at Paul. At this, her mother cries out to the court, “Burn the lawless one! Burn the one who refuses to be a bride!” 

The governor has Paul whipped and thrown out of town. But he orders for Thecla to be burned at the stake, as her mother had suggested, so that other young women will be afraid to disobey the law as Thecla has. 

A crowd comes to watch and assist in Thecla’s execution. The scripture reads that as she was standing there naked, waiting for the pyre to be lit, she sees a vision of Christ in Paul’s form in the crowd to be there with her, witnessing her. And as she stands there, the governor weeps and marvels at the power he sees in her.

Thecla makes the sign of the cross as she climbs onto the firewood. But when the fire is lit and begins to blaze, no flames touch her. A great dark cloud fills the sky above her and suddenly rain and hail extinguishes the fire. Thecla is saved. 

Shortly after she sets off on the road to find Paul, Thecla runs into a child, a neighbor of hers in a market. He had been with Paul, praying with him for her safety. The child leads her to Paul.

When they are reunited, the scripture reads that there was much love and rejoicing. Thecla says to Paul, “I will cut my hair short and follow you wherever you go.”

Paul voices his concern that trials will continue on this path for her, because she is beautiful, and this forbidden religion called Christianity will only attract more attention to her. This is when Thecla declares to Paul, “Only give me the seal of Christ, and no trial will touch me.” 

But he tells her to have patience. 

Their ministry takes them to an area that the Romans referred to as Asia Minor, which was comprised of an epic portion of the entire Mediterranean. The president of the council of Syria, named Alexander, saw Thecla and immediately wanted her as his own. He offered Paul money and gifts for her. But Paul pretended not to know her. Alexander, “having a lot of power,” the scripture reads, tries to embrace her right there on the street. 

Thecla would not have it. She tore his cloak and took the crown from his head. 

Alexander brought Thecla before the governor for publically dishonoring him. She was sentenced to die in the arena by wild beasts.

She was stripped (again) and made to wear one word around her neck, “sacrilege.”

A ferocious lioness was the first to charge at her. But as the lioness got close to Thecla, it laid down at her feet. And when a bear and lion trained to kill humans approached her, the fierce lioness protected Thecla. 

When the lioness was killed trying to protect her, Thecla noticed a great pit full of water in the arena. She knew then that it was time. She threw herself in, saying, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I baptize myself!” And in seeing this, the women in crowd wept and were in awe of her and began to cry out, “unholy judgement!”

Yet, still, even more frightening animals were thrown into the arena. The women responded by throwing rose petals, nard, cinnamon, and cardamom, to create an abundance of perfumes that seemed to calm and hypnotize the animals into a deep sleep.

The governor, terrified by Thecla’s power, calls out to her and asks, “Who are you? What is it about you that not even one of the wild animals touched you.”

And Thecla answers, “I have trusted in the living god, a refuge for those in a storm; and freedom for the oppressed.”

The governor is so moved by Thecla that he orders for garments to be brought to her and that she be released.

Then the scripture reads, “and the women all cried out in a loud voice, as if with one mouth, and gave praise to god, saying, ‘One is god who has saved Thecla!’ so that the whole city shook from their voice.”

Thecla, now followed by many young men and women, stitched together a garment – a certain type of robe that men in the first century wore–and went looking to find Paul again.

He was astonished when he saw her, the crowd that was with her, and that in fact, no trial had touched her. He must have looked at her inquisitively, because she enlightens him then, and says, “I have received a bath, Paul. For the one who worked together with you for the good news also worked together with me in my baptism.”

For me this translates as, “Turns out I didn’t need to wait for you Paul (a man) to baptize me, because actually that power of baptism is ultimately between me and god, and also, turns out god’s an equal opportunity employer.” 

The Acts of Paul and Thecla concludes: “It has been said that she was an ascetic in a cave when she was seventy-two, so all the years of her life were ninety. And after accomplishing many healings, she rests in the place of the holy ones.” And that she’s buried near Paul.

Scholars know that this scripture was widely read because so many copies have been recovered. And it was even extremely popular during the time that the traditional New Testament was being codified in the 4th century. So why did The Acts of Paul and Thecla ultimately get excluded? 

In the late 2nd century, an early Christian leader and theologian named Tertullian condemned this scripture because it implied that women had the spiritual authority to lead communities and to baptize. And opposition to women’s leadership from other male authorities within the church from the 4th to 6th century played a critical role in keeping this scripture from out of the canon.

Why is Thecla’s story so important now? 

We can’t know who Paul really was without knowing the woman he ministered with throughout his lifetime. And we can’t know the Christianity he practiced without including her story also.

There’s a cave in Turkey, called the Grotto of Saint Paul, that has a fresco painted more than 1,500 years ago. It’s of a scene from The Acts of Paul and Thecla, but the pilgrims who come to this cave only recognize Paul. He is bald, with a double-goatee, and his hands are in the mudra or the hand gesture from Byzantine iconography for blessing and teaching. What they can’t see, or understand, is the young woman right beside him sitting at her bedroom window, listening intently to his every word is Thecla. What they can’t see is that this fresco isn’t just about Paul; it’s about the radical way Christ’s teachings asked for a young woman, with no apparent power in the world around her, to begin to listen to a more ultimate power that exists within her. 

What they can’t see is the love story that transformed Thecla from a teenager expected to marry and have children, to a spiritual leader, free from the illusion that power comes from anywhere other than within her. Free from the illusion that because she’s female she’s unworthy to teach. Free from any of the expectations the world may have had of her, as a female, so that she can be free to be her own, free to follow only the voice of her soul. 

With only more love, 
M.