gegeben_, Leipzig,
1894), have confirmed what had been previously only a hypothesis that
the Acts of Thecla had formed a part of the larger Acts of Paul. The
Acts therefore embrace now the following elements:-(a) Two quotations
given by Origen in his _Princip._ i. 2. 3 and his comment on John xx.
12. From the latter it follows that in the Acts of Paul the death of
Peter was recounted, (b) _Apocryphal 3rd Epistle of Paul to the
Corinthians_ and _Epistle from the Corinthians to Paul_. These two
letters are connected by a short account which is intended to give the
historical situation. Paul is in prison on account of Stratonice, the
wife of Apollophanes. The Greek and Latin versions of these letters have
for the most part disappeared, but they have been preserved in Syriac,
and through Syriac they obtained for the time being a place in the
Armenian Bible immediately after 2 Corinthians. Aphraates cites two
passages from 3 Corinthians as words of the apostle, and Ephraem
expounded them in his commentary on the Pauline Epistles. They must
therefore have been regarded as canonical in the first half of the 4th
century. From the Syriac Bible they made their way into the Armenian and
maintained their place without opposition to the 7th century. On the
Latin text see Carriere and Berger, _Correspondance apocr. de S.P. et
des Corinthiens_, 1891. For a translation of Ephraem's commentary see
Zahn ii. 592-611 and Vetter, _Der Apocr. 3. Korinthien_, 70 sqq., 1894.
The Coptic version (C. Schmidt, _Acta Pauli_, pp. 74-82), which is here
imperfect, is clearly from a Greek original, while the Latin and
Armenian are from the Syriac. (c) _The Acts of Paul and Thecla_. These
were written, according to Tertullian (_De Baptismo_, 17) by a presbyter
of Asia, who was deposed from his office on account of his forgery.
This, the earliest of Christian romances (probably before A.D. 150),
recounts the adventures and sufferings of a virgin, Thecla of Iconium.
Lipsius discovers Gnostic traits in the story, but these are denied by
Zahn (_Gesch. Kanons_, ii. 902). See Lipsius, _op. cit._ ii. 424-467;
Zahn (_op. cit._ ii. 892-910). The best text is that of Lipsius, _Acta
Apostol. Apocr._, 1891, i. 235-272. There are Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic
and Slavonic versions. As we have seen above, these Acts are now
recognized as belonging originally to the Acts of Paul. They were,
however, published separately long before the Gelasian Decree (496).
Jerome also was