Tran Dinh Long Student 55-2-0628

MARTYRDOM

            Prewords

We always feel amazing about the stories of the martyrs who are suffer death to be witness of Christ wherever they are; in Rome, India, Egypt, Korea, Japan, Vietnam,…Many people believe that the Church still remain and the faith was spread through the world, a part is from the martyrs. At this study, I want to provide some idea about the Martyrdoms of the Church, especially at 3 first centuries. Personality, I have the Christian name is the name of the Martyr in Vietnam, and then I also have special interested in the martyrs. I think that it’s worthy for all Christian to know about some martyrs, their witness never make us stop amazing about the grace of Christ on them.

1.      Who is Martyr?

            A martyr  is somebody who suffers persecution and death for advocating, refusing to renounce, and/or refusing to advocate a belief or cause, usually a religious one.

               Greek: μάρτυς, mártys, "witness"; stem μάρτυρ-, mártyr-

Common features of stereotypical martyrdoms

1. A hero- A person of some renown who is devoted to a cause believed to be admirable.

2. Opposition - People who oppose that cause.

3. Foreseeable risk- The hero foresees action by opponents to harm him or her, because of his or her commitment to the cause.

4. Courage and Commitment- The hero continues, despite knowing the risk, out of commitment to the cause.

5. Death- The opponents kill the hero because of his or her commitment to the cause.

6.  Audience response- The hero's death is commemorated. People may label the hero explicitly as a martyr. Other people may in turn be inspired to pursue the same cause.

2.    Who is a Christian martyr?

            A Christian martyr is a person who is killed for following Christianity, through stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake or other forms of torture and capital punishment.

3.    How to know if someone has true martyrdoms?

We saw that the Church proclaimed many martyrs, and beside that, there are many people who died and we used the word “martyr” falsely, so how to know if someone is true martyr? I provide some points that I found out here:

-         Real martyrs do not kill themselves

-         Real martyrs suffer harm but never inflict harm

-         Real martyrs do not seek death but accept it when it comes

-         The Christian martyr does not die out of hatred of the enemy, but out of love for Jesus

-         Real martyrs die bearing witness to truth

-         Martyrdom properly involves death, not just suffering, however intense

-         Some people are victims but not martyrs, Some people are heroes but not martyrs. For example, police die on his duty can't be seen as martyr.

4.     Who is the first martyr in the Church?

There are many people who die for God in the bible, but who can look as martyr in the time after Christ, who is greatest of the martyr, is Saint Stephen, the first martyr was recommended in the Church. One of the first seven deacons of the Christian Church, Saint Stephen is also the first Christian to be martyred for the Faith. The story of Saint Stephen's ordination as a deacon is found in the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, which also recounts the plot against Stephen and the beginning of the trial that resulted in his martyrdom; the seventh chapter of Acts recounts Stephen's speech before the Sanhedrin and his martyrdom.

5.    Summary of Martyrdoms in 3 first century

             We also call this period is the heroic age of the church which is full of story of people who die to be the testimony for their faiths. Starting from the stoning of Saint Stephen, and long last to 313, at the time of Constantines, point of changing the Church into an empire, when Christianity become the religion of the Roman empire in 380.

Christianity suffers totally 10 primarily persecution include:

            1. Nero, A.D. 67

            2.  Domitian, A.D. 81

            3. Trajan, A.D. 108

            4. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, A.D. 162

            5. Commencing with Severus, A.D. 192

            6. Maximus, A.D. 235

            7.  Decius, A.D. 249

            8. Valerian, A.D. 257

            9. Aurelian, A.D. 274

            10. Diocletian, A.D. 303

There's no exactly the numbers of the Martyrs in this period, but many people believe that the Church can past this period of persecution from the protecting of the martyr. There's many story of martyrs was retold, that we can found amazing, or surprise when reading them. They are truly a soldier of God and worthy to be praise. One of the most well known at the time is the Colosseum, where many martyrs bleed out there at this time, to become the food of animals.

