MARTYRDOM AND NOBLE DEATH Today’s society is uncomfortable with death, and willingly submitting to a violent and ostentatious death in public is seen as particularly shocking and unusual. Yet classical sources give a different view, with public self-sacrifice often being applauded – the Romans admired a heroic end in the battlefield or the arena, suicide in the tradition of Socrates was something laudable, and Christians and Jews alike faith- fully commemorated their heroes who died during religious persecutions. Martyrdom and Noble Deathexplores the fascinating phenomenon of noble death through pagan, Jewish and Christian sources. The authors look at Jewish and Christian articulations of noble death as martyr- dom, asking how we construct the figure of a martyr, and what makes a passage a ‘martyr text’. The book combines accessible introductions with a wide range of relevant translated texts, dating from the eighth century BCEto the rabbinic period (up to the fifth century CE). The cross-cultural approach and wide chronological range of this study make it valuable for students and scholars of ancient history, religion and literature. Jan Willem van Henten holds the chair in New Testament and Hellenistic Jewish literature at the University of Amsterdam. He is director of the Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion (NOSTER). His publications include Studies in Early Jewish Epigraphy (edited with P.W. van der Horst, 1994) and The Maccabean Martyrs as Saviours of the Jewish People (1997). Friedrich Avemarie is a research and teaching assistant at the Institut für antikes Judentum und hellenistische Religionsgeschichte, Evangelisch-theologische Fakultät, University of Tübingen. His most recent publication is Die Taufberichte der Apostelgeschichte: Theologie und Geschichte (1999, 2001). MARTYRDOM AND NOBLE DEATH Selected texts from Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Christian Antiquity Jan Willem van Henten and Friedrich Avemarie London and New York First published 2002 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2002 Jan Willem van Henten and Friedrich Avemarie All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Henten, J. W. van Martyrdom and noble death: selected texts from Graeco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian antiquity / Jan Willem van Henten & Friedrich Avemarie. p. cm.– (The context of early Christianity) Includes bibliographical references and index. (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Martyrdom– Comparative studies. 2. Death – Religious aspects – Comparative studies. I. Avemarie, Friedrich. II. Title. III. Series. BL626.5 .H44 2002 306.9 – dc21 2001045715 ISBN 0-203-99440-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0 415 13890 6 (hbk) ISBN 0 415 13891 4 (pbk) FOR DANNY, DAVID AND HERMANN CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgements xi List of abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 1 Pagan traditions of noble death 9 General Introduction 9 1 Fragment of the Story of Ahiqar (col. II 22–31), eighth–seventh century BCE 24 2 Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers 9.26–8 (Zeno) 25 3 Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers 9.58–9 (Anaxarchus) 27 4 Plato, Apology28a–30b (Socrates) 28 5 Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis1368–401 31 6 Demosthenes, Funeral Oration(Or. 60) 1–2, 23–7 33 7 Livy 8.9.1–14 36 8 The Acts of Appianus as given in P. Oxy. 33 38 2 Noble death in early Jewish sources 42 General Introduction 42 1 Daniel 3 in the Hebrew Bible/the Old Testament 51 2 Daniel 6 in the Hebrew Bible/the Old Testament 55 3 Prayer of Azariah = Dan. 3:24–45 in the Septuagint version 59 4 1 Maccabees 6:43–6 62 5 2 Maccabees 6:18–31 64 6 2 Maccabees 7:1–42 66 vii CONTENTS 7 2 Maccabees 14:37–46 70 8 4 Maccabees 5 72 9 Philo, Every Good Person is Free(Quod omnis probus liber sit) 88–91 76 10 Assumptio Mosis9:1–10:10 79 11 Josephus, Jewish War7.389–406 83 3 Christian martyrs from the first to the third century CE 88 General Introduction 88 1 1 Clement5–6 104 2 Ignatius, Letter to the Romans1.1–7.3 107 3 Ascension of Isaiah5 111 4 Martyrdom of Polycarp14–15 114 5 Acts of Justin 116 6 Martyrdom of Lyon and Vienne(Martyrium Lugdunensium, Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.1.36–47) 120 7 Perpetua’s Passion6 and 10 125 8 Writing to Diognetus1.1; 5.11–17; 6.7–10; 7.7–9 129 4 Martyrdom and noble death in the rabbinic tradition 132 General Introduction 132 1 Genesis Rabbah65.22: Yose ben Yo’ezer and Yaqim of Tserorot 142 2 Sifra Emor, pereq9.5: Pappus and Lulianus 144 3 Lamentations Rabbah1.16: Miriam bat Tanhum and her seven sons 145 4 Talmud Yerushalmi, Berakhot9.7: R. Aqiva 151 5 Talmud Bavli, Berakhot61b: R. Aqiva 153 6 Sifre Deuteronomy307: R. Hanina ben Teradion 157 7 Talmud Bavli, Avodah Zarah17b–18a: R. Hanina ben Teradion 159 8 Mekhilta Mishpatim18: R. Shim’on and R. Yishma’el 166 9 Targum Neofiti, Gen. 22:1–19: The Binding of Isaac 168 10 Talmud Yerushalmi, Ta’anit2.4: The Binding of Isaac 171 11 Pseudo-Philo, Biblical Antiquities32.1–4: The Binding of Isaac 173 Bibliography 177 Index 192 viii PREFACE This book primarily aims at offering undergraduate students in vari- ous disciplines (Religion, Classics, Jewish Studies, etc.) a survey of ancient sources about those kinds of noble death that can be called martyrdom or are rather similar to martyrdom. It is designed as a sourcebook, but has fuller introductions to the texts than most source- books. The Introduction discusses the phenomenon of noble death as rep- resented by pagan, Christian and Jewish sources and the Jewish and Christian articulation of noble death as martyrdom. Each of the fol- lowing four chapters is devoted to one body of literature: Chapter 1 to pagan forms of noble death dating from the eighth century BCEto the third century CE; Chapter 2 to Jewish passages from the Second Temple period; Chapter 3 to the earliest Christian documents of mar- tyrdom up to the Constantine era; and Chapter 4 contains introductions and translations of the most important early rabbinic stories about martyrdom. Thus, the reader is offered a representative survey of passages about noble death in a wide range of socio-cultural ancient contexts: Graeco-Roman, early Jewish and Christian, as well as rabbinic-Jewish. The broad horizon of the book enables the reader to make cross-cultural comparisons. The general introductions to Chapters 1–4 offer accessible syntheses of the relevant textual mater- ial, which have not been available for the pagan and rabbinic documents. Readers who intend to use this book just as a sourcebook can easily skip these introductions, as all information strictly necessary for understanding the texts is given in the introductions to the indi- vidual passages and the notes to the translations. The translations of the selected passages are our own except in the case of the Ascension of Isaiah.We warmly thank Professors Michael A. Knibb (London) and James H. Charlesworth (Princeton) for allowing us to use the trans- lation of Asc. Is.from The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. ix