Martyrdom and Noble Death: Selected Texts from Graeco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian Antiquity (review)

This volume is a series of collected texts in translation, each with apposite introductory material. The editors, van Henten, chair in New Testament and Hellenistic Jewish Literature at the University of Amsterdam, and Avemarie, a faculty member at the University of Tübingen, have organized the material under four broad categories: pagan traditions of noble death (eight representative texts), noble death in early Jewish sources (eleven texts), Christian martyrs from the first to the third century C.E. (eight texts), and martyrdom and noble death in the Rabbinic tradition (eleven texts); together these texts range in date from the eighth century B.C.E. to the fifth century C.E. With the exception of the Ethiopic Ascension of Isaiah (for which the editors make use of Charlesworth's and Knibb's Old Testament Pseudepigrapha), all the texts are found in fresh translation by the editors. After a general introduction, there are four chapters corresponding to the four categories under which they have chosen to group their texts.

It is clear that the editors understand Jewish and Christian martyrdom as a species, so to speak, of the older pagan tradition of noble death. While observing the "great differences" between Jewish and Christian martyrdom and pagan traditions of noble death (notably the religious motivation of the former), the editors also suggest "striking correspondences"; hence their decision to collect them in one volume. They also note that the language of martyrdom (understood as the acceptance of death rather than compliance with a demand of [sc. pagan] authority) develops in the wake of the phenomenon of martyrdom. Thus, it is the account of Polycarp's martyrdom (c.155-60 C.E.) which offers the first witness to the Greek term understood in precisely this way; a generation or so later, the Latin equivalent is used similarly in the context of the North African martyrs at Scilli. Within Judaism, Rabbinic literature demonstrates a growing preference from the second and third centuries C.E. for qiddush ha-Shem ("sanctification of the Name") as "the shorthand expression referring to the experiences, acts and statements of Jewish martyrs."

Noble death in the pagan traditions encompasses a broad range of genres beginning with the legendary tale (eighth century B.C.E.) of the Assyrian courtier, Ahiqar (ironically, as in the later tales of Susannah and Daniel, he in fact never meets his doom but is rescued and vindicated). Perhaps the paradigmatic example of noble death from pagan literature is the trial and death of Socrates, which exercised arguably the greatest influence on subsequent traditions (including, one should add, Christian texts). However, the editors identify five other pagan genres which are related to noble death, among them the Latin tradition of devotio (understood as self-sacrifice for the sake of the majority), funeral orations, and trial acta (thelatter two being appropriated almost directly by subsequent Christian authors).

One can easily think of texts which the editors might also have included (as one can for any anthology), but it is surprising that the Passion narratives themselves (particularly the Lukan account)—in which one might identify resonances of the earlier noble death tradition and which certainly function as a model for later Christian martyr stories—are not included among the early Christian material.

This volume certainly fulfills the editors' aim of providing a "sourcebook," with "fuller introductions than most sourcebooks." Moreover, it contains a substantial and up-to-date bibliography comprising nearly fifteen pages and a general index. It is reasonably priced and joins a growing list of significant and accessible titles published by Routledge.