Loading...In some respects, the most interesting of Ignatius’s writings is the letter to the Romans, where he deals explicitly with his upcoming martyrdom. We might expect that Ignatius would want to find some way to avoid having to pay the ultimate price for his faith, if he could do so without compromising his convictions. Ignatius, however, goes to his death eagerly, longingly. He writes to the Romans to urge them not to interfere, for he believes that only by suffering a glorious and bloody martyrdom will he become a true disciple of Christ, only by imitating Christ’s own Passion will he be able to “get to God.”
Most of the surviving Christian writings from antiquity take a positive view of Christian martyrdom, urging Christians
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Professor Ehrman, this is why I a believer so respect your work. You make clear your conclusions but you also put yourself in Ignatius’ mind to fairly represent his reality. Thank you.
Dr Ehrman. Thank you. I am a bit confused about the Gnostics’ attitude to martyrdom (in the sidenote above). I would have thought that they would welcome death, as an escape from this Earthly prison, so would not discourage martyrdom on those grounds. Furthermore, they didn’t believe that Jesus had actually died, I thought. Rather he brought salvation through knowledge. Or was this what Tertullian thought they thought?
Gnostics did think knowledge is what would bring salvation, and that Christ could not be killed but the man Jesus could be. But Gnostis did not all have the same views about many, many things. Proto-orthodox church fathers accused them of being unwilling to be martyred, but modern scholarship (e.g., a PhD dissertation by my student Pamela Reaves) shows that there were not clear-cult lines: proto-orthodox folk promoted martyrdom; Gnostics refused to be martyred. There were various views of martyrdom from all sides.
Ignatius writing on his way to Rome “Come fire, cross, battling with wild beasts, wrenching of bones . . . only let me get to Jesus Christ” makes me wonder, was Jesus on his way to Jerusalem thinking “Come cross, only let me get to Abba Father”. Of course we can never know what anyone was thinking 2000 years ago, when he didn’t say so to anybody, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it just might be possible that the historical Jesus had a mindset similar to that of Ignatius.
Could you direct me to your specific lecture where you explain the Isaiah prophecy. Specifically where you explain that this specific “word” used is in past tense, and the suffering servant is referring to the nation of Israel and the word that describes a young woman rather than a virgin. I want to better understand this entire topic/prophecy.
I’m afraid I don’t recall if I’ve ever given a lecture on that.
How many documented Christian martyrs do we know of? Do we have any consensus of how widespread martyrdom was in early Christianity beyond the documented cases?
It’s debated; but no, we don’t have an ancient statistics, just generalizatoins, and often exagerrated. You may be interesgted in looking at Candida Moss’s book, The Myth of Christian Martyrdo.
Thanks for emphasizing the likely sincere and sane convictions of Ignatius that led him to willingly face death. Belief is a very a powerful emotion! But sincerity of belief doesn’t correlate to the truth or falsity of any religion or ideology (despite ancient or modern claims to the contrary of apologists for those religions/ideologies).
Tis the season for gathering with sanctimonious fundamentalist relatives whether I want to or not.
What significant 2 New Testament contradictions should I bring up this year with these folks?
If they don’t want to hear about them, I’d say … none! My sense is that peole accept contradictions only when not in confrontational situations; at times of confrontation, they just double down….
Regarding martyrdom, it seems to me that the gospel of Mark may underlie the mandate to martyrdom. As you know, in the gospel of Mark, those who aren’t willing to endure persecution to the end cannot be saved or they will lose their salvation. Mark chapter 4:1-20 and all of chapter 13 come to mind. In Mark 4:17 and 13:13 Jesus says only those who endure persecution to the end shall be saved. This is contrary to Paul’s conditions for salvation; as far as I know, Paul never says willingness to martyrdom is a requirement for salvation. Bart, what do you think underlies the martyrdom mandate?
The Jewish tradition that it was pleasing to God to stand firm in the faith even unto death (see 1 and 2 Maccabees for example), especially if the only alternative was to apostacize.