A critical introduction and commentary on the Acts of Paul and Thecla

Abstract

This dissertation offers the reader, for the first time in any language, an up-to-date and critical introduction and commentary to the second century early Christian text entitled the Acts of Paul and Thecla. The introduction offers an overview of several of the key discussions concerning the text. In particular, the relationship of the ancient Christian novel to the broader ancient novel is explored, specifically considering the text of the Acts of Paul and Thecla as an ancient novel. In addition, other issues such as date, authorship, the Acts of Paul and the New Testament, and other such issues are considered in the Introduction. This is followed by the critical commentary that provides an English translation based off of the earliest Greek, Coptic, and Latin manuscripts of the Acts of Paul and Thecla.