6.    The story of the twelve, what happen to the Apostles?

We, Christian, should feel interested in the Apostles, those who are foundation of the Church. Even though we don’t know exactly the works of them after the time in Jerusalem, but by the tradition of the Church, we can find some idea about their life. This is the words of Michael Patton, who is interested in the death of the Apostles an try to collect the story of them, It’s hard to know that if the story is true or not, because we can know all of them through the tradition. The situation is everyone want their hometown is the last place that one Apostle spend their life and suffer martyr there. However, Michael Patton used the grade of probability from A (highest probability) to D (lowest probability) to help us to understand how much the story worthy to believe in. Overall, it’s worth to know about the stories of martyrdom of the Apostles, who are close disciples of Christ, all of them died for one trust, that is the Easter, the Paschal Mystery of Christ. They do the something that their great teacher did, die for the truth.

1.      The Apostle James

James, the Apostle of the Lord, was the second recorded martyr after Christ’s death (Stephen was the first). His death is recorded in Acts 12:2 where it is told that Herod Agrippa killed him with a sword. Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History II.2) both tell how the executioner witnessed the courage and un-recanting spirit of James and was then convinced of Christ resurrection and was executed along with James.

Year of Martyrdom: 44-45 A.D.

Probability rating: A for the death of James, C- for the death of the executioner

2.      The Apostle Peter

Although, just before the crucifixion, Peter denied three times that he even knew Christ, after the resurrection he did not do so again. Peter, just as Jesus told him in John 21:18-19, was crucified by Roman executioners because he could not deny his master again. According to Eusebius, he thought himself unworthy to be crucified as his Master, and, therefore, he asked to be crucified “head downward.”

Year of Martyrdom: ca. 64 A.D.

Probability rating: A

3.     The Apostle Andrew

Andrew, who introduced his brother Peter to Christ, went to join Peter with Christ in eternity six years after Peter’s death. After preaching Christ’s resurrection to the Scythians and Thracians, he too was crucified for his faith. As Hippolytus tells us, Andrew was hanged on an olive tree at Patrae, a town in Achaia.

Year of Martyrdom: 70 A.D.

Probability rating: B

4.      The Apostle Thomas

Thomas is known as “doubting Thomas” because of his reluctance to believe the other Apostles’ witness of the resurrection. After they told him that Christ was alive, he stated “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). After this, Christ did appear to him and Thomas believed unto death. Thomas sealed his testimony as he was thrust through with pine spears, tormented with red-hot plates, and burned alive.

Year of Martyrdom: 70 A.D.

Probability rating: B concerning his martyrdom, D concerning the exact method of execution.

5.      The Apostle Philip

Philip was corrected by Christ when he asked Christ to “show us the Father, then this will be enough for us” (John 14:8). Christ responded, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father ‘?” (John 14:9). Philip later saw the glory of Christ after the resurrection and undoubtedly reflected with amazement on Christ’s response to his request. Philip evangelized in Phrygia where hostile Jews had him tortured and then crucified.

Date of Martyrdom: 54 A.D.

Probability rating: C

6.     The Apostle Matthew

Matthew, the tax collector, so desperately wanted the Jews to accept Christ. He wrote The Gospel According to Matthew about ten years before his death. Because of this, one can see, contained within his Gospel, the faith for which he spilled his blood. Matthew surely remembered his resurrected Savior’s words, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20), when he professed the resurrected Christ unto his death by beheading at Nad-Davar.

Year of Martyrdom: 60-70 A.D.

Probability rating: B

7.      The Apostle Nathanael (Bartholomew)

Nathanael, whose name means “gift of God” was truly given as a gift to the Church through his martyrdom. Nathanael was the first to profess, early in Christ’s ministry, that Christ was the Son of God (John 1:49). He later paid for this profession through a hideous death. Unwilling to recant of his proclamation of a risen Christ, he was flayed and then crucified.

Year of Martyrdom: 70 A.D.

