Video Transcript: The Mystique of Martyrdom and the Pursuit of the Holy

In this segment, we're going to talk about martyrdom. Because it was a very, very important  element in the development of Christian understanding. And it does not relate directly to what we've just been talking about in previous segments. But it has to fit in here somewhere and,  and it will also affect what we're doing afterwards. So I call it the mystique of martyrdom and  the pursuit of the holy. First of all, we're dealing here with both history and myth. And what I  mean by that is, that were there actually Christian martyrs who were killed were publicly  executed for their faith, very definitely. By the time the stories are passed down generation  after generation, there is a great deal of mythmaking, that also happens. And if you were to  spend much time reading many of these accounts, especially the later ones, the ones from  the fourth century, you find a great deal of legendary material in them as well. I tend to think  that the earlier ones have less of that, that there's there's more direct, historical narrative,  and yet at the same time, they're very definitely reworked in terms of the understanding of  what a martyr is, and maybe I'll just say something for a moment about why were Christians  persecuted? Well, first of all, they weren't the only small religious group that was persecuted,  there were others as well, when it seems when civic authorities got suspicious of them, or  when their neighbors got suspicious of them. And in some cases, it's it's sort of a pogrom, you know, it's, uh, let's root this out as quickly as we can. And of course, that never worked. There is no official persecution of Christians throughout the empire until about 249 to 251. CE and  the persecution of Decius and Valerius. And at that time, it took Christians were not targeted.  What were targeted were people who were unwilling to do the public sacrifice to the Emperor.  Now, this is like saluting the flag, you know, or saying the pledge of allegiance or something  that demonstrates your civic loyalty. And Christians, of course, we're not willing to do that.  Neither were Jews. But Jews had a special exception that they have all the way back to Julius  Caesar, that they were understood to be different, and they weren't subject to this didn't have to do it. And this raised the whole question about the relationship of Christians to Judaism, of  course, because if they could claim to be Jews, they were exempt. But if they couldn't claim to be Jews, and they were not exempt, and we could go into a whole thing about that, that  persecution, which is very interesting. But anyway, they, there was that and then, of course,  the the, what's called the Great Persecution, Persecution of Diocletian, from 303 to 311. And  that's early fourth century. And by that time, it's too little too late. Christians have spread into  the upper classes. And that's why suddenly there's this desire to root them out. Why?  Because they were seen, I think, as unpatriotic because they did not worship the gods, the  official gods of the Empire, and that was disloyalty to the empire. But there were times here  and there in different places and different times, when there were attempts to eliminate  them. And but they were they were local. The first one that we know about, of course, this is  under Nero. There was a brief persecution in Rome. In the 60s, early 60s, and that one, it was  a one time thing, but it it left a scar in the memory of Christians. And there were times after  that, where as I said, there were were there were local outbreaks. So the whole thing you can  imagine when you're part of a new religious group, and you're going along and you're  everything is just wonderful, and then suddenly If things start to almost fall apart, when,  when the members are threatened with death, in the Great Persecution early fourth century,  the first thing was confiscation of property. And it moved from one thing to another, then they go after the leaders, and then they go after anybody who says that they're Christian. So, so it  was a whole escalation. And, and that one is well documented by people like church historian  Eusebius. Now, first of all, the word martyr martyr is a is a Greek word, and it simply means  witness. So anytime you say, I'm a witness of this thing, do we have a witness, the word can  be martyr. It acquires this specific sense of a witness to Christ, over a period of time, and the  first time in the New Testament that it's used in possibly this context, is in Revelation 2:13. In  which the it's the risen Christ, who is dictating these, these messages to the churches and,  and says, it refers to a man named Antipas, which is a common Hellenistic name as my  martyr who was killed. So my witness that it's interesting to compare translations and see, do  people do translators say my martyr or my witness, because it may still mean simply witness  at that point. But it's in the context of someone who was killed for the faith. And so it's  possibly the the earliest use of that, of that term in that way. Something about the the  function of the, the martyr narrative. These stories, as I said, they are reworked after the 

