Jacob A. Lollar provides a complete text and reception analysis of the earliest extant copies of the Acts of Thekla, disciple of the apostle Paul and the most famous female saint in Christian history. He offers new insights into the earliest attestations of her story from West Asia to North Africa.
Syriac manuscripts preserve the earliest extant complete copies of the
Acts of Thekla . However, since the publication of four copies in 1871, the Syriac version has been largely neglected in favour of the Coptic fragments and Greek manuscripts. Jacob A. Lollar presents the first full monograph devoted to the Syriac text of the
Acts of Thekla and its reception. Employing the methods of material philology, he offers an innovative assessment of the reception of Thekla's story and her cult in Syriac traditions by closely examining the materials (manuscripts, iconography, liturgy) in which they are embodied. Much like the text, the reception of Thekla in Syriac-speaking traditions has long been overlooked. In this volume, the author examines all known instances of the reception of the
Acts of Thekla and the cult of St. Thekla in the Syriac tradition, covering the 6th to the 2oth century.
Table of contents:
Table of Contents:
I. Chapter One: The Acts of Thekla
a. Thekla in Syriac
b. Methods and Approach
II. Chapter Two: The Manuscripts
a. The West Syriac (Miaphysite) Manuscripts
b. A Melkite Manuscript(?)
c. The East Syriac Manuscripts
III. Chapter Three: Thekla in Syriac
a. Translation aspects
IV. Chapter Four: The West Syriac (Miaphysite) Tradition of Acts of Thekla
V. Chapter Five: The West Syriac (Melkite) Tradition of Acts of Thekla
VI. Chapter Six: The East Syriac (Catholic) Tradition of Acts of Thekla
VII. Chapter Seven: The Reception
of Acts of Thekla and the Cult of St. Thekla in the Syriac-Speaking Milieu
a. Thekla in Syriac sources (Hagiography and Homilies)
b. Thekla in Syriac Art and Iconography
VIII. Appendix A: The West Syriac Manuscripts
IX. Appendix B: The East Syriac Manuscripts
X. Appendix C: Proper Names in the Syriac Acts of Thekla