Probability rating: C

8.     The Apostle James the Lesser

James was appointed to be the head of the Jerusalem church for many years after Christ’s death. In this, he undoubtedly came in contact with many hostile Jews (the same ones who killed Christ and stated “His [Christ's] blood be on us and our children” (Matt. 27:25). In order to make James deny Christ’s resurrection, these men positioned him at the top of the Temple for all to see and hear. James, unwilling to deny what he knew to be true, was cast down from the Temple and finally beaten to death with a fuller’s club to the head.

Year of Martyrdom: 63 A.D.

Probability rating: B that he was cast down from the temple, D that he was being beaten to death with fuller’s club after the fall

9.      The Apostle Simon the Zealot

Simon was a Jewish zealot who strived to set his people free from Roman oppression. After he saw with his own eyes that Christ had been resurrected, he became a zealot of the Gospel. Historians tell of the many different places that Simon proclaimed the good news of Christ’s resurrection: Egypt, Cyrene, Africa, Mauritania, Britain, Lybia, and Persia. His rest finally came when he verified his testimony and went to be with Christ, being crucified by a governor in Syria.

Year of Martyrdom: 74 A.D.

Probability rating: B

10. The Apostle Judas Thaddeus

Judas questioned the Lord: “Judas said to him (not Iscariot), Lord, how is it that you will show yourself to us, and not unto the world?” (John 14:22). After he witnessed Christ’s resurrection, Judas then knew the answer to his question. Preaching the risen Christ to those in Mesopotamia in the midst of pagan priests, Judas was beaten to death with sticks, showing to the world that Christ was indeed Lord and God.

Year of Martyrdom: 72 A.D.

Probability rating: C

11. The Apostle Matthias

Matthias replaced Judas Iscariot (the betrayer of Christ who hanged himself) as the twelfth Apostle of Christ (Acts 1:26). It is believed by most that Matthias was one of the seventy that Christ sent out during his earthly ministry (Luke 10:1). This qualifies him to be an apostle. Matthias, of which the least is known, is said by Eusebius to have preached in Ethiopia. He was later stoned while hanging upon a cross.

Year of Martyrdom: 70 A.D.

Probability rating: D

12. The Apostle John

John is the only one of the twelve Apostles to have died a natural death. Although he did not die a martyr’s death, he did live a martyr’s life. He was exiled to the Island of Patmos under the Emperor Domitian for his proclamation of the risen Christ. It was there that he wrote the last book in the Bible, Revelation. Some traditions tell us that he was thrown into boiling oil before the Latin Gate, where he was not killed but undoubtedly scarred for the rest of his life.

Year of Martyrdom: 95 A.D.

Probability rating: A that he was not martyred, C that he was thrown into boiling oil

13.The martyrdom of Saint Paul

Because many people look Paul as the apostle of foreigner, so I recommend Paul here, for he also the one who suffer martyrdom. Paul, himself a persecutor of the Christian faith (Galatians 1:13), was brought to repentance on his way to Damascus by an appearance of the risen Christ. Ironically, Paul was heading for Damascus to arrest those who held to Christ’s resurrection. Paul was the greatest skeptic there was until he saw the truth of the resurrection. He then devoted his life to the proclamation of the living Christ. Writing to the Corinthians, defending his ministry, Paul tells of his sufferings for the name of Christ: “In labors more abundant, in beatings above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once was I stoned, three times I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeys often, in storms on the water, in danger of robbers, in danger by mine own countrymen, in danger by the heathen, in danger in the city, in danger in the wilderness, in the sea, among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness “(2 Cor. 11:23-27). Finally, Paul met his death at the hands of the Roman Emperor Nero when he was beheaded in Rome.

Year of Martyrdom: ca. 67 A.D.

Probability rating: A

From: http://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/index.htm

            http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/missions/miss7.htm

            http://www.jaysromanhistory.com/romeweb/christns/perpetua.htm

            http://www.biblebelievers.com/foxes/fox102.htm

            http://www.wikipedia.com

            http://www.reclaimingthemind.com

            http://www.about-jesus.org