Martyrdom and Noble Death: Selected Texts from Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Christian Antiquity (Context of Early Christianity) [Paperback]

Friedrich Avemarie (Author), Jan Willem van Henten (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0415138914 | ISBN-13: 978-0415138918

This volume explores the fascinating phenomenon of noble death through pagan, Jewish and Christian sources. Today's society is uncomfortable with death, and willingly submitting to a violent and ostentatious death in public is seen as particularly shocking and unusual. Yet classical sources give a different view, with public self-sacrifice often being applauded. The Romans admired a heroic end in the battlefield or the arena, suicide in the tradition of Socrates was something laudable, and Christians and Jews alike faithfully commemorated their heroes who died during religious persecutions. The cross-cultural approach and wide chronological range of this study make it valuable for students and scholars of ancient history, religion and literature.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This volume aims at offering undergraduate students in various disciplines (religion, classics, Jewish studies, etc.) a survey of ancient sources about those kinds ofnoble death that can be called martyrdom or are rather similar to martyrdom...as a sourcebook, it has fuller introductions to the texts than most... New Testament Abstracts March 2003 _.

About the Author

Jan Willem van Henten holds the chair in New Testament and Hellenistic Jewish literature at the University of Amsterdam. He is the director of the Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion (NOSTER). He is the author of The Maccabean Martyrs as Saviours of the Jewish People and co-editor of Studies in Early Jewish Epigraphy. Friedrich Avemarie is a research and teaching assistant at the Institut fur antikes Judentum und hellenistische Religionsgeschichte, Evangelischtheologische Fakultat, University of Tubingen. His is the author of Die Taufberichete der Apostelgeshichte: Theologie und Geschichte.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (March 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415138914
• ISBN-13: 978-0415138918
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,345,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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