The Female Apostle that Christianity (Purposely) Forgot | Acts of Paul and Thecla

as i've explored ancient non-canonical christian texts over the past couple of years my view of christianity's origins and development has gradually evolved on occasion though i come across literature which causes a more sudden dramatic shift in my perspective last summer i discovered a text called the acts of paul and thecla after a bit of study i realized i'd never view christianity especially as it relates to marriage family and church leadership the same way i became very eager to share what i'd learned with you guys but i decided i just couldn't do the topic justice on my own so i reached out to dr ian mills a scholar of religion who specializes in new testament and early christian literature to develop a presentation on the subject which i could share with my audience this video is the result before we get into it let me clarify that this video does not aim to make any theological points this video is about history and while it may describe theological points at times it does not advocate for any theological ideas in producing this dr mills and i only aim to help viewers come to appreciate the wonderfully complex development of christianity just as we have each in our own way in the late 4th century a nun named aegeria traveled from golica modern-day spain to tor holy sites as she traveled across the roman empire throughout the levant and down to egypt algeria wrote detailed descriptions of the places she visited in isari and seleucia on the southern coast of modern-day turkey algeria traveled to the church of saint thakla she describes her visit as follows when i had arrived prayer in the name of god was made at the memorial and reading the whole of the acts of saint thakla i gave endless thanks to christ our god algeria tells us that she visited a church dedicated to saint thakla the memorial contained in this church was thekla's tomb while there algeria and her companions read aloud from a book which they called the acts of saint thecla algeria never explains who this thekla was as we'll soon see though algeria's 4th century readers probably didn't need an explanation apart from people named mary fekla was probably early christianity's most famous female she is however virtually unknown to christians today fekla was a female disciple of paul who was famous for her renunciation of paganism a vowel of asceticism near martyrdom and subsequent preaching ministry the most important source for her life is the acts of paul sometimes also called the acts of paul and feckler or just the acts of thekla this book of acts not to be confused with the acts of the apostles found in all modern bibles was well known in the early church more than a dozen greek fragments of the work survive in addition to latin coptic syriac and armenian translations unfortunately none of these manuscripts are complete this is probably a result of just how long the thing was two ancient catalogues described this act as consisting of about 3 600 lines that's more than 50 percent longer than the canonical acts at the time of its creation when books consisted of one or more paper roles it probably would have required multiple it's no surprise then that the acts of paul was often excerpted published only in part and survives only in fragments now somewhere in the middle of this long work is a series of stories about paul's encounter with a woman named thecla the section begins with paul teaching in iconia fekla overhears this teaching from the window of her parents home she's so engrossed with paul's teaching that she refuses to leave the window even to eat or drink feckless parents and fiance plead with her to leave the window and just get on with her life but the refuses paul's preaching in this book of acts is worth quoting here the teaching which thekla overhears contains a series of beatitudes probably modeled on jesus teaching in the sermon on the mount blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god 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 have renounced this world for they shall be well pleasing unto god blessed are they that possess their wives as though they had them not for they shall inherit god paul according to this book of acts preached renunciation of the world including sexual abstinence as an essential part of christian ethical practice it's definitely not for me dawg later in the same narrative paul's instruction is summarized as you have no resurrection unless you keep chaste and do not defile the flesh but keep it pure this may sound strange to someone familiar with the emphasis christian's place on the nuclear family today but as we'll see this ethic of sexual renunciation does have its roots in the authentic letters of paul and reflects a popular interpretation of new testament writings in the early church more on that later thakla takes paul's preaching on abstinence seriously and unsurprisingly this offends theekla's fiance a man named thamerus so thamerus after failing to persuade thekla to leave her window seat sets in motion a conspiracy against paul this devious teacher who stole his fiancee theorist encounters two of paul's christian enemies demas and hermogenes and together they bring a legal accusation against paul before the roman governor these three charge paul with teaching young women to renounce sex and more simply with