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WAS THECLA'S LEGEND CENSORED? TERTULLIAN'S TESTIMONY ON THE APOCRYPHAL ACTS OF PAUL (DE BAPTISMO 17,5) (Czy legende Tekli ocenzurowano? Swiadectwo Tertuliana o apokryficznych Dziejach Pawla (De baptismo 17,5))

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Raczka J.

U Schyłku Starożytności. Studia Źrodłoznawcze

2011

vol. 10

111-130

This article investigates some traces of an original diversity in Christian attitudes towards women's place in the Church. One of these traces is a passus in Tertullian's homily On the baptism 17,5, where the author strives against any attempts to treat a part of the apocryphal Acts of Thecla as an argument for an empowerment of women to catechize and baptize. His fierce attack on these writings seems however disproportionate to its contents available nowadays, which could hardly act as a piece of evidence for Paul having authorized females to perform aforementioned duties. Two hypothesis have been proposed as an explanation for this divergence. According to the first one, some scenes or expressions had been expurgated by copyists worried about an unorthodox interpretation and resultant misuse of the Acts of Thecla. At least two facts speak in favor of this hypothesis: the text ends abruptly, the last sentence leaving the impression of being a fourth-century interpolation, and the apostolic aspect of Thecla's legend, poorly illustrated in the present ATh, was significantly elaborated in Byzantine homilies and other late Christian writings, which corresponds with Thecla's cult in the official liturgy as a female apostle authorised by Paul to teach and baptize. According to the second hypothesis, the aforesaid abuse of Thecla's example should be understood as a manifestation of an ancient reader's imagination which tended to associate the very scanty mention in Thecla's Acts with contemporary practices on the edge of heterodoxy, such as widows' initiation of catechumens berated in Syrian Didascalia or women's significant role among montanists in Asia Minor, the cradle of Thecla's story. Coupled with a 'teaching-baptizing' concept-cluster evoked by Paul's final instruction for Thecla in the apocryphal narrative, it made the Acts more meaningful than they were at first in their author's intention.

Nieumęczona męczennica. Konstruowanie męczeńskiej legendy św. Tekli

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Rączka J.

U Schyłku Starożytności. Studia Źrodłoznawcze

2012

vol. 11

137-165

Saint Thecla has been venerated as a martyr and even protomartyr in the Christian East and West. She has even been considered a female alter ego of Saint Stephen. However, while Stephen was perceived as a prototype of the perfect Christian martyr since his death, Thecla was first created as an icon of another Christian concept – celibacy. The apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla were a primal and always predominant source of her legend. When looking at it from the perspective of two fundamental components of the Christian notion of martys, i.e. the testimony of faith and the physical sufferings, one promptly notices the striking differences between the two saints. Nonetheless, some features of Thecla’s story made their association possible. This article investigates the phenomenon of ancient authors’ growing attention to the martyr-like motifs of the Acts of Paul and Thecla and the circumstances that eventually led to the unexpected spread of her cult as a martyr and spectacular promotion of this saint in Late Antiquity.

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2 U Schyłku Starożytności. Studia Źrodłoznawcze

1 Raczka J.

1 Rączka J.

1 2012

1 2011

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WAS THECLA'S LEGEND CENSORED? TERTULLIAN'S TESTIMONY ON THE APOCRYPHAL ACTS OF PAUL (DE BAPTISMO 17,5) (Czy legende Tekli ocenzurowano? Swiadectwo Tertuliana o apokryficznych Dziejach Pawla (De baptismo 17,5))

Nieumęczona męczennica. Konstruowanie męczeńskiej legendy św. Tekli