Abstract
In the Acts of Paul and Thecla (APTh) a cloud appears in the most important scenes of the tale. This motif is used to highlight the protection offered by God on behalf of the young woman and echoes that cloud appearing in Exodus guiding and protecting the Israelites. Thanks to these kinds of echoes, the author of the APTh tries to establish a connection between both scenes in his readers’ minds and builds, at the same time, the character of Thecla, portrayed as a virgin, a martyr or an apostle in different scenes of the narration.
Highlights
The Acts of Paul and Thecla (APTh) has been examined from many different points of view
In the Acts of Paul and Thecla (APTh) a cloud appears in the most important scenes of the tale. This motif is used to highlight the protection offered by God on behalf of the young woman and echoes that cloud appearing in Exodus guiding and protecting the Israelites
In our opinion, little attention has been paid to Thecla’s construction as a character and her evolution throughout the text from her childhood home, where she is portrayed as a young virgin at the beginning of the story, to the semi-eremitical milieu in which she ends her life in Seleukeia
Summary
The Acts of Paul and Thecla (APTh) has been examined from many different points of view. In the following lines we will analyze the evolution of Thecla To this end, it is essential to understand how the author of the text creates the ἦθοσ of Thecla, by narrating her own story, and by displaying a narrative strategy consisting of echoes or intertextual resonances of different motifs of other Christian tales, which have been well known and popular among the Christian readers of the text. It is essential to understand how the author of the text creates the ἦθοσ of Thecla, by narrating her own story, and by displaying a narrative strategy consisting of echoes or intertextual resonances of different motifs of other Christian tales, which have been well known and popular among the Christian readers of the text In this interplay the element of the cloud (νεφέλη) can be served as a prototypical example and deserves a special attention, since it appears in three of the most dramatic moments of the narration of Thecla: 1) her first martyrdom in Iconium; 2) her second martyrdom in Antioch and, 3) her arrival to Seleukeia as depicted in manuscript Oxon. We will be able to observe this transformation and how some echoes of different biblical stories, consciously used by the author of the text, play an important role of the characterization of Thecla
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