merely being a christian paul is arrested interviewed by the governor and then imprisoned at this point thekla swings into action she bribes her way into paul's prison cell so she can hear more of his teaching the guards discover her there the next morning and bring her along with paul to the roman governor the governor whips paul and expels him from the city but thekla doesn't get off so easily he pressures her to forget paul's teaching and mary thamerous thekla refuses with the encouragement of fekla's own mother the governor decides to make an example of fekla to prevent other women from following paul's teaching thekla is condemned to burn alive a crowd gathers firewood and for the first of many times in this text thekla is stripped naked when they try to burn thekla though a miraculous downpour of rain quenches the fire thekla is released and presumably at this point re-clothed reunites with paul in a sepulchre she joins paul and his companions in their prayer and fasting and it becomes a real party to quote the axe there was much love within the sepulcher nice this of course was a chaste sort of love but the subversion of suggestive language is probably part of the point thekla asks paul to baptize her immediately but paul says the time isn't right instead paul and feckler travel to antioch as soon as they arrive a powerful civic leader named alexander notices thakla's beauty and physically assails her she of course rebuffs alexander ripping off his clothes in the act as revenge alexander brings thacla before a roman governor and accuses her of sacrilege the governor promptly condemns thekla to be eaten alive by wild animals fekla is then bound to a female lion but instead of devouring her the lioness just licks the class feet it's another miracle the roman executioners are not discouraged though the next day thekla is stripped naked and offered again to wild beasts this time the lioness is accompanied by a male lion and a she-bear the loyal lioness defends thekla against both the new lion and the she-bear in this gruesome battle all three are killed still the roman officials are stubborn even more wild beasts are brought into devour thecla instead of confronting this new set of animals thekla makes a dramatic move in the name of jesus christ she proclaims i am baptized on my last day thekla then throws herself into a nearby pool of water she was denied baptism by paul so thakla baptizes herself ethekla immediately discovers that the pool in which she has baptized herself is filled with flesh-eating seals before these adorable but apparently ferocious animals can eat thecla a bolt of lightning strikes the water the seals are killed and the author makes note a fire on the surface of the water covers up thekla's nakedness these miracles do not impress alexander instead of repenting and releasing vekla alexander comes up with a new method to kill her he convinces the governor to tie thekla between two angry bulls but this creative method doesn't work either before the bulls could tear the part the fire lit by the miraculous lightning strike burns through the rope and fekla breaks free finally the governor has just seen enough beckler was obviously unkillable he decides to ask becca about this acroleg she had been accused of thekla tells the governor that she had been saved by the living god because she had put her faith in his son the governor repents reclosed thecla and releases her after this the queen of thrace one of rome's client kingdoms invites thecla into her home fekla preaches in the thracian palace for eight days as a result the queen and her entourage all convert to christianity thekla at that point wished to reunite with paul the queen learned that paul had traveled to myra near the southern coast of modern-day turkey fekla sets out to find him immediately she enters myra in disguise but paul picks her out of the crowd the two spend a night together in prayer the next day paul commissions that club to go teach the word of god this part of the narrative concludes with fekla returning to iconia traveling abroad to preach and at last dying in seleucia reception and canonicity it was probably this portion of the acts of paul that algeria the 4th century spanish nun heard read aloud while visiting feckless tomb in seleucia algeria's travel logs is an important piece of evidence for the veneration of thekla and the popularity of her acts in the early church but algeria is hardly unique in this respect a fourth century text martyr acts of eugenia also suggests that the acts of paul and thecla was well known in the early church eugenia was the 16 year old daughter of a roman general stationed in alexandria she lived according to her martyr acts during the reign of commodus at the end of the second century ethecla features prominently in the story of her conversion now a chance that there fell into eugenia's hands the history of the holy apostle paul and of the blessed virgin vekla and as she read it in secret day after day she wept the more because she was subject to heathen parents but when she went on reading day by day the history of the holy thekla it occurred to her to imitate feckless conduct and having made her choice in the depths of her soul she set herself to study the teaching of the christians according to this source eugenia encounters the acts of polanthecla and converts to christianity in imitation of its protagonist