A young woman of Iconium hears Paul preach through a window, breaks her engagement, follows him, baptizes herself in a pool of seals, survives fire and wild beasts, dresses as a man, and is sent out to teach — the most beloved heroine story of the early church.
The opening is live as a word-depth beta: every Greek word glossed with its sense and the flowing English beside it. Paul reaches Iconium and gains two false-hearted companions, Demas and Hermogenes the coppersmith. The book grows section by section.
❦ Read the Acts of Paul and Thecla now, freeA taste of the format — open the reader above to read all of The Acts of Paul and Thecla word by word.
The Acts of Paul and Thecla was read across the ancient Christian world in Greek, Syriac, Armenian and more. It gave the tradition its boldest woman — one who preaches and baptizes — and, in passing, the earliest physical description of the apostle Paul.
Reading it word by word in the original Greek, you meet a second-century storyteller's Greek at its liveliest, and a heroine the later church worked hard to tame.
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