Acts of Paul and Thecla
I want to invite you into the story of a girl who baptised herself and eventually others. And if you are thinking ummm…where is that in my Bible? Don’t worry. This story comes from the Acts of Paul and Thecla and Thecla is that girl who baptised herself. Which is part of why you won’t find it in the canon (the books approved in a series of meetings called councils between the 4th and 6th centuries).
The Acts of Paul and Thecla was written in Greek (between 70-150 CE) and styled after the novels of the Greco-Roman world. They were stories of drama; shipwrecks, miraculous saves, sudden departures and shocking reunions. They were love stories and perhaps this is too. But possibly more a love story between a girl and her clear sense of purpose.
We know this story was popular and translated into many languages because 40 pieces of papyrus remain and that is a lot, relatively speaking. We know it's popular because in 200 CE the esteemed church father Tertullian goes on a rant about this text and its dangerous implications that women can perform baptisms and lead in the church. And you don’t have to ban women from leading or try to stop them from speaking if they are sitting quietly in the back of the church. Leaders or not, women seem to be a problem for Tertullian as he labels us the ‘devil's gate way’ and rather than working through his own baggage he passes these beliefs on to folks like Augustine who really cement the patriarchal trajectory of the institutional church.
Thecla goes on a journey that starts at her window, she is a beautiful noble woman, engaged and expected to marry. Perhaps her ears sparked at the very notion that she could make a different choice for her life. And so she sits for three days and three nights listening, not stopping to eat or drink. Her mother Theocleia likens her to a spider in a web and later as the fiance and her mother try to pry her from the window her Mother says she is ‘mad.’ The household is in grief and everyone is sobbing; it is as if she is dead.
Thamyris investigates Paul and runs a few of Paul's shady traveling companions. They fan the flames of his bruised ego and his broken heart. Who is this one that…”deprives young men of wives.”
It’s true Paul is preaching about Jesus and his way of life. It is also true that for Paul his way into following Jesus leans heavy on a notion of purity and celibacy is a part of that. This is why the book was so popular in the early church and even through the middle ages, some leaders loved the heavy appeal to celibacy and restrictions on the flesh (even if Thecla having choices was complicated). And this heavy focus on purity gives me pause as a modern reader because for so much of history purity culture has been dangerous to women.
Paul is taken to prison and in the night Thecla bribes folks to get inside and sit with this man face to face. No longer just listening from a window, she is all in and in a lot more trouble. She refuses to answer the governor about why she won't marry and her own mother condemns her to death saying “burn the lawless one.” But she lives, God sends a storm to extinguish the fire.
Fast forward, she finds Paul and asks to be baptised and to travel with him. He tells her to wait and wishes she wouldn’t - something like you are too pretty and that means trouble. And Paul was right. She ends up in legal trouble the minute they enter a new town. Except she is in trouble for refusing a powerful man and countering his attempted assault with some moves that apparently bring him shame; ripping his cloak and tossing his crown. Paul abandons her, she is condemned to death in the arena and paraded around town as a sacrilege. And in the end she survives once more through an incredible turn of events - the lioness set to killer becomes her protector, she baptises herself as she jumps into a pool of deadly sea lions and they die in a lightning strike but God protects her, more animals are brought but the women in the arena bring all the herbs and spices and perfume…lulling the wild animals to sleep. And she survives finally.
Her survival is, I think, the heart of why this story matters. This time there is a community of women and children who understand the judgment against her is unjust! They chant ‘unholy judgment', they bring flowers, they stay with her weeping and longing and finally rejoicing. It’s something akin to the #metoo movement where they knew what it was like to be wronged by a man in power and somehow they make it your fault – like you are the one who violated the sacred. He is projecting his sin by naming her as sacrilege and every woman in the arena knows it could have been her story or has been her story.
When Thecla faced the fire, in her first trial, the community started it. The young men and women were tasked with bringing the kindling and it’s her own mother that demanded her burning to teach everyone else who might choose a path outside of the norm a lesson. But in her second encounter, Thecla encounters a healed mother, one who is able to be with her as her own mother could not or would not. A powerful queen and a relative of Caesar, I like to imagine his auntie. She lost her only daughter and now takes Thecla under her wing. She experiences and offers a love of healing and care, presence and grace. In the end the governor and even the grabby rich guy who started the whole problem, stop the relentless attempts on Thecla's life out of fear for Caesar's auntie fainting dead away in her grief of losing Thecla.
Thecla’s story has powerful symbols. And just like any story that Paul is a part of, it can be challenging. If Paul is a challenge for you, don’t worry it’s kind of his thing and it always has been.
You can find a translation of the narrative here:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/maps/primary/thecla.html
There are a few themes to really look out for:
Lions are a symbol of courage and the word means with heart. Courage in the roman world was understood as masculine. Only masculine! But here Thecla challenges this assumption with her presence of mind in the face of fear. No wonder the lioness chooses her.
The notion of purity of heart or singleness links to a way of seeing. Like when Peter has visions in Acts or Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of Mary. It means to see with the eye of the heart, to be so centered and so anchored that all the many dualities of being slip away and you can be so present in the singularity, oneness that you can face the fire…hopeully more metaphorically. These dualities that slip away echo, Paul there is no longer male or female, rather there is a singularity of being in Christ.
In the end Thecla cuts her hair and makes her own garment, styling herself as a man and not as a young woman waiting to be wed. Paul greets her with joy and marvels at her story. He invites her to share. It’s this full circle moment form when she sat listening to him both from her window and at his feet in the prison. And Paul blesses her going forth as a leader in this faith.
She decides to follow this path. To listen at the window. To find Paul and to face down all the realities of choosing what is not the norm. She gives away the jewelry that marks her status, she is stripped naked and faces fire and trial. Perhaps folks past loved this story for the ways it invites us to take courage in our vulnerability and to choose whole heartedly the path we desire to take.
Three is a number that shows change is coming. Thecla at her window…Christ in the tomb. You get it.
Community is powerful. Seeing Thecla’s courage gave her community even more courage to show up with her in her second trial. And in the end they celebrate a shared joy and many are inspired to join her following the way of Jesus.
Love is not possession. Notice the text around the men who ‘love’ Thecla. Systems of domination, power over are replaced with power with and a love that stands by and alongside.
Want to read more start here:
A New New Testament Edited with commentary by Hal Taussig (and you can buy it here or somewhere local to you rather than amazon or online with us at (link to bookshop)
The Girl Who Baptized Herself: How a lost Scripture about a Saint Named Thecla Reveals the Power of Knowing Our Worth by Meggan Watterson (bookshop link)
Want to hear about it:
Day 12 Acts of Paul and Thecla Video 1
Day 12 Acts of Paul and Thecla Video 2
Blessings on your adventure and your work seeing through the eye of the heart!
Rev. Debra
P.S. This Summer we will be exploring this and other banned books from the bible. We invite you to join the conversation in June in worship and the book club in July. Stay tuned!