Good morning religion channel peoples, I hope Thursday finds everyone well.
After a recent bluff got called about a Saint Thecla thread, we find ourselves in this thread. And even more crushingly unfortunate, we find ourselves in this SERIES of threads.
For those who read the title and went “The Acts of Paul and Who?”: St. Thecla in early Christianity was probably the most prominent woman who’s name wasn’t “Mary”. The second century text “The Acts of Paul and Thecla” is where we get a lot of our information about the story of St. Thecla today. While she is in modern christianity mostly only kept in prominence by the Eastern Orthodox church, as a catholic saint that less people seem to know of than Sir Thomas Moore/St. Thomas, and virtually unheard of and overlooked in protestantism.
For those who read the title and went “The acts of who and thecla?” Paul/Saul was a very important early christian credited with writing many of the epistles in the New Testament. He comes up often on this channel, and I’m very surprised this name was questioned.
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Now let’s do some apocryphal exegesis on the first chapter of the text!
Paul heads to a place called Iconium after fleeing Antioch with two companions who are immediately noted to be lesser than Paul (Demas and Hermogenes who have excellent names, are full of hypocrisy).
They’re greeted by a rich guy named Onesiphorus, who heard they were coming from Titus [of Antioch] and only knew of Paul from Titus’ description, but was able to recognize the short, bald, hollow-eyed monobrowed, saint.
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[From the text]At length they saw a man coming (namely Paul), of a small stature with meeting eyebrows, bald [or shaved] head, bow- legged, strongly built, hollow-eyed, with a large crooked nose; he was full of grace, for sometimes he appeared as a man, sometimes he had the countenance of an angel. And Paul saw Onesiphorus and was glad.
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After Onesiphorus praises Paul in a greeting, his buddies grow jealous and act like “Hey, we serve the same god, why do you only care for Paul?” And Onesiphorus says that he heard of what Paul did in Antioch. He don’t know anything about tweedle dee and dum, but he’s rich and if they serve the same god he’ll happily invite them into his home and feed them.
Bread got broken, prayers were shared, and Paul started a-preaching:
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[from the text]Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are they who keep their flesh undefiled, for they shall be the temple of God.
Blessed are the temperate, for God will reveal himself to them.
Blessed are they that abandon their secular enjoyments, for they shall be accepted of God.
Blessed are they who have wives, as though they had them not, for they shall be made angels of God.
Blessed are they who tremble at the word of God, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they who keep their baptism pure, for they shall find peace with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Blessed are they who pursue the doctrine of Jesus Christ, for they shall be called the sons of the Most High.
Blessed are they who observe the instructions of Jesus Christ, for they shall dwell in eternal light.
Blessed are they, who for the love of Christ abandon the glories of the world, for they shall judge angels, and be placed at the right hand of Christ, and shall not suffer the bitterness of the last judgment.
Blessed are the bodies and souls of virgins, for they are acceptable to God and shall not lose the reward of their virginity, for the word of their Father shall prove effectual to their salvation in the day of his Son, and they shall enjoy rest forevermore.
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Hey, it’s some Beatitudes! But not beatitudes because Jesus didn’t say them…. and there are more than eight of them. And they’re more about celibacy and forgoing secular enjoyments than it is about being meek and seeking righteousness, So it’s just a format lift.
And now we got the actual point of this opening of the series and what I aim to discuss in the first chapter of this series. As Thecla isn’t introduced yet, I’m not even getting to her (spoiler alert: she likes Paul’s chastity message, leaves with him, greatly pissing off her father, family, and fiance who attack them) yet. I want this thread to be a focused discussion at the difference between Paul’s preaching formatted-like-beatitudes and the eight beatitudes of Jesus (it won’t be because of issues herding cats, but I can state the intent).
For those looking for a refresher, here’s Jesus’ set:
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THE EIGHT BEATITUDES OF JESUS
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Gospel of Matthew 5:3-10
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- How are Paul and Jesus’ preached ‘blessed are’ statements affecting different group?
- How are Paul and Jesus’ preached ‘blessed are’ statements affecting the same group?
- Does Paul’s countenance sound angelic to you?
Sir Roam
Article URL : https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/maps/primary/thecla.html