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Acts Of Paul And Thecla Analysis

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The account of Saint Thecla, as found in the literary piece, The Acts of Paul and Thecla, reveal the fervid passion of a woman in her pursuit of the monotheistic God, risking life and limb on her quest to make His gospel known. While the woman herself remains in question, her legacy continues as a strong representation of the role of women in the early Church – a position often denied to many women by the patriarchal nature of the institution. Thecla defied the early leaders, pushing herself into a realm where only men had dared to enter, and succeeded in bringing an entire region under the wing of her Christian religion. Thecla was a leader, a visionary – but, first and foremost, she was a woman. The Acts of Paul and Thecla is believed to have been a portion …show more content…

From her earliest beginnings as a follower of Paul, it is clear to see that Thecla was soon to become a revolutionary in the early Christian world. Aside from her near-radical stance as a female apostle, Thecla was ordained by God to perform an array of “...miraculous cures, so that all the city and adjacent countries brought their sick [to her]… [and] they were instantly cured of whatsoever distemper they had” (Jones). In the times of Paul, women were regarded as being the sinful progenitors of Eve, and thus irreversibly unfit to carry out the Holy Gospel. Thecla's blatant disregard for the “...tendency of the emerging orthodox church to enforce norms of modesty for women”, goes as far as her claiming her “God-given right” to baptize, as seen in chapter nine, verses six through eight of The Acts: “...when she had [finished] praying, she turned about...saw a pit of water...and said, now it is a proper time for me to be baptized… accordingly she threw herself into the water...in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Hylen,

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