Women were the “unsung heroes” of early Christianity. They played a central role in early Christian mission, yet the New Testament texts say little about them and almost never give women speaking lines. Apocryphal (non-canonical) texts from this same early period tell a somewhat different story, with central women characters who speak and act in ways we often think apply only to male disciples of Jesus. This lecture focuses on one of these apocryphal texts, the Acts of Paul and Thecla (also known as the Acts of the Holy Proto-Martyr Thecla or simply Acts of Thecla), to illustrate an alternate perspective on women’s contribution to the shape and spread of the early Christian movement. The women’s “uppity” behavior challenged the society of their own times—and perhaps still challenges ours as well.