The Book of Isaiah

Chapter 1 V.1 Part 3.4

Paul & the Female Controversy 9

Please be sure you have read the preface to this section in the previous post, so that you have understanding about the source of this information.

In the mid-second century the Acts of Paul the apostle, gives a sermon composed of thirteen beatitudes that emphasize cumatively that the only blessed ones are “the pure in heart, who have kept the flesh pure, who have renounced the world, who have wives as if they had them not, who have kept their baptism secure, who have departed from the form of this world.” The climactic beatitude says, “Blessed are the bodies of the Virgins.”

The immediate pagan accusation against Paul is, quite correctly, that “he deprives young men of wives and maidens of husbands, saying: ‘Otherwise there is no resurrection for you, except you remain chaste and do not defile the flesh but keep it pure.’” That is certainly clear; bodily resurrection is for celibates only (and preferably, for virgins). But once again, within patriarchy, that ideal creates different problems for the male Paul and the female Thecla.

Thecla’s would be husband, Thamyris, persuades the governor to scourge and expel Paul, but to condemn Thecla to being burned alive. She is saved in the arena by a rainstorm and catches up to Paul on the road.

“And Thecla said to Paul, ‘I will cut my hair short and follow you wherever you go.’ But he said, ‘The season is unfavorable, and you are comely. May no other temptation come upon you, worse than the first, and you endure not and play the coward.’” (25)

No comment is necessary on that interchange, but it gets worse. To Alexander, another would-be husband, Paul denies Thecla in words remnant of Peter’s betrayal of Jesus. Paul says, ‘I do not know the woman of whom you speak, nor is she mine. (26)

Thecla rejects Alexander and shames him for his forceful public advances by ripping his cloak and knocking the crown from his head. She is condemned to the beasts in the arena. But here, miracles far greater than a rainstorm intervene.

First of all, the ensuing division is not between Christians and pagans, but between women and men, or better, between females and males. Here are the steps.

“The women were panic-stricken, and cried out before the judgment seat; ‘An evil judgment! A godless judgment!’” (27)

Next, Thecla, who had been abandoned by her birth mother, Theoclaia, receives an adoptive mother, Tryphaena, who is powerful enough to protect her purity in prison. (27, 31)

Then, when they bind Thecla to a fierce lioness, “the lioness licked her feet.” And once again, “the women and their children cried out from above, saying, ‘O God, an impious judgment is come to pass in this city!’”(28)

That continues with “a shouting of the people and the women who sat together, some saying, ‘Bring in the sacrilegious one!’ but others, ‘May the city perish for this lawlessness! Slay us all, proconsul. A bitter sight, an evil judgment.’” (32)

The climax of this theme is this extraordinary description in which the conflict is female against male not only among humans, but even among animals:

Lions and bears were set upon her, and a fierce lioness ran to her and lay down at her feet. And the crowd of women raised a great shout. And a bear ran upon her, but the lioness ran and met it, and tore the bear asunder. And again a lion trained against men, which belonged to Alexander, ran upon her; and the lioness grappled with the lion, and perished with it. And the women mourned the more, since the lioness which helped her was dead. (33)

Second, Thecla sees in the arena a pit of water and, having been earlier refused baptism by the apostle Paul, she proceeds to baptize herself. Lightning protects her from the animals in the water. When other animals are sent in against Thecla, “the women cried aloud” and threw so much of their perfume into the arena that the animals “were overpowered as if by sleep.” (34)

Third, after Tryphaena faints, the governor releases Thecla, “the women cried out with a loud voice, and as with one mouth gave praise to God,” and Tryphaena’s “maidservants also believed.” (38-39)

Finally, Thecla dresses herself in a male cloak and goes to meet Paul, who, this time and rather belatedly, tells her, “Go and teach the word of God.” (41)

Scholars have suggested that stories like those about Thecla were created by women for women and circulated orally among them before being written down and collected in the Acts of Paul.

That is certainly possible, but early Christian feminism was because of that division not just between women and men, but between females and males. Other scholars have proposed that letters such as those to Timothy and Titus were written specifically against those Thecla-type stories. That is also quite possible, but again, can hardly be proved or disproved.

We have yet to see much more about historical Paul throughout the rest of this book. But we have already seen that two absolutely divergent traditions claimed the name of that apostle after his death.

One moved him into an ultraconservative position of male-over-female superiority, the other into an ultra radical one of necessary male and female celibacy.

The ultraconservative option is not just patriarchal misogyny. It demands male leadership to be sure, but one that is noncelibate and nonascetic. Its leaders must be male, married, and fertile-in short, socially conventional. Just like any decent Roman paterfamilias.

The ultra radical option has both female and male leadership, but Thecla outdoes Paul in every way possible. The leadership there is female, unmarried, celibate, and virginal. And each claims to be Pauline and the only true Christianity.

If, however, Roman authority thought that the ultra radical option was Christianity itself, it would probably have declared it an illicit religion. The ultraconservative option was one major step on the road from Christ to Constantine.

It is sad, however, that the Christian tradition did not adopt a firm both/and rather, than a strict either/or; that is, Christian life and leadership could be equally female or male, married or celibate, conventional or ascetic. That, certainly and regardless of his personal preferences for himself, was the authentic Pauline position for Christian converts and assemblies.

I’ve no doubt that some of you will be “sad” to note that we are finally at the end of the “Female Controversy” of this section of the study! Ha! I know…I know…I thought it was endless too, but I’m only showing you what God showed me. It’s not like I’m harping on this. So the next section will be finishing up the background information on the rest of the kings, and then maybe, we can actually get to verse 2! Peace and blessings.