Is the Acts of Paul and Thecla in the Bible?
No. It is in no canon of Scripture. It is a second-century apocryphal narrative that circulated as part of the longer Acts of Paul.
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The Acts of Paul and Thecla — Free PDF Study Guide
A clear, honest introduction to the Acts of Paul and Thecla — the second-century narrative of a young woman of Iconium who hears Paul preach through a window and abandons everything to follow Christ. It is the source of the earliest physical description of the apostle Paul and of one of the most widely told martyr stories of the ancient church. This free guide covers the text, its author, the response of Tertullian, and why it never entered the New Testament.
An original Bible Sundays study companion. The Acts of Paul and Thecla is not Scripture and is in no Bible. It is studied here as an early Christian document — read it alongside Acts 13–14 and 2 Timothy in the King James Version.
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- The story: Iconium, the window, the pyre, the arena at Antioch, and Seleucia
- The earliest physical description of Paul in any surviving text
- Tertullian's account of the presbyter who confessed to writing it
- How Thecla became one of the most venerated saints of the early East
- What the story shares with Acts — and where it plainly departs
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The story: Iconium, the window, the pyre, the arena at Antioch, and Seleucia
The earliest physical description of Paul in any surviving text
Tertullian's account of the presbyter who confessed to writing it
How Thecla became one of the most venerated saints of the early East
What the story shares with Acts — and where it plainly departs
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What is the Acts of Paul and Thecla?
It is a section of a longer second-century work, the Acts of Paul, that circulated separately and far more widely than the whole. Written around AD 160–180, probably in Asia Minor, it tells of Thecla, a betrothed young woman of Iconium who sits at her window for three days listening to Paul preach in the house of Onesiphorus. She breaks her engagement, is denounced by her own mother, and is condemned to be burned; rain quenches the fire. She follows Paul, is condemned again at Antioch after refusing a nobleman, and is thrown to the beasts, where a lioness defends her. She baptises herself in a pool of seals, survives, is finally released, and goes to teach at Seleucia. The plot is romance in shape and martyrdom in substance, and it was immensely popular.
The description of Paul
One detail has kept the text in every history of early Christianity: it contains the earliest surviving physical description of the apostle. Paul is 'a man of small stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked, full of friendliness; for now he appeared like a man, and now he had the face of an angel.' No canonical text describes Paul's appearance at all. Whether the description preserves genuine memory or is a stock literary portrait is disputed, but every later depiction of Paul in Christian art — short, balding, bearded — traces back through this sentence.
Tertullian and the question of authorship
Around AD 200 Tertullian, arguing against women claiming the right to baptise, wrote that the writing which alleges Thecla's example was composed by a presbyter in Asia who, when convicted, confessed that he had done it 'out of love for Paul,' and was removed from his office. That single passage tells us three things: the book is a known composition of the later second century, its author was a churchman rather than a heretic, and the church's objection was to its use as precedent rather than to its piety. The episode is also one of the clearest ancient examples of the early church actively testing and rejecting a text on grounds of authorship.
Why it is not in the Bible, and what it is still good for
The Acts of Paul and Thecla was never a canonical candidate. It is pseudonymous, late, and known even in antiquity to be a composition rather than a record; its self-baptism scene and its emphasis on continence as the condition of salvation stand at odds with the New Testament's teaching on grace. But its historical importance is real. The cult of Thecla became one of the largest in the Christian East; her shrine at Seleucia drew pilgrims for centuries, and Egeria visited it in the 380s. The text is also primary evidence for the appeal of the gospel to women in the second century, for the social cost of conversion, and for how quickly the apostles became figures of legend. For the actual account of Paul at Iconium, read Acts 13:51–14:7.
Frequently asked questions
Was Thecla a real person?
Unknown. There is no independent first-century evidence for her, but her veneration in the East was early and enormous, and some historians think a genuine local memory lies behind the legend. The narrative as we have it is clearly a literary composition.
Who wrote the Acts of Paul and Thecla?
Tertullian, writing around AD 200, says it was written by a presbyter in Asia who confessed to composing it out of love for Paul and was removed from office for it. His name is not recorded.
What did Paul look like?
The Bible never says. The description of a short, bald, bow-legged man with meeting eyebrows and a hooked nose comes from this second-century text, and it shaped every later portrait of Paul in Christian art.
Did Thecla baptise herself?
In the narrative, yes — she throws herself into a pool of seals in the arena, declaring that in the name of Jesus Christ she baptises herself on her last day. Tertullian cites precisely this scene as the reason the book must not be used as precedent.
Does this text contradict the New Testament?
It departs from it. Its stress on sexual continence as effectively required for salvation goes beyond anything Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7, and its self-baptism has no scriptural warrant.
Where does the Bible mention Iconium?
Acts 13:51–14:7 and 14:19–21 record Paul and Barnabas preaching at Iconium and fleeing to Lystra and Derbe; 2 Timothy 3:11 recalls the persecutions endured there.
Can I print or share this study guide?
Yes. This guide is an original Bible Sundays work, free to print, copy, and share for personal, ministry, or classroom use. No email or sign-up required.
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