Conclusion: Contending for the Legacy of Paul and Thecla
All in all, Paul’s teaching concerning marriage, celibacy, women, and their place was ambiguous enough to allow room for a variety of readings that lent support to quite different practices.
The most frequently cited Pauline passages were those that ordered women to keep silent (1 Cor 14:33-36), prohibited them from teaching, and subjected them to male authority (1 Tim 2:11-15). In spite of these direct scriptural commands, there were women who did not follow them and who had to be constantly reminded of women’s proper conduct - proper from the point of view of those who excluded women from all public activity in the church. But not all early Christians shared this opinion. Some groups let women teach, baptize, and occupy leadership roles as bishops and deacons in their communities. Whether they simply ignored Paul’s words about silencing women or whether they developed alternative exegetical traditions to overcome these words is something the sources do not clarify. They based their practices on other scriptural proofs, such as Paul’s abolition of distinctions between men and women; “In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female” (Gal 3:28). Those who opposed women’s public role insisted that these words must be read in light of other Pauline passages. Generally speaking, the ancient commentators believed that Paul must have had a clear and consistent view - if one passage seemed to contradict others, it must be interpreted in a way that made it compatible.[1124] They had no difficulties reading Paul’s statement about unity in Christ in a way that did not discredit the cultural conventions of female subordination to men. These conventions proved to be strong enough to trample other practices underfoot. In the course of history, those groups that allowed women to have a prominent role were marginalized and deemed heretical.In discussions about marriage and celibacy, Paul’s advice to the Corinthian community (1 Corinthians 7) offered the most obvious scriptural basis. However, one and the same text opened up several options that ranged from rigorous asceticism that idealized virginity and rejected all sexual activity, including sex within marriage, to more moderate views. Chastity and self-control were commonly held Christian virtues, but whereas some understood them to mean a total renunciation of sex, others thought they were best practiced within marriage, not to be repeated - i.e., no remarriage. According to some polemical accounts, there were also Christian groups that extended sexual relations beyond monogamous marriages. For example, Clement of Alexandria accuses the followers of Carpocrates and Epiphanes of understanding Christian unity (cf. Gal 3:28) as a license to share wives. He describes how they gather for dinner and after eating “they knock over the lamps, put out the light that would expose their fornicating righteousness, and couple as they will with any woman they fancy.”[1125] However, accusing one’s rivals of sexual immorality is such a common rhetorical device that it is reasonable to doubt the reliability of this account. This does not have to exclude the possibility that there were early Christian groups that did not condemn all extramarital sex.
As these illustrations show, Paul provided an important role model and example for many early Christian writers and his teaching concerning women was taken to support a variety of practices. The example of Thecla was likewise ambivalent. Her early reputation as Paul’s independent disciple and as a self-confident teacher that empowered women to teach and to baptize was tamed and she was remembered and venerated first and foremost as a martyr[1126] and a virgin, an ascetic role model for women.[1127] This ideal virginity by far overshadows her role as a teacher and apostle in the subsequent tradition.
The domestication of Thecla and the softening of her uncompromising asceticism into a more acceptable form began early. In the fifth century work the Life and Miracles of Saint Thecla, marriage is not totally rejected. According to this text that freely elaborates the earlier Acts of Paul and Thecla, when Paul defends himself in front of the governor, he does not condemn marriage altogether. Celibacy is no longer a prerequisite for salvation; even though it is praiseworthy, marriage has its place as “a remedy and a rescue (φαρμακον και βοήθεια) for the whole human race.” It provides both an “antidote to fornication” (πορνείας άλεξιφαρμακον) and a source for the continuation of human life.[1128] Even though Thecla was immensely popular in the ancient church and well into the Middle Ages, she gradually became one exemplary ascetic among many and her more active role was forgotten.Works Cited
Albrecht, Ruth. Das Leben der heiligen Makrina auf dem Hintergrund der TheklaTraditionen: Studien zu den Ursprüngen des weiblichen Monchtums im 4. Jahrhundert in Kleinasien. Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte 38. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986.
Brakke, David. “Self-Differentiation among Christian Groups: The Gnostics and their Opponents.” Pages 245-60 in The Cambridge History of Christianity Vol. 1: Origins to Constantine. Edited by Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Bremmer, Jan N. “Magic, Martyrdom and Women's Liberation in the Acts of Paul and Thecla.” Pages 36-59 in The Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. Edited by Jan N. Bremmer. Kampen: Pharos, 1996.
Brooten, Bernadette. “Junia... Outstanding among the Apostles.” Pages 141-44 in Women Priests. Edited by A. Swidler and L. Swidler.
Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1977.Brown, Peter. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. Lectures on the History of Religions 13. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.
Buell, Denise. “Ambiguous Legacy: A Feminist Commentary on Clement of Alexandria's Works.” Pages 26-55 in A Feminist Companion to Patristic Literature. Edited by Amy-Jill Levine with Maria Mayo Robbins. Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings 12. London and New York: T&T Clark, 2008.
Burrus, Virginia. “Chastity as Autonomy: Women in the Stories of the Apocryphal Acts.” Semeia 38 (1986): 101-17.
-. Chastity as Autonomy: Women in the Stories of Apocryphal Acts. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1987.
Calef, Susan A. “Thecla ‘Tried and True' and the Inversion of Romance.” Pages 163-85 in Feminist Companion to the New Testament Apocrypha. Edited by Amy-Jill Levine with Maria Mayo Robbins. Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings 11. London and New York: T&T Clark, 2006.
Castelli, Elizabeth A. Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
-. “Virginity and Its Meaning for Women's Sexuality in Early Christianity.” Pages 72100 in A Feminist Companion to Patristic Literature. Edited by Amy-Jill Levine with Maria Mayo Robbins. Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings 12. London and New York: T&T Clark, 2008.
104
Clark, Elizabeth A. Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Connolly, R. Hugh. Didascalia Apostolorum: The Syriac Version Translated and Accompanied by the Verona Latin Fragments. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929.
Cooper, Kate. The Virgin and the Bride: Idealized Womanhood in Antiquity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996.
Dagron, Gilbert. Vie et miracles de sainte Thecle: Texte grec, traduction et commentaire.
Subsidia Hagiographica 62. Brussels: Societe des Bollandistes, 1978.Daly, Mary. Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation. Boston: Beacon, 1985.
Davies, Stevan L. The Revolt of the Widows: The Social World of the Apocryphal Acts. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press/London: Feffer & Simons, 1980.
Davis, Stephen J. The Cult of Saint Thecla: A Tradition of Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Dunn, Peter W. The Acts of Paul and the Pauline Legacy in the Second Century. Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1996.
Ehrman, Bart D. The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. Second Edition. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. San Francisco: Harper, 2005.
Eisen, Ute E. Amtsträgerinnen im frühen Christentum: epigraphische und literarische Studien. Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte 61. Gottingen: Vanden- hoeck & Ruprecht, 1996.
Elm, Susanna. “Virgins of God:” The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1994.
Epp, Eldon Jay. Junia: The First Woman Apostle. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005.
Esch-Wermeling, Elisabeth. Thekla - Paulusschülerin wider Willen? Strategien der Leserlenkung in den Theklaakten. Münster: Aschendorff, 2008.
Evans, Ernest. Tertullian’s Homily on Baptism. London: SPCK, 1964.
Fahey, Michael A. Cyprian and the Bible: A Study in Third-Century Exegesis. Beiträge zur Geschichte der biblischen Hermeneutik 9. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1971.
Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987.
Geerard, Mauritius. Clavis Apocryphorum Novi Testamentum. Turnhout: Brepols, 1992. Glancy, Jennifer A. Slavery in Early Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006.
Hayne, Leonie. “Thecla and the Church Fathers.” Vigiliae Christianae 48 (1994): 20918.
Hilhorst, Anthony. “Tertullian and the Acts of Paul.” Pages 150-63 in The Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. Edited by Jan N. Bremmer. Kampen: Pharos, 1996.
Horn, Cornelia B. “Suffering Children, Parental Authority and the Quest for Liberation?: A Tale of Three Girls in the Acts of Paul (and Thecla), the Act(s) of Peter, the Acts of Nerseus and Achilleus and the Epistle of Pseudo-Titus.” Pages 118-45 in A Feminist Companion to the New Testament Apocrypha. Edited by Amy-Jill Levine with Maria Mayo Robbins. Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings 11. London and New York: T&T Clark, 2006.
Jensen, Anne. Thekla - Die Apostolin: Ein apokrypher Text neu entdeckt. Gütersloh: Kaiser, 1999.
Kraemer, Ross S. Her Share of the Blessings: Women’s Religions among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Levine, Amy-Jill, ed. with Maria Mayo Robbins. A Feminist Companion to the New Testament. Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings 11. London and New York: T&T Clark, 2006.
A Feminist Companion to Patristic Literature. Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings 12. London and New York: T&T Clark, 2008.
Lieu, Judith. “The ‘Attraction of Women' in/to Early Judaism and Christianity: Gender and the Politics of Conversion.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 72 (1998): 5-22.
MacDonald, Dennis R. The Legend and the Apostle: The Battle for Paul in Story and Canon. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983.
