The posts are running about a day behind, but I thought I’d offer up a little tidbit from a recent sermon. Legend has it that Paul was an unattractive man. Paul himself, quoting his detractors says in 2 Corinthians 10:10, “For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”

In the second century (about 170 CE) an extra-canonical piece of Christian writing, The Acts of Paul and Thecla, became popular. It told the stories of missionary journeys of Paul with a female disciple Thecla. The text describes Paul this way:

A man small in size, with a bald head and crooked legs; in good health; with eyebrows that met and a rather prominent or hooked nose.

He was, it seems, no George Clooney.

Now the text goes on to say, Paul was

…full of grace, for sometimes he looked like a man and sometimes he looked like an angel.

But the damage had already been done. It’s hard to imagine an angel as short, with one solid eyebrow across the forehead, an oversized nose and a bald head. Not a pretty picture.