Jesus spoke about those who would accept his words, but would then turn around and accept error

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Jesus spoke about those who would accept his words, but would then turn around

and accept error....

 

Jesus taught that by abiding in the Vine, people would reap the fruit - the

spiritual qualities. It is about the Inner Man transforming the Outer Man. Paul

turned Jesus's spiritual teaching on its head. He stressed an extreme sense of

chastity--to the point of recommending priestly chastity over the sacred

institution of marriage--the Outer Man trying to transform the Inner Man. Paul's

fanaticism was " in error " . Spiritual transformation doesn't work from the

Out-In. It works from the In-Out. In fact, such teaching results in serious

cases of " self-righteousness " whereby a person believes that by following

externally enforced rules and regulations of a church body, they will become

spiritually transformed. But that is not the case. Externally applied rules do

not transform the heart of the person. They do not transform the Inner Life. In

fact, this very teaching of Paul's 'Pauline Christianity' has resulted in the

institutionalised power and sexual abuse of many women and children by so-called

'celibate priests'.

 

Paul had supraconscious abilities and opened these abilities in others. These

abilities are not the fruits of the Spirit. Many of us have not heard of

'Thecla'. Thecla was a woman who was most impressed with Paul's puritanical

teaching about chastity - it being recommended in preference to marriage. She

left her betrothed to follow Paul and his fanatical teachings and ended up

becoming a 'virgin martyr'. 'Virgin martyrs' and 'celibate priests' helped to

further the " cause of the church " : they have no use outside of an organised

religion. Organized churches are only created by the spiritually blind who have

motives other than the Spirit. When people follow the spiritually blind, it

becomes a case of " the blind leading the blind " , which is how Jesus referred to

the scribes and Pharisees. A person, according to the church, must abide by its

'church saints', 'virgin martyrs' and 'celibate priests'. Here is the story of

'Paul and Thecla' to underscore that point:

 

The text

 

It was written in the second century.[2] The discovery of a Coptic text of the

Acts of Paul containing the Thecla narrative[3] suggests that the abrupt opening

of the Acts of Paul and Thecla is due to its being an excerpt of that larger

work.[4] It is attested as early as Tertullian, De bapistero 17:5 (c 190), who

inveighed against its use in the advocacy of a woman's right to preach and to

baptize. Tertullian states that these Acts were written in honour of St Paul, by

a presbyter of Asia, whose fraud was identified, and he was degraded from his

office, at a date about AD 160. Many surviving versions of the Acts of Paul and

Thecla in Greek, and some in Coptic, as well as references to the work among

Church fathers show that it was widely disseminated. In the Eastern Church, the

wide circulation of the Acts of Paul and Thecla in Greek, Syriac and Armenian is

evidence of the veneration of Thecla of Iconium. There are also Latin, Coptic

and Ethiopic versions, sometimes differing widely from the Greek. " In the

Ethiopic, with the omission of Thecla's admitted claim to preach and to baptize,

half the point of the story is lost. " [5]

 

The narrative of the text

 

The author sets this story about Paul into the framework of the Book of Acts,

but this text is ideologically different from the New Testament portrayal of

Paul. The extravagant praise of virginity, however, was a running thread in many

brands of Early Christianity.

 

Here, Paul is described as travelling to Iconium, proclaiming " the word of God

about abstinence and the resurrection " . Paul is given a full physical

description that may reflect oral tradition: in the Syriac text " he was a man of

middling size, and his hair was scanty, and his legs were a little crooked, and

his knees were projecting, and he had large eyes[6] and his eyebrows met, and

his nose was somewhat long, and he was full of grace and mercy; at one time he

seemed like a man, and at another time he seemed like an angel. " Paul gave his

sermons in the house of Onesiphorus in a series of beatitudes, by which Thecla,

a young noble virgin, listened to Paul's " discourse on virginity " from her

window in an adjacent house. She listened, enraptured, without moving for days.

Thecla's mother and fiancé, Thamyris, became concerned that Thecla would follow

Paul's demand " that one must fear only one God and live in chastity " , and they

formed a mob to drag Paul to the governor, who imprisoned the apostle.

 

Thecla bribed a guard to gain entrance to the prison, and sat at Paul's feet all

night listening to his teaching and " kissing his bonds " . When her family found

her, both she and Paul were again brought before the governor. At her mother's

request, Paul was sentenced to scourging and expulsion, and Thecla to be killed

by being burned at the stake, that " all the women who have been taught by this

man may be afraid. " Stripped naked, Thecla was put on the fire, but she was

saved by a miraculous storm which God sent to put out the flames.

 

Reunited, Paul and Thecla then traveled to Pisidian Antioch, where a nobleman

named Alexander desired Thecla and offered Paul money for her. Paul claimed not

to know her, and Alexander then attempted to take Thecla by force. Thecla fought

him off, assaulting him in the process, to the amusement of the townspeople.

Alexander dragged her before the governor for assaulting a nobleman and, despite

the protests of the city's women, Thecla was sentenced to be eaten by wild

beasts. To ensure that her virtue was intact at her death, a Queen Tryphaena,

took her into protective custody overnight.

 

Thecla was tied to a fierce lioness, and paraded through the city. She was then

stripped and thrown to beasts, which were provided by Alexander. The women of

the city again protested against the injustice. Thecla was protected from death,

first by the lioness who fought off the other beasts, and then by a series of

miracles (during which she appeared to baptize herself), until finally the women

of the city and Queen Tryphaena intervened. Thecla returned to Paul unharmed.

 

One ending describes Thecla as dwelling in a cave for the next 72 years, then

traveling to Rome to be buried with Paul.

 

Significance

 

Although probably consciously unhistorical, and certainly overstated, the tale

reflects ascetic tendencies, and the experience of persecution in early

Christianity. However, many have noted that it is also almost erotic, even

mildly pornographic in places. When Goodspeed called it a " religious romance "

[7] it was to the literary genre he referred.

 

A local martyr legend, of Tecla of Iconium, may have inspired this episode, in

which she was connected to Paul of Tarsus. " It is otherwise difficult to account

for the very great popularity of the cult of St. Thecla, which spread over East

and West, and made her the most famous of virgin martyrs, " wrote M.R. James, the

editor of this Acta, (James 1924).

 

Portrayal of Paul

 

Paul is also an ambiguous figure in this work. He is seen as a preacher of

asceticism, but one with whom women are besotted. His teachings lead Thecla into

trouble, and yet he is never there when the trouble comes.

 

This presentation of Paul as ascetic preacher, discouraging marriage, appears to

be very different from that of the (possibly pseudonymous) Pastoral Epistles.

For instance, 1st Timothy 4:1-3 has Paul explicitly condemning anyone who

forbids marriage.

 

However, 1st Corinthians 7 (universally regarded as authentically Pauline),

appears to share more ambivalence about marriage, with the statement " it is well

for a man not to touch a woman " (7:1). This text has been interpreted as

ideologically closer to Paul and Thecla.

 

In any event, Paul and Thecla indicates one possible understanding of Paul's

legacy in the second century.

 

Notes:

 

[1] Edgar Johnson Goodspeed, " The Acts of Paul and Thecla " The Biblical World

17.3 (March 1901, pp. 185-190) p. 185.

 

[2] Tertullian's notice of it gives a terminus ante quem.

 

[3] In a papyrus conserved at Heidelberg (Goodspeed 1901:185).

 

[4] Goodspeed eo. loc.

 

[5] Goodspeed 1901:186 note.

 

[6] The Armenian text adds " blue " according to Goodspeed 1901:186.

 

[7] Edgar Johnson Goodspeed, " The Acts of Paul and Thecla " The Biblical World

17.3 (March 1901, pp. 185-190) p. 185.

 

Bibliography:

 

Eliott, J.K. The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian

Literature in an English Translation 1993 Oxford: Oxford University Press

 

MacDonald, D.R. 1983 The Legend and the Apostle: The Battle for Paul in Story

and Canon Philadelphia: Westminster Press

 

Kirsch, J.P. Sts. Thecla. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV. Published 1912.

New York: Robert Appleton Company.

 

Ehrman, Bart D. Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We

Never Knew 2005. Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195182491.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Paul_and_Thecla

 

 

" Early Christians also were called Gnostics because they knew. It means to know

on your central nervous system, not mentally. That's why as soon as Paul took

over, Christ's disciples ran away, and when Thomas came to India he hid all the

knowledge about reality in a jar in Egypt. This was because he would have been

persecuted by people who were interested in organizing religion, in making money

out of it. As a result of all this nonsense, people said better not talk of

religion. In the name of religion they murder and kill. How can that be a

religious act? Human beings can make a mess of everything. That does not mean

there is no divinity or reality. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Birthday Puja, Delhi, India, 21 March, 1992

 

" In the past, very few people got realization. Raja Janaka gave realization to

only one person, Nachiketa. It was a very slow process. One Guru gave

realization to only one disciple. Then the twelfth century Gynaneshwar requested

his guru to at least allow him to write about it in simple language. In his

book, Gynaneshwari, he wrote about Kundalini in the sixth chapter. But the

people in charge of religion did not allow anyone to read that chapter even

though it was written in the local language. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Birthday Puja, Delhi, India, 21 March, 1992

 

" So in these modern times... I thought that whatever is the discovery for one

person has to be for the masses--that people should know about it. Only one

person knowing on the central nervous system can not be accepted. That's why

they were crucified and poisoned. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Birthday Puja, Delhi, India, 21 March, 1992

 

 

The Revelation of Peter - Part 3

(Some First Follow the True Savior, but Then Turn Away to Worship a Dead Man

(73,23-75,7)

 

(p.492) " At first many will accept our words, but they will turn away again

according to the will of the father of their error, because they have done his

will, and the father of error will disclose them in his judgment as servants of

the word. (p.493) Those who have associated with people of error will become

their prisoners, since they are without perception. But the good person, who is

pure and upright, will be handed over to the dealer in death,[19] in the kingdom

of those who praise a Christ of a future restored world.[20] And they also

praise people who preach this falsehood, people who will come after you.[21]

They will hold on to the name of a dead man,[22] thinking that in this way they

will become pure, but instead they will become more and more defiled. They will

fall into a name of error and into the hand of an evil deceiver with complicated

doctrines, and they will be dominated by heresy.[23]

 

" Some of them will blaspheme the truth and proclaim evil teachings, and they

will speak evil against each other. Some of them will give themselves a name,

for they stand in the power of the rulers: the name of a man and a naked woman

of many forms and many sufferings.[24] And those who say all this will inquire

into dreams, and if they claim that a dream came from a demon, which is

appropriate for their error, they shall be granted perdition instead of

incorruption.

 

The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (The International Edition)

Edited by Marvin Meyer; Advisory Board: Wolf-Peter Funk, Paul-Hubert Poirier,

James M. Robinson; Introduction by Elaine H. Pagels

The Revelation of Peter, p.492-493

HarperCollins Publishers - New York

ISBN:978-0-06-052378-7

ISBN-10: 0-06-052378-6

 

Notes:

 

[19] Or " executioner. "

 

[20] The text reads ('superscript e')nhrai h('superscript e')n ouapokatastasis.

On salvation as the future restoration of all things, cf. 'Acts' 3:21 and the

eschatology of later authors, e.g., Origen. According to the Gnostic teacher

Basilides, all things will be restored at the time of Jesus's return.

 

[21] Church leaders who come after Peter.

 

[22] The crucified Christ. On this critique of Christians who proclaim the

crucified Christ, cf. 'The Second Discourse of Great Seth'.

 

[23] In Coptic, h('superscript e')n oum('superscript e')ntheresis. This may be a

polemical reference to Paul and his teaching, comparable to what is in the

Pseudo-Clementine literature. The teaching of Christ crucified and raised from

the dead, as opposed here, is central to Paul.

 

[24] This may be a reference to Simon Magus and his companion Helena. Simon

apparently called himself the great power of God, and he was described as the

one who stands. Helena was a prostitute in Tyre who was identified by Simon as

the first thought of the divine. She was said to have incarnated and

reincarnated as thought or soul in one human body after another--e.g., Helen of

Troy--and to have suffered through these various incarnations. Desjardins, in

'Nag Hammadi Codex VII', 212, also suggests that the man and naked suffering

woman would be Paul and Thecla.