MacDonald, Dennis R. and Andrew D. Scrimgeour. “Pseudo-Chrysostom's Panegyric to Thecla: The Heroine of the Acts of Paul in Homily and Art.” Semeia 38 (1986): 15159.
Marjanen, Antti. “Montanism: Egalitarian Ecstatic ‘New Prophecy.'” Pages 185-212 in A Companion to Second-Century Christian “Heretics. ” Edited by Antti Marjanen and Petri Luomanen. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 76. Leiden: Brill, 2005.
Matthews, Shelly. “Thinking of Thecla: Issues in Feminist Historiography.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 17 (2001): 39-55.
Merz, Annette. Die fiktive Selbstauslegung des Paulus: Intertextuelle Studien zur Intention und Rezeption der Pastoralbriefe. Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus 52; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht/Fribourg: Academic Press, 2004.
0kland, Jorunn. Women in Their Place: Paul and the Corinthian Discourse of Gender and Sanctuary Place. Journal for the Study of the New Testament: Supplement Series 269. London & New York: T&T Clark, 2004.
Osiek, Carolyn and Margaret Y. MacDonald with Janet H. Tulloch. A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006.
Pervo, Richard I. Review of Elizabeth Esch-Wermeling, Thekla - Paulusschülerin wider Willen? Strategien der Leserlenkung in den Theklaakten. Review of Biblical Literature May 2009. (http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/7042_7645.pdf)
Pesthy, Monika. “Thecla among the Fathers of the Church.” Pages 164-78 in The Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. Edited by Jan N. Bremmer. Kampen: Pharos, 1996.
Prieur, Jean-Marc. Acta Andreae. Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum 6. Turnhout: Brepols, 1989.
Rohde, J. “Pastoralbriefe und Acta Pauli.” Pages 303-10 in Studia Evangelica 5. Edited by Frank L. Cross. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1968.
Rordorf, Willy. Liturgie, foi et vie des premiers Chretiens. Paris: Beauchesne, 1986.
-. “Tradition and Composition in the Acts of Thecla: The State of the Question.” Semeia 38 (1986): 43-52.
-. “In welchem Verhältnis stehen die apokryphen Paulusakten zur kanonischen Apostelgeschichte und zu den Pastoralbriefen?” Pages 449-65 in Lex Orandi Lex Credendi: Gesammelte Aufsätze zum 60. Geburtstag. Paradosis 36. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag, 1993.
-. “Nochmals: Paulusakten und Pastoralbriefe,” Pages 466-74 in Lex Orandi Lex Credendi: Gesammelte Aufsätze zum 60. Geburtstag. Paradosis 36. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag, 1993.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. “Mothers of the Church: Ascetic Women in the Late Patristic Age.” Pages 71-98 in Women of Spirit: Female Leadership in the Jewish and Christian Traditions. Edited by Rosemary Radford Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979.
Schleyer, Dietrich. Tertullian De Baptismo, De Oratione - Von der Taufe, Vom Gebet. Fontes Christiani 76. Turnhout: Brepols, 2006.
Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth. In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins. New York: Crossroad, 1983.
Tabbernee, William. Fake Prophecy and Polluted Sacraments: Ecclesiastical and Imperial Reactions to Montanism. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 84. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
Tervanotko, Hanna. “‘The Hope of the Enemy Has Perished:' The Figure of Miriam in the Qumran Library.” Pages 156-75 in From Qumran to Aleppo. Edited by Armin Lange, Matthias Weigold, and Jozsef Zsengeller. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009.
Torjesen, Karen Jo. When Women Were Priests: Women’s Leadership in the Early Church and the Scandal of Their Subordination in the Rise of Christianity. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1995.
Trevett, Christine. Montanism: Gender, Authority and the New Prophecy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996.
Vorster, Johannes N. “Construction of Culture through the Construction of Person: The Construction of Thecla in the Acts of Thecla.” Pages 98-117 in Feminist Companion to the New Testament Apocrypha. Edited by Amy-Jill Levine with Maria Mayo Robbins. Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings 11. London and New York: T&T Clark, 2006.
Vuolanto, Ville. “Choosing Asceticism: Children and Parents, Vows and Conflicts.” Pages 255-91 in Children in Late Ancient Christianity. Edited by Cornelia Horn and Robert Phenix. Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 58. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009.
Williams, Frank. The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis Books II and III (Sects 47-80). Nag Hammadi and Manichean Studies 36. Leiden: Brill, 1994.
Wire, Antoinette Clark. The Corinthian Women Prophets: A Reconstruction through Paul’s Rhetoric. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990.