Early Christian Martyrs

My summer reading includes Bart Erhman's After the New Testament: An Early Christian Reader. Included are selections of letters written by Christians who were martyrs or who were witnesses to martyrdom. One of the most "enjoyable" is the letter from Ignatius, bishop of Antioch in Syria, to the church in Rome. Ignatius was arrested around 110 C.E. and was sent to Rome for trial and execution. We actually have no credible accounts of his execution; tradition holds that he was martyred at the Coliseum. But we do have seven of the letters he wrote to various local churches as he was making his way to Rome. In the letter to Rome, he pleads with the church there to not interfere with his martyrdom:

Things are off to a good start. May I have the good fortune to meet my fate without interference! What I fear is your generosity, which may prove detrimental to me. For you can easily do what you want to, whereas it is hard for me to get to God unless you let me alone...

I am corresponding with all the churches and bidding them all realize that I am voluntarily dying for God--if, that is, you do not interfere. I plead with you, do not do me an unseasonable kindness. Let me be fodder for wild beasts--that is how I can get to God. I am God's wheat and I am being ground by the teeth of wild beasts to make a pure loaf for Christ...

What a thrill I shall have from the wild beasts that are ready for me! I hope they will make short work of me. I shall coax them on to eat me up at once and not to hold off, as sometimes happens, through fear. And if they are reluctant, I shall force them to it.

Iraneus also warns the Romans to not pay attention to him if, when he arrives in Rome, he has second thoughts.

As this letter perhaps makes clear, there was no systematic persecution of Christians during the time of Iraneus. Otherwise, he would not have had the freedom to write and meet with Christians along the way. As Ehrman points out, most of the persecution was local and often mob inspired. Even Nero, who blamed Christians for the fires in Rome, only persecuted Christians in Rome and did not issue any empire-wide edict banning Christianity. There was no empire-wide proscription against the new religion until the reign of Decius in 250 C.E.

Christians were persecuted for being anti-social and refusing to participate in the normal cultic and social activities in their communities. Because they refused to worship the various deities in the empire's pantheon they were often blamed for anything that went wrong. Because they tied their ritual meal to the body and blood of Jesus they were accused of being flesh-eaters and were often accused of actually practicing secret rituals of sacrificing children.

We don't know how many Christians were actually martyred. Ehrman suggests it numbered in the hundreds and not the thousands. But we do know that the accounts of martrydom were passed around the churches and used to inspire the Christians to be faithful. And these accounts apparently helped the churches hold and attract new members.