Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/31

 of Thecla near Seleucia was visited by Sylvia of Aquitania, who in her travels gives a description of the locality with its monasteries and the church, which inclosed the "Martyrium" and states that she prayed in the "Monasterium" and read there the holy history of Thecla.

From all indications it may be inferred that the work was composed at least before A. D. 200, perhaps somewhere between 165 and 195, and most probably within a few years of the middle of that period. And this will hold good of the Acts of Paul in general. Though deeply tinged with Encratism, and notwithstanding the author's deposition from his ministry, the history of Thecla was universally welcomed in Catholic circles, was frequently re-edited, and often used as a subject of homiletic discourse.

An indication of the early origin of the Acts of Thecla is the absence of quotations from the New Testament. There is not a single direct citation, yet the student cannot fail to discover many instances in which the New Testament has been used.

After these preliminary remarks we now give the Acts of Paul and Thecla. The Greek text is found in Lipsius Acta Apocrypha, I, 235–269; the Coptic, as far as it goes and its German translation in Schmidt, Acta Pauli, pp. 27–53.

1. As Paul was going up to Iconium after his flight from Antioch, his fellow-travelers were Demas and Hermogenes, the coppersmith, full of hypocrisy, and persisted in staying with Paul, as if they loved him. Paul looking only to the goodness of Christ, did them no harm, but loved them exceedingly,