PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS: THE MARTYR AND APOLOGETIC TEXTS FROM THE 2NDCENTURY

ABSTRACT

Some Christian expression present in music, sermons and life styles of contemporary Ghanaian preachers suggest that once a person becomes a Christian they will not face predicaments such as sickness, barrenness and pains. However, in reference to Christian history, there is no Christianity without a cross; in essence, suffering is part of the Christian tradition and theology. It is important therefore to reminisce from the examples and from the history of the early Christians and the coming of Christianity to Ghana how contemporary Ghanaian Christians can deal with the question of suffering. In its early history, Christians were subjected to persecutions and martyrdoms at the hands of the Romans. The character of these persecutions and the motives of the persecutors are ―classic‖ issues that have been debated over the centuries in ancient history, theology, religious studies, classical philology and legal history. Traditionally, most studies on the persecution and martyrdom of the early Christians in the Roman Empire have employed the martyr narratives and pagan texts as sources while references to apologetic literature are found only sparingly. In the martyr-texts the Christian author‘s projected images of the persecutions and presented that image to their Christian readers in order to console and make sense of suffering. Similarly, contemporary apologetic texts projected images of suffering and persecution. However little is noted of scholars who have attempted to compare the contemporary images projected in these two types of texts, and no one has done so systematically. It is debated in scholarship whether the apologists were defending against `real` accusations raised by the outsiders or whether they invented accusations as a pretext for promoting their own ideas. Additionally, it is claimed by many scholars that the apologies addressed to authorities were not intended for submissions to their addresses. How does the martyr and apologetic texts corroborate, supplement or contradict each other in regard to the images of the persecution and martyrdom of the early

iii

Christians the two types of text promote? This question is best addressed when the martyr and apologetic sources are compared systematically.

This comparison is relevant because the two types of texts emerge as different Christian responses to the hostilities against the early Christians in the Roman Empire. Both kinds of texts emerged as crisis literature, born out of the persecutions and martyrdom, from the same geographical area and written during the same decades. The two types of texts were however addressed to different audiences, the martyr-texts implicitly or explicitly to Christian readers, the apologetic texts to outsiders (Roman magistrates or emperors on the one hand and the general public on the other).Based on this, my thesis is that a detailed and minute agreement in the image projected by the two types of texts will suggest that both kinds of texts do reflect the actual character of the persecutions; but at the same time suggests that the addressing of the apologetic texts to outsiders was a literary ―fiction‖ since the authors obviously found no need to target their addresses. Conversely, if there is little agreement in the image projected, this suggests that images of persecution and martyrdom were constructed at liberty by the authors and fashioned to serve different rhetoric and ideological purposes aimed at specific inside and outside audiences. The ―balance‖ is stuck, if the study reveals a general agreement in the image projected by the two types of texts with some detailed differences that can be argued to be based on the authors‘ consideration for their respective audiences. If such a general agreement with detailed changes is found, it will arguably show, that the image projected is generally accurate, and it will show that the two types of texts were intended for different audiences.Two distinct, but each of them formative and challenging and therefore on some level comparable (in the sense that they may be fruitfully compared with a view to both differences and similarities), periods will be studied. The main effort is devoted to a study of texts written in the mid-second to early third centuries of the Roman Empire, for

iv

comparison the missionary period of Ghanaian church history and how persecution and martyrdom in this period is presented is also studied. The main purpose of this dissertation was to systematically compare the early Christian martyr-literature to the early Christian apologetic literature in order to investigate if these sources corroborate, supplement or even contradict their pictures of the character of the persecutions and the motives of the persecutors.Furthermore, it was the purpose to discuss the submission status of the apologetic texts, i.e. were those texts that were addressed to emperors and magistrates really intended for submission..This project thereforesurveys the picture of the persecution and martyrdom of the early Christians as portrayed in the martyr and apologetic texts, and it discusses texts presenting an image of persecution and martyrdom in the missionary history of Ghana, and it discusses the relevance of these texts to Ghanaian Christianity.

The objectives of this study are attained through a systematic comparison of the texts both internally (i.e. martyr texts are compared to martyr texts and apologetic texts are compared to apologetic texts)and externally (martyr texts are compared to apologetic texts) to identify their similarities and differences in relation to the image they project of the persecutions, the persecutors and their motives. The texts are analyzed by adopting the literary critical method in studying the rhetorical features of persuasions by focusing on the speakers, audience, context and the discourse of the texts. In this way, the texts are each divided into two different sub-categories and compared internally and externally at three levels that I have termed; harmony, synthesis and a fusion. The objective was to find out if the two classes of texts when compared corroborate, supplement or even contradict themselves. These methods also help to scientifically determine the submission status of the apologetic texts to their addresses especially the authorities. In view of these methods, the internal and external comparisons showed that the apologetic texts are useful sources for the study of the

v

persecution and martyrdom of the early church. More importantly, the methods employed showed that even though there are some nuances (pointing to different audiences) between the texts, the two type of accounts do not contradict but rather provide evidence and support each other. Additionally, regarding the submission status of the apologies, it is argued that those apologies that were addressed to the authorities were intended for submission. This conclusion is based on the nuances in the internal comparison within the apologetic texts and in the external comparison with the martyr texts. The subject of the persecution and martyrdom is also an African story where there are examples of hostilities especially from the missionary era. Both historical contexts offer some lessons and perspectives for the contemporary African Christians who may suffer, but who recently face a prosperity gospel out of tune with the roots of Christianity (also in Ghana).. The project contributes to academic study in many respects. The novelty in the methods, sources and contextualization of the African examples, break grounds in the studies of the persecution and martyrdom of Christians. The study offers a paradigm shift in academia where scholars are encouraged to use both genres of texts to explore the hostilities against the Christians because the texts lend credence and complement one another. The methods adopted in this study scientifically suggest that the texts were intended to receive the attention of their addresses. Moreover, it is clear from the studies that the subject of the persecution and martyrdom is very relevant to Africa. The attempt to compare the early beginnings of Christianity in the Roman and African contexts is a novelty.

Keywords: Persecution, Martyrdom, Comparison, Apologetics, Early Christians.