Affiliation:
1. University of Helsinki
Abstract
This article examines three fourth-century homilies (by Gregory Nazianzen,
John Chrysostom, and Augustine of Hippo) on the so-called
Maccabean martyrs. It calls into question the scholarly commonplace that
these homilies offer a case of Christian appropriation of Jewish martyrs
and argues instead that a positive notion of Jewish martyrdom – that is,
martyrdom for Christ before Christ – develops within the early Christian
martyrological discourse expressly with the help of the Maccabean martyr
figures.
Publisher
Amsterdam University Press