Acts of Paul, one of the earliest of a series of pseudepigraphal (noncanonical) New Testament writings known collectively as theApocryphalActs. Probably written aboutad 160–180, theActs of Paul is an account of theApostle Paul’s travels and teachings. It includes, among others, an episode reminiscent of the Greek fable of Androcles and the lion, in which Paul escapes from the wild beasts in the arena atEphesus by recognizing a lion he had baptized earlier.

TheActs of Paul was first mentioned byTertullian (ad 160–230), who found the book heretical because it encouraged women to preach and baptize. Tertullian related that the book had been written by a presbyter of a church in Asia who claimed to have written “out of love of Paul,” and who was expelled from his church office. Despite the seemingly anti-Pauline endorsement of female ministry, the author did conform to doctrinal orthodoxy regarding continence and the Resurrection by establishing a close relationship between sexual purity and salvation. The author opposed themoral laxity of heretical Gnostic sects and attacked their denial of Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection.

Little was known of the actual contents of theActs of Paul until the publication in 1904 of a 6th-century Coptic manuscript indicating that the complete apocryphoncomprised three different texts: theActs of Paul and Thecla; a letter from the Corinthians to Paul and his reply, commonly styledIII Corinthians; and theMartyrdom of Paul. Each of these had previously been discovered as a separate writing in a number of manuscripts and in a variety of publications. The subsequent publication in 1936 of a substantial Greek fragmentcorroborated the theory that these texts share a common authorship and originallyconstituted a single work, theActs of Paul.