fekla in the rest of the narrative eugenia refers to the acts of paul and thecla as a divine book this martyr act apparently treats the acts of paul and tekla as divinely inspired codex clara montenus a 6th century greek latin new testament provides further evidence that the early church treated declass acts as scripture at the end of this text pauline books there exists a canon list that is a catalog of authoritative christian scriptures the origin of this canon list is a mystery but scholars state its composition to some time in the fourth century near the end of this list after the catholic epistles apocalypse of john and the acts of the apostles stands the acts of paul the author of this list evidently considered the acts of paul to be scripture and naturally included it in their canon of the new testament critics of the acts of paul here's where it gets spicy but only if you're an early christianity nerd which i guess if you're watching this far into the video that that probably describes you so we're good there are many more examples of early christian authors citing the acts of paul and thecla as an authoritative text but the most famous discussion of this text comes from an author who was not a fan of fekla tertullian an apologist and theologian wrote a treatise on baptism at the end of the second century baptism he says should only be administered by the bishop and those who the bishop licenses tertullian then addresses thekla and the acts of paul but if certain writings of paul which are falsely so named claim the example of thekla for allowing women to teach and to baptize let them know that in asia the presbyter who compiled that document thinking to add of his own to pulse reputation was found out and though he professed he had done it for the love of paul was deposed from his position how could we believe that paul should give a female power to teach and to baptize when he did not allow a woman even to learn by her own right let them keep silence he says and ask their husbands at home there's a lot to unpack in tertullian's comment first tertullian tells us that the story of fekla in the acts of paul was used to justify female preachers and the administration of the sacrament by women the surviving text does portray thekla as an itinerant preacher but does not however explicitly describe her baptizing others maybe baptism is implied in the successful missions the author attributes to thecla or perhaps that self-baptism was understood to establish a precedent for female ministers in any case tertullian's treatment of thekla suggests some christians were using the acts of paul as an authority for establishing practice second tertullian claims that a presbyter in asia minor modern-day turkey was discovered to be the author of the acts of poland vekla this presbyter supposedly claimed to have written the work for the love of paul but was nevertheless removed from his ecclesiastical post what would be the reason for this deposition though the acts of paul does not claim to be written by paul so it's not a case of pseudipigraphy tertullian simply argues that paul could not have acted in the manner described in the acts and suggests therefore that this presbyter lost his position in the church because the narrative in the acts was known to be false tertullian's story about the author of the acts is peculiar in light of the other evidence for the works reception with dozens of early authors citing the acts of paul in addition to eugenia the martyr and egeria the traveling nun hippolytus of rome origen ambrose of milan ambrosiaster methodius augustine and gregory of naziensis also invoke the acts of paul further sermons attributed to cyril of alexandria and severus of antioch are based on the acts all of this would be surprising if the acts of paul was widely known to be a pious fabrication rather the use of the work by these authors suggests that tertullian's story about the author of the acts was unknown to anyone but tertullian even other authors who oppose the acts of paul and feckler like cyprian and the author of the glacial decree do not seem to know about tertullian's deposed presbyter the question we have to ask then is this if tertullian's story is true if the author of the acts really was removed from office when it was discovered that he had written a self-evidently false story about paul is it plausible that tertullian a latin author on the other side of the mediterranean was the only early christian author who knew about it how exactly does a polemicist residing in italy exclusively learn this story while devotion to fekla as evidenced by shrines and churches develops throughout asia minor itself it's possible of course that tertullian had a special source of reliable information but i think that's not the only or even most plausible explanation perhaps instead tertullian was eager to embrace guerrilla speculations about the origins of this text without new evidence relevant to the reception of the acts in the second and third centuries it's difficult to pass judgment on tertullian's account but the singularity of his story should give us pause finally tertullian juxtaposes the paul of the acts with the paul of the pastoral epistles how could we believe that paul should give a female power to teach and to baptize when he did not allow a woman even to learn by her own right let them keep silence he says and ask