Jewish Martyrs in the Pagan and Christian Worlds [Paperback]

An examination of Jewish martyrdom in the context of Christianity revealing their martyrological interaction.This book is about the evolution of Jewish martyrdom in the Pagan and Christian worlds until the high middle ages, with a brief discussion on the Holocaust in the conclusion. The study's main goal is to explain how and why martyrdom came to play a role in Judaism. It also shows how this development influenced Jewish thinking. Students and scholars of Jewish history, Christianity, late antique and medieval studies, and religion in general will be interested in this book.This book is about the evolution of Jewish martyrdom in the Pagan and Christian worlds until the high middle ages, with a brief discussion on the Holocaust in the conclusion. The study's main goal is to explain how and why martyrdom came to play a role in Judaism. It also shows how this development influenced Jewish thinking. Students and scholars of Jewish history, Christianity, late antique and medieval studies, and religion in general will be interested in this book.Spanning the Hellenistic period to the high Middle Ages, this history of Jