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" 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).
Read more about this topic: Acts Of Paul And Thecla
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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