their husbands at home tertullian does this to argue that the real paul would never endorse the ministry of fekla after all the paul of the pastoral epistles first timothy 2 timothy and titus demands a subordinate restricted and almost exclusively domestic role for christian women it's not a surprise to see tertullian drawing on these letters in particular to contradict the depiction of paul in the acts of paul tertullian in fact would not be the last scholar to know how relevant the pastoral epistles are for attacking the kind of christianity laid out in the acts it's enough to make one wonder is there a connection here did acts of paul influence or inspire its contradiction to be included in this portion of the new testament canon the pastoral epistles and the acts of paul there are 13 letters attributed to paul in most modern new testaments scholars universally agree that paul wrote at least seven of these letters three letters ephesians colossians and second thessalonians are controversial with the field of new testament studies being nearly divided on their authenticity but the pastoral epistles first timothy ii timothy and titus are widely regarded as inauthentic the reasons for this are easily summarized first of all the pastoral epistles are not present in the earliest collections of paul's letters the oldest manuscript of the pauline corpus p-46 omits just these three letters marcion of cenopy and basilities of alexandria both had a pauline corpus containing only ten letters of paul tatian a roman christian from syria had an 11 letter corpus adding only titus additionally the pastoral epistles are written in a different style of greek employ different vocabulary and articulate a different theology of the law from the other letters attributed to paul even the pastoral's account of christian practice seems to be significantly different from the authentic pauline letters to give just one example paul in first corinthians 7 an uncontroversially authentic letter advises christians against marriage christians would be more effective ministers of the gospel paul says if they remained unmarried or if they're already married if they behaved as if they were not the pastoral epistles on the other hand require marriage as a qualification for leadership in the church these considerations and others have led a significant majority of scholars to conclude that the pastoral epistles are not really letters of paul they are rather three examples of pauline pseudopigrapha a large body of works from antiquity that falsely claimed to be written by paul probably the pastoral epistles were written sometime in the early second century by a christian eager to promote his own interpretation of pauline theology and practice all of this is relevant because modern scholars have noticed that the pastoral epistles work almost too well as a refutation of the acts of polanthecla that is the pastoral epistles seem almost designed to contradict the interpretation of paul's ethics and theology reflected in the acts were the pastoral epistles indeed written to refute the acts of paul and thucla there is almost certainly some relationship between the pastoral epistles and the acts of paul and thakla scholars have noticed a whole host of suspicious similarities between the two works for example there are a number of people who only appear in the pastoral epistles and the acts someone named oniciphous appears throughout second timothy but never in any other letter of paul or the canonical acts he is however a major figure in the acts of paul and thakla so too hermogenes and alexander appear only in the pastoral epistles and this non-canonical axe no other new testament or pauline text mentions them if the axe of paul isn't a historical record and the pastoral epistles are pseudonymous there's little reason to believe that any such persons as onicipherous hermogenes and alexander ever existed how is it then that the pastoral epistles and the acts of paul prominently feature the same figures otherwise unknown in early christian literature it's always possible that both works are independently drawing on the same early oral traditions about the life of paul but most scholars think there is some closer connection between the two works the most striking connection between the acts of paul and the pastorals is not the coincidence of names but the diametrically opposed positions on marriage and female preachers that these two texts attribute to the apostle paul to better understand these texts relationship to each other let's explore those issues marriage as we've seen the paul of the acts of paul and thecla praises chastity and condemns marriage blessed are they that keep the flesh chaste for they shall become the temple of god blessed are they that possess their wives as though they have them not for they shall inherit god the acts describes this point as integral to paul's gospel while the historical paul does not place the same emphasis on this issue the acts of paul's teaching is still very similar to the historical paul's advice in first corinthians 7 are you free from a wife do not seek a wife let even those who have wives be as though they had none a little further on in first corinthians 7 paul clarifies that he who marries his fiancee does well and he who refrains from marriage will do better finally paul clarifies that widows are free to marry who they want in the