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MartyrdomMartyrdom and Martyrs in JudaismAccording to the first-century C.E. witness of both Philo (Legat 208 & 215) and Josephus, Jews possessed a remarkable trait unknown among the peoples of other nations in antiquity: a willingness to die for the defense of the honor of their scriptures, laws, and traditions. In the words of Josephus, it is become natural to all Jews immediately, and from their very birth, to esteem [their scriptures as containing] Divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be willingly to die for them. For it is no new thing for our captives, many of them in number, and frequently in time, to be seen to endure racks and deaths of all kinds upon the theatres, that they may not be obliged to say one word against our laws and the records that contain them; whereas there are none at all among the Greeks who would undergo the least harm on that account (C Ap 8; tr. Whiston).
The social and religious value attached to martyrdom among Jews seems to have originated during the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Maccabean Revolt; the earliest stories of Jewish Martyrdom are found in the Maccabean Literature?. Contributors |