historical events, they are reworked into a very compelling narrative into an account that  highlights the heroism of the martyrs, their resistance to pressure, to deny Christ, their  heroism in the face of the way in which they're executed. The classic one, of course, is the is  the ad bestias that's that's the, the Roman name for execution in the arena by wild animals.  And in saying that, it puts them in, in the companionship of a whole lot of other people that  Christians were not the only ones who were turned out to the, to the wild beast. This was a  form of execution for criminals with a capital sentence, lower class criminals, which also  provided public entertainment. This would happen at the at the Games when there were  gladiatorial competition, gladiators were the sports heroes of the day, they did not always  fight to the death. They were athletes, and an emperor or even a wealthy patron would put on games that usually at this level at this extent, it would be Imperial money, that would do it.  They would import animals from Asia, from Africa. And they would have animals fighting each  other animals, fighting Gladiators, gladiators fighting each other, all kinds of things, and the  lunchtime break entertainment was the execution of criminals. So it sounds very, very  bloodthirsty, and it was people and I think, except in situations of extreme stress today war,  terrible social upset and some of you may well have experienced some of this. In ordinary life, we just are not accustomed to the level of violence that was in that society. The the violence  in public entertainment, the violence in epidemics of illness, and deaths the high child  mortality, the high mortality at every age It really was quite something quite different than in  most of our situations we experience. But as I said, some of you may well know that kind of  life and and understand what what it's like. So as I say, stories create a narrative. And  narrative creates a people, the stories of the martyrs, informed consciousness of Christians.  The vast majority of people who lived as Christians, in the first three centuries, until the peace of Constantine in 313, the vast majority of them never knew persecution, specifically as  Christians, they lived and died as everyone else. Always though, with this level of violence  there in the, in the society. And it was only very few who actually were martyred, who actually did die that way. But the the memory of it the the identification with those people, was very  significant for Christians. And the more these stories were told, the more central they became to create an identity for Christians. So the I want to highlight the the role of martyrdom, and  the role of prophecy in that we haven't said anything specifically more about prophecy. And I  could say something here, too, because it's very it is related to martyrdom. Very interesting  that we're going to talk in later segments about ordination and women. And, as you probably  know, there are all kinds of questions involved there. And so I want to highlight that there are  two functions here two roles in early Christianity that were never denied to women. And one  is martyrdom. It was never questioned, there was solid evidence in fact that women could be  just as heroic in the face of death, as men could. In fact, there's the the wonderful story of  Blandina. In the around 170, or so 177, maybe, in Gaul, present day France, there was one of  these outbreaks of violence and a group of martyrs in Lugdunum, which is Leon today, and  Vienne were martyred and the account was, was written up and preserved and treasured. And one of them was a woman, a slave woman named Blandina, who was in the narrative, she  stands out as the one who is the most heroic. At one point she is she's hung up on a stake for  animals to gnaw at her. And it says, the others saw in her the one who had been crucified for  them. So she's the image of the crucified Christ. For them. She is the one who encourages the others. So think of it enslaved woman on two counts, not expected to be a leader. And yet,  she is the one whom they recognize as leader. And when we've said that God shows no  partiality, this is a really good example of that, that it was this enslaved woman who would  not be expected to have any kind of courage at all, because courage was a manly thing. And  it was the upper class who were supposed to demonstrate that. This is what happens in the  martyrdom accounts the people sometimes, who are the least expected to be to show  leadership are the ones who come out showing leadership and while at the same time that  these stories are being told and retold. They're also the questions about women in official  leadership. There are these stories to balance it. And we can we'll talk more about this  Perhaps another time, but I think Christians had to live with that ambiguity. Women had to live with that ambiguity. The stories of heroic women, but they're not, in some cases allowed to  exercise their own leadership. It's a conundrum, a little bit about prophecy. Prophecy is also 

it's, it's a phenomenon. It's a manifestation in in many cultures, and here in Christianity,  relying on the whole tradition of Old Testament prophets, you know, there's a whole strong  tradition about prophecy that comes out of ancient Israel. There was the, the understanding  that the prophecy continues in the, in the, in the church in Christianity. And so quite not only a tolerance but a welcoming of prophecy. You know, in I Corinthians 14, Paul has a whole  chapter talking about prophecy and tongues, and how they are to be exercised in the  community. Women prophets also were quite accepted. There was never any question that  women also could have the gift of prophecy because the Holy Spirit is not partial, does not  exercise partiality. The Holy Spirit also gives the gift of prophecy to women as well as to men.  We've looked at when we're looking at women in the gospels, we've looked at how Mary  functions as a prophet in her song in her Magnificat and Anna is called a prophet. So there are women who are recognized with prophecy in the New Testament. And the same, and  continuing in early Christianity, that there were some women who were recognized for their  prophetic leadership. So prophecy and martyrdom are the two gifts that were never denied to  women. And I want to say just a little bit about the narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas. If you  have not read that, you really should. If you have access to the internet, just type in acts of  Perpetua and you will come it will come right up in in English translation, several different  translations. Actually, there were and this is really interesting in that story, there are also  some men involved. One of them being Saturus, who I suspect was Perpetua's husband, but it never says that. But there there are other it's a small group who are arrested, they probably  died, specifically on March 7 of 203. And though there's some question about the year of the  the events. But this is early on, it's well before Constantine, and it's it takes place in North  Africa in Carthage. So it's it's one of the favorite martyr narratives. And we're going to talk  later about the rise of asceticism in the church and the emphasis on asceticism and celibacy.  These women were not celibates Perpetua was a well born woman, from a good family. She's  married, legally married in a Roman marriage. She's 22 years old, and she has a new baby.  Felicitas is a slave, an enslaved woman who is pregnant at the time of the arrest. It never says anything about her husband. Well it never says anything about Perpetua's husband either,  which is a great, it's one of the great mysteries of the story. Her father and her brother and  her mother are mentioned no mention of the husband, but she is maternal et a nupta she is  she's in a legal Roman marriage and she's not a widow. It would have said it differently. No  mention of a husband. But both Perpetua and Felicitas. Are the the central characters in this  narrative. And, and Perpetua is is a spokesperson. In the narrative. There's, there's a narrator  who does all the introduction and all the situation and then says, Now from here, we'll let  Perpetua tell the story. And then there's, there's an account the voice shifts, and it is the voice of Perpetua I had said earlier, we have no literature written by Christian women with this  exception. And some have doubted that it really is, is her writing her word, but I think I think it is, and she recounts several dreams that she has had. And in those dreams, she encounters  various people there. There's imagery. Saturus turns up in, in one of her dreams in a  significant way, the two of them are climbing a ladder together. And he helps her and waits  for her. That's why it seems that Perpetua and Saturus had some kind of a close relationship.  And he's also one of the martyrs you see. But it never says that. And, and so what this does is cast Perpetua as a prophet, as well as a martyr she is she has these prophetic dreams, which  they all interpret as to how they are going to die. Felicitas is often in the in the tradition, it  often says that she was Perpetua's slave. The text never says that she was a slave. She was  an enslaved woman was her relationship to Perpetua we don't know, except that in the arena, the two of them are put together, they are tossed by an animal. And there's a there's a point  in which it says, they got up and they stood together. And it's such a touching scene because  this Wellborn woman, high status woman and slave woman stand together and together, they are martyred. It's a beautiful image of this principle that God shows no partiality, that that in  spite of differences in social status, they really are all one in Christ Jesus