lord but she is more blessed if she remains as she is the historical paul was more moderate than the preaching in the acts of paul but both the historical paul and the paul of the apocryphal acts express a clear preference for chastity and singleness the paul of the pastoral epistles on the other hand expresses a diametrically opposed point of view whereas paul in first corinthians encourages widows to remain unmarried the paula first timothy explicitly instructs widows to remarry let a widow be enrolled if she is not younger than 60 years the wife of one man but refuse younger widows i want therefore younger women to marry bear children and manage a household it's only false teachers according to first timothy who forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods instead the pastoral epistles make being the husband of one wife a condition for leadership in the church the pastoral epistles does not tell married people to live as though they are unmarried but rather promotes sexual activity women according to the pastorals will be saved through childbearing the acts of paul and the pastoral epistles thus adopt conflicting interpretations of pauline sexual ethics the renunciation of marriage and sex in the acts of paul does take paul's more measured advice in first corinthians 7 to an extreme still though it's closer to the historical paul sexual ethics than their promotion of marriage found in the pastoral epistles female preachers as we've already seen tertullian highlights a second point of contention between the pastoral epistles and the acts of paul and fekla paul in the non-canonical acts commissions thekla to a ministry of preaching and accepts the legitimacy of her self-baptism but as tertullian argues the paul of the pastoral epistles could not have behaved this way let a woman learn in silence with full submission i permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man she is to keep silent first timothy 2 11-12 once again the acts of paul and the pastoral epistles represent diametrically opposed positions female preaching is taken for granted in the acts and is prohibited in the pastorals now the position of the historical paul was considerably more complicated in first corinthians 11 paul instructs women to cover their hair while prophesying in church with or without head coverings the historical paul did not therefore expect women to be silent it is true that paul's argument in first corinthians is premised on the subordination of women to men but at the same time it assumes that women held speaking roles in his churches the historical paul also recognized a female apostle named junia in romans 16. the term apostle meant sent person and is used consistently in paul's letter to designate those commissioned to preach the gospel junia therefore appears to have been a woman in paul's social network who had a commission to preach just like vekla wait some viewers might say isn't there a passage in first corinthians 14 that would support the position of the pastoral epistles as in all the churches of the saints women should be silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak but should be subordinate as the law also says if there is anything they desire to know let them ask their husbands at home for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church contrary to paul's own argument in chapter 11 this passage prohibits women from speaking in churches these verses however have long been suspected of interpolation like the famous interpolation of the woman caught in adultery in the gospel of john this passage is found in different places in different manuscripts furthermore the passage interrupts the flow of paul's argument in chapter 14. the surrounding passage makes better sense without the interpolation these considerations alongside the contradiction with first corinthians 11 have led the majority of scholars to conclude that the passage was inserted into paul's letter by some later author the general contours then are clear the acts of paul and the pastoral epistles advocate opposite positions on the place of women in christian ministry the acts support female preachers while the pastoral epistles oppose them it is true that the historical paul was not a modern egalitarian but vekla's role in the acts of paul more closely resembles the status and role of women in the ministry of the historical paul than the patriarchal vision of the pastoral epistles competing interpretations of paul what then is the relationship between the acts of paul and fekla and the pastoral epistles well apostolic acts were a popular genre in the second and third centuries so it's entirely possible that the acts of paul is a response to the pastoral epistles if this is the case the author of these acts must have believed the pastoral epistles were a forgery that misinterpreted the teachings of paul the author wrote the acts then to correct the misinterpretation of paul found in the pastorals it is also possible that the pastoral epistles are a response to the acts of paul the pastorals as we already noted argue against certain false teachers who claim paul's authority for female preachers in contrast the axe takes for granted that paul's network of christian teachers included women like junia and thecla the pastoral epistles has other concerns beyond female preachers and reasserting marriage but perhaps the acts of paul