Thecla the Troublemaker (Truong)

Thecla the Troublemaker

   1 Timothy 2, particularly lines 8-15, speak of proper conduct within the church. While that is all well and good, it goes strangely in depth about the ways that women must conduct themselves. While men receive simple instructions of “pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument” (1Tim 2:8”), women had a veritable laundry list of tasks to perform. 1 Timothy 9 outlined proper women's fashion, but it is 1 Timothy 12 that would have a modern-day feminist prepare a lawsuit, “I permit no woman to teach or have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.” But why does the Bible require such insistent instructions for women? Were they not already properly behaved women who respected and honored their husbands; knowing that through childbirth, her sins would be forgiven? Joanna Dewey suggests in the Women's Bible Commentary that these verse were actually written to counteract the changing social structure of women in post-Pauline Christianity. While it is a known work of fiction, the Acts of Paul and Thecla demonstrates the heightened role granted to women in Paul's era, which drove the need for 2^nd century Christians to alter.

   Thecla was a virgin. She was betrothed to a man named Thamyris, which was encouraged heavily by her mother Theocleia. Thecla, however, was not content with the lifestyle that laid before her and instead was enamored by the teachings of Paul who had come to the city to teach the word of Christ. Even when Paul was imprisoned for his teachings, Thecla snuck into the prison to continue learning how she could be saved. Even when she was set upon a pyre to be burned, she remained steadfast in her new belief and was rewarded for it. When she meets again with Paul, she offers to discard a symbol of her womanhood, “I will cut my hair short (Acts of Paul, 25)”. They come to the city of Antioch, where a man named Alexander falls in love with her. He embraces her openly but she invokes the name of God and rips off the man's cloak, publicly shaming him. (Acts of Paul, 26). 1 Timothy 2 would most certainly not approve of such a spectacle, violating the laws of remaining silent as well as expressing authority over a man (1 Tim 2:12).

   In retaliation for her defiance against him, Alexander has her pitted against beasts, but again she comes out unscathed. The crowd that witnessed her miracles gathered to her and sought to learn from her. Rather than rebuking them from seeking teaching from a woman, she leads them, using them to help her locate Paul. When the two reunite, Paul does not chastise her for spreading the teachings like 1 Tim 2:12 disapproves of, but in fact, tells her, “Go and teach the word of God! (Acts of Paul, 41)” Clearly, Paul did not know what he was doing. He was teaching Christianity poorly and leading down people down the wrong path. That's why when the churches had to make some corrections to the letters of Paul in the second century to ensure the woman would not follow Thecla's example.