WHAT'S IN A NAME? A GNOSTIC THECLA?

I came across this line in The Jesus Mysteries, by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, published this year by Random House. This is the last sentence of the 1st paragraph on page 160: "Another text, called The Acts of Paul, describes Paul travelling with a companion called Thecla -- a woman who conducted babtisms." The authors cite Barstone, W., The Other Bible, HarperCollins, 1984. I found 2 non-botanical "Thec(k)las" on the web that may be of interest: THEKLA (f) "glory of God" from the Greek elements theos meaning "god" and kleos meaning "glory". Saint Thekla was supposedly the first female martyr (1st century). Thecla (St.), styled in Greek martyrologies the proto-martyress, as St. Stephen is the proto-martyr. All that is known of her is from a book called the Periods, or Acts of Paul and Theela, pronounced apocryphal by Pope Gelasius, and unhappily lost. According to the legend, Thecla was born of a noble family in Iconium, and was converted by the preaching of St. Paul. For what its worth, The Jesus Mysteries is the best of the "searching for the historical Jesus" books I've ever come across. The "customer reviews" at the Amazon site below are, to say the the least, spirited, n.p.i. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-7300973-2624959 tom urash

I came across this line in The Jesus Mysteries, by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, published this year by Random House. This is the last sentence of the 1st paragraph on page 160: "Another text, called The Acts of Paul, describes Paul travelling with a companion called Thecla -- a woman who conducted babtisms." The authors cite Barstone, W., The Other Bible, HarperCollins, 1984. I found 2 non-botanical "Thec(k)las" on the web that may be of interest: THEKLA (f) "glory of God" from the Greek elements theos meaning "god" and kleos meaning "glory". Saint Thekla was supposedly the first female martyr (1st century). Thecla (St.), styled in Greek martyrologies the proto-martyress, as St. Stephen is the proto-martyr. All that is known of her is from a book called the Periods, or Acts of Paul and Theela, pronounced apocryphal by Pope Gelasius, and unhappily lost. According to the legend, Thecla was born of a noble family in Iconium, and was converted by the preaching of St. Paul. For what its worth, The Jesus Mysteries is the best of the "searching for the historical Jesus" books I've ever come across. The "customer reviews" at the Amazon site below are, to say the the least, spirited, n.p.i. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-7300973-2624959 tom urash