From: "Urash, Tom" <turash@firstam.com>
Subject: (urth) WHAT'S IN A NAME? A GNOSTIC THECLA?
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 09:29:22 


> I came across this line in The Jesus Mysteries, by Timothy Freke and Peter
> Gandy, published this year by Random House. This is the last sentence of
> the 1st paragraph on page 160:
> 
> "Another text, called The Acts of Paul, describes Paul travelling with a
> companion called Thecla -- a woman who conducted babtisms." 
> 
> The authors cite Barstone, W., The Other Bible, HarperCollins, 1984.
> 
> I found 2 non-botanical "Thec(k)las" on the web that may be of interest:
> THEKLA (f) "glory of God" from the Greek elements theos meaning "god" and
> kleos meaning "glory". Saint Thekla was supposedly the first female martyr
> (1st century). 
> Thecla (St.), styled in Greek martyrologies the proto-martyress, as St.
> Stephen is the proto-martyr. All that is known of her is from a book
> called the Periods, or Acts of Paul and Theela, pronounced apocryphal by
> Pope Gelasius, and unhappily lost. According to the legend, Thecla was
> born of a noble family in Iconium, and was converted by the preaching of
> St. Paul.
> 
> For what its worth, The Jesus Mysteries is the best of the "searching for
> the historical Jesus" books I've ever come across. The "customer reviews"
> at the Amazon site below are, to say the the least, spirited, n.p.i.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-7300973-2624959
> 
> tom urash
> 

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