was one of its targets a third possibility is that the acts of paul and thecla only reflect the same kind of christianity that the pastoral epistles were written to oppose that is the author of the acts simply belonged to the same christian subgroup or school of thought as the opponent of the pastorals the renunciation of marriage and sex was after all common among pauline christians in the second century and there is some evidence for female leaders then too the pastoral epistles and the acts of paul represent diametrically opposed interpretations of paul on a number of key issues each work attributes the other interpretation of paul to false teachers is this reason enough to suppose a literary relationship perhaps not but this is where the confluence of secondary characters discussed previously is suggestive why do these two texts and only these two texts in all of early christian literature mention onicipherous hermogenes and alexander as important figures in paul's social circle the coincidence that two texts arguing over the same interpretive issues would introduce the same three characters just seems too much maybe both authors used the lost source or heard the same stories about paul or maybe one of the authors was responding to the other without more information it's hard to see why one of these models should be preferred to the others it is too bad that we can't have more certainty surrounding this topic but even without that the implications for christianity here are still profound i'll leave you with a few observations that have occurred to me while studying the subject imagine if the theological views and the acts of paul and feckler had become mainstream among christians what would christians today think of political campaigns that championed so-called family values what would they think of religious organizations like focus on the family many i think would consider them to be anti-christian upon the inception of such campaigns and organizations some believers might speak out against the moral degradation happening in their communities warning believers and non-believers alike to flee from the worldly temptation of marriage and reproduction i know that the world makes falling in love getting married and having children seem wonderful but we know that isn't god's will for us and would lead us to nothing but destruction further female leadership in the church might have become commonplace subverting the patriarchal attitudes which have persisted in western culture since antiquity would this have accelerated women's progress towards equal rights in western society would conservative traditions be just as likely to have female leadership as today's self-described progressive christians would christianity have ever become the official religion of the uber patriarchal roman empire while i certainly can't answer such questions it does make sense in my opinion that the theology of this text did not become the predominant view not only was the world of antiquity even more patriarchal than ours today but christians of the acts of paul and feckless persuasion had fewer ways to produce new christians literally when one sect encourages marriage and childbirth while another forbids anything that could lead to reproduction is it any wonder that the former eventually grew more populous this reasoning makes sense to me but take this lay person's opinion with a grain of salt of course finally i'd like to add that christians of the 2nd century and later had literature to back up their personal interpretations of christianity regardless of where they stood on issues of sex marriage and female leadership the idea that all honest well-studied christians of the ancient world viewed these issues in a way we today considered traditional is an anachronism no christian tradition arose without challenge from within christianity itself when i personally consider that fact fully appreciating the complex dialogues from which christianity in all its current forms arose i can't help but empathize with those on opposing sides of any theological issue as they all likely felt fully justified in their positions despite the opposition i hope that after learning about the acts of paul and fekla and the theological debate in which it participated that you the viewer will come to develop that empathy as well thanks for watching i've been drew of genetically modified skeptic i want to give a massive thank you to dr ian mills for his excellent contribution to this video i most definitely could not have done it without him another thank you to my patrons for making this video possible this is the first time i've ever hired a scholar to produce a video so let me know what you thought of this constructive criticism is welcome remember to be kind to others in the comments and until next time stay skeptical

Channel: Genetically Modified Skeptic

Views: 458,669

Keywords: atheism, atheist, agnostic, skeptic, skepticism, genetically modified skeptic, gm skeptic, gmskeptic, Christian apocrypha, Acts of Paul and Thecla, Saint Thecla, early christian history, Apostle Paul, Pastoral Epistles, proto-orthodox, non-canonical books, What does Acts of Paul and Thecla say, Are the Pastoral Epistles a forgery, Was Acts of Paul canon, new testament studies, atheist bible study

Id: SwohpJU1Tco

Length: 32min 20sec (1940 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 20 2022