Antiochus IV and the Origin of Jewish Martyrdom Literature

Authors

Allen Kendall, Brigham Young University
Stephen Bay, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Antiochus IV, Jewish martyrdom, literature

College

Humanities

Department

Comparative Arts and Letters

Abstract

The study of ancient martyrdom literature has typically revolved around early Christian literature. Many scholars view the concept of martyrdom as a Christian construct, which borrowed only minimally from earlier literary traditions.¹This assumption exists largely because Christian writers first used the term “martyr”—originally a Greek legal term referring to a witness in court—to refer to someone who died for their witness of Jesus Christ.²When reading Jewish literature, however, it becomes evident that although no term for martyrdom yet existed, the ideologies of martyrdom were nevertheless prevalent in Jewish thought. The aim of this project was 1) to establish the existence of martyrdom in Jewish literature before the advent of the Christian tradition, and 2) to assess the historical forces that may have sparked the genre.

Recommended Citation

Kendall, Allen and Bay, Stephen (2018) "Antiochus IV and the Origin of Jewish Martyrdom Literature," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2018: Iss. 1, Article 111.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2018/iss1/111