The Attitudes of the Early Christians toward Martyrdom

This paper examined the attitudes of the early Christians on the martyrdom. Accepting the sources which were written by proto-orthodox Christians, most scholars thought there were three kind of attitudes. First, proto-orthodox Church glorified the martyrs, but prohibited the voluntary martyrdom. Christians could decide to be a martyr, only after God gave them revelations to permit the martyrdom. Second, the Gnostic Christians believed that the martyrdom was worthless because Jesus was not suffered from the death of body. Third, Montanists gave the martyrdom too much valve. They encouraged believers to be a voluntary martyr. I studied the sources relating to the martyrdom of proto-orthodox Christians, the gnostic literature which were discovered in Nag Hammadi and the writings of Tertullianus who is believed to a representative of Montanists. As a result I reached the following conclusion. First, as most scholars thought, proto-orthodox Christians prohibited the voluntary martyrdom. But they permitted exceptions to various circumstances. Second, the Gnostic Christians did not assign the same value as the proto-orthodox Christians. But they did not regard the martyrdom as worthless. Some of them regarded the martyrdom as good opportunity to gain gnosis. Third, Montanists assigned more values to the martyrdom than the proto-orthodox Christians. But they did not encouraged believers to be a voluntary martyr. The view that they encouraged believers to be a voluntary martyr did not have any ground.