Violence and representations of violence abound in the literature of ancient and late antique Judaism and Christianity.
From the dystopic landscapes of an apocalyptic catastrophe to the images of wrathful judgement in the afterlife, pain, suffering, torture and destruction are features of both the present and the hereafter and a reality that demanded theological reflection.
Of the many forms of violence narrated by ancient authors, none looms as large in the popular consciousness as the willingness of Christians and Jews to endure martyrdom. Arthur Darby Nock notoriously described Christianity as a suicide cult, and the ancient Christian writer Tertullian (Apol. 50) famously remarked that the blood of the martyrs is ‘seed' for the growth and expansion of the church.1 Both Christians and Jews were known among their pagan contemporaries for their willingness to die for their religious beliefs, even if in some cases they were mocked for their enthusiasm for death.[1100] [1101] In situations of persecution, political oppression, military encroachment or arrest, both Christians and Jews preferred to die rather than compromise their religious beliefs.The emergence of martyrdom among Jews and Christians in the ancient world cannot be understood without recourse to broader understandings of the importance of noble death in antiquity. Histories of martyrdom often begin at the point at which the Greek term martys began to be used to refer to a person who died on account of their religious beliefs.[1102] But even before the language began to crystallise around the concept of a special death, ancient Greeks, Romans and Jews valued the special deaths of those who sacrificed themselves for king, country, city or God. The idea of dying well permeates much of the ancient literature. Ancient philosophers, poets and historians ruminate on the qualities that render a particular death good.
The pages of recorded Greek history are marked with the idea that a good death brings forth glory, fame and immortality. The Homeric heroes of the Trojan War fight for glory and everlasting fame. As he slaughters them, Achilles schools the Trojan princes, and the captivated Homeric audience, that to die well they must not ‘be piteous about it'; they must stand courageously greeting the death that awaits every person (Il. 21.122-3). The same notion that death confers honour is articulated by Pericles, whose funeral oration commends death on the basis that by ‘offering of their lives... they each of them individually received that renown which never grows old' (Thuc. 2.43).The deaths of famed philosophers such as Zeno, Anaxarchus and, most notably, Socrates, further cemented the idea that a good death was a death embraced for country, city, society or principle.[1103] Scholarly arguments that have sought the origins of martyrdom within the Judeo-Christian tradition have ignored the extent to which noble death was highly regarded in the ancient world. Jews and Christians were not alone in prizing the purposeful death of their heroes, but they did come to interpret their own identities as inextricably linked to their willingness to suffer and die.
More on the topic Violence and representations of violence abound in the literature of ancient and late antique Judaism and Christianity.:
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- Biblical Representations of Violence
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- PART VI REPRESENTATIONS AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF VIOLENCE
- Representations of Violence in Imperial China
- Representations of violence have become visual commonplaces, bringing distant conflicts and faraway wounds close.[1035]