Do you know the first account of a Christian martyr — the actual narrative of his trial and executio — from outside the New Testament? It’s one of the Apostolic Fathers, and for many readers one of the most intriguing: The Martyrdom of Polycarp. Here is a nutshell summary of the work, an edited version of my Introduction to the translation I made for my collection, The Apostolic Fathers (Harvard University Press)
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The Martyrdom of Polycarp has long occupied a place of special intrigue for readers of the Apostolic Fathers. This is an account, evidently based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, of the trial and execution of

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