February 18, 2026

We have spent so much time slogging through ther purity laws that Jesus told the Pharisees to put “where the sun don’t shine.”  Last we we spent an hour talking about rape, realizing the penalties were doled out with little regard to the victims (sadly it seems little has changed when we think of the Epstein mess).  So this week it is all upbeat.  Women: It’s your time to shine!

Finishing up last week:   

Yes Jesus said: “women, the husband is the head of the wife - like Jesus is the head of the church.”  So when it comes to decision making, ruling the roost, the HUSBAND is the boss.  

Whereas that might be tough for us - especially women - to stomach, it resonated with Paul’s audience of 1st century society.  

It is another classic YES, BUT statement by Paul.  

Because Paul added:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—  for we are members of his body.  “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.  (Hey pal, Christ DIED for the church, and the church is US, even the women.  So the message is you are to now love your wife so much you are WILLING TO DIE FOR HER.)

We will discuss this a bit after our 4 week break.  For today let’s look at the story of the woman evangelist:  THECLA!

The Bible is a male dominated book with a few exceptions - Deborah, Esther, Miriam, and Jael in the Old Testament and Phoebe, Priscilla, Lydia, and Junia in the New Testament. 

The Mosaic Laws, as well as just about every ancient society, painted women as second class citizens - or worse.

Women may have sponsored church homes, but none hit the evangelical road (at least not without their hubbys) like the Apostle Paul.

OR DID THEY???

The Acts of Paul and Thecla (around 180 A.D.) details the story of just such a female evangelical leader, every bit as effectual as Paul himself.  The book never made the canon - perhaps because the canon was determined by a group of men protecting their turf?

Interesting, because the Roman Catholic Church honors her as “Equal to an Apostle” and is celebrated on September 23 (September 24 in the Eastern Orthodox Church).

An amazing story.  Women need not stay in the shadows.  Women can be leaders.  Thecla provided the way!

Throughout antiquity in the Mediterranean, it was widely held that women were by nature inferior to males and prone to error, that their subordination was totally justified and that it was preferable for them to remain silent.

The Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla did not follow widely held notions on women. It is a fascinating early Christian text written in the second half of the second century AD as a manual for educating liberal and strong women.

This was also precisely the reason why it was soon considered by mainstream Christian fathers as a far too dangerous read for Christian maidens and it got rejected. What if it got ideas into silly little female heads?

Because: Women appear in the text as strongly admiring Thecla – for the choices she made as far as her sex life was concerned, her traveling, her preaching in male clothes around the Mediterranean as a wandering charismatic and her resistance against authority and being vocal about their admiration. 

At the same time there is the idealization of lifelong celibacy over marriage, of cross-dressing and of traveling as a wandering charismatic.  (Women, to) Paul meant settling in one place, getting married and behaving according to what society has already prescribed for one’s gender (silence and passivity as far as women are concerned).  They are clearly of lower value. The text explicitly upsets the boundaries each gender was to observe.

Thecla demonstrated a way for a woman in the First Century to escape her “required role” as childbearer of the family and to escape domination by her husband.  She could be on her own and make her own decisions, certainly not the societal norm of the day.

Now you can see why Chrsitianity was so attractive to many women.  Celibacy?  You mean I DON’T HAVE TO PRODUCE A HALF DOZEN BABIES???  I can get out of the house?  I can have a life?  DEAL!

Thecla is upper class.  Her husband has been selected.  And she dumped him.  And fell not for Paul, but his teachings.  

She bribes her way into Paul’s jail cell and studies at his feet - position of the top students.  Paul teaches her, but is nervous over her plans.  

Thecla had met with Paul and she suggested that the apostle let her cut her hair short and join him in his travels around the Mediterranean. Paul unenthusiastically agreed. Thecla wanted to be baptized but Paul refused: “You aren’t ready yet.”  Baloney.  He was stalling.  She was smart.  She was charismatic.  She was willing to hit the road and evangelize.  But she was a woman, and Paul didn’t want to be associated with her, responsible for her - at least not in public.  

Authorities find out about this nervy woman.  They release Paul (of course) and try to burn her at the stake.  (She is saved by a rainstorm!)  

Thecla and Paul then begun their travels together and reached Antioch.  There, a nobleman named Alexander desired Thecla and attempted to rape her. Thecla fought him off, tearing his cloak and knocking his coronet off his head in the process. She was put on trial for assault. She was sentenced to be eaten by wild beasts, but was again saved by a series of miracles, when the female beasts (lionesses in particular) protected her against her male aggressors. While in the arena, she baptized herself by throwing herself into a nearby lake full of aggressive seals.  Lightning killed the “killer seals.”

The rest of the story:  Version 1

Thecla rejoined Paul in Myra (can’t you hear Paul?  “Oh my heavens, SHE’S BACK!!!!”)

Paul suggested she teach the word of God as a wandering charismatic. (“Thecla, you are desperarely needed - over there.  Actually ANYWHERE I am not…”)  Thecla happily complied. After many years Thecla returned to Iconium where she tried to be reconciled with her mother. She ended up in Seleuceia and she met her death there.

Version 2

Thecla rejoined Paul in Myra (again, “AAGGHH! SHE’S BACK!!!!”), traveling to preach the word of God and becoming an icon, encouraging women to imitate her by living a life of chastity and following the word of the God, and went to live in Seleucia Cilicia. According to some versions of the Acts, Thecla lived in a cave there for 72 years. 

Version 3

She spent the rest of her life in Maaloula, a village in Syria. 

Thecla lived for seventy two years as an ascetic and offered superb medical services to her frequent visitors. She became a healer, performed many miracles, but remained constantly persecuted.  The story is similar to Paul 

The Christian Church promoted ascetics and monks as the new highly successful and highly powerful physicians of the day in an attempt to keep people away from Asclepeia (Greek healing sanctuaries - the sign of Asclepius is the stick with the coiled snake around it, still used today) where incubation was practiced (patients would sleep in the healing sanctuary and wait for a healing dream or a vision from the God Asclepius). 

When Thecla was ninety there was yet another attempt of rape against her, this time by a gang of pagans solicited by the physicians of the city who, because of Thecla, had lost their clients. God intervened and prevented the rape.  The story goes, as her persecutors were about to get her, she called out to God and a new passage was opened in the cave, and the stones closed behind her. 

The passage and caves are still found in Maaloula which became a very important site for pilgrims. She was able to go to Rome and lie down beside Paul's tomb.

NOTE:  It is doubtful Thecla existed as a single person, but instead was an amalgamation of many women in Biblical history.

A Theory:  The theory is that 1 and 2 Timothy were written to correct or dispel the lessons of the Acts of Paul even though the Timothy epistles (thought not written by Paul) were written BEFORE the Acts of Paul.  That the Acts of Paul were written later but relied on verbal stories in early Christianity that had survived for years.  Hence, the Book of Timothy calls them “wives tales.”  1 Timothy 4:7  Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.  (In other words, follow the MEN…)

The Acts of Paul and Thecla is really an interesting book.  To read it in its entirety click  below:

The Acts of Paul and Thecla

For presenter notes on previous Bible Study Classes click the link below:

Fall 2025 Bible Study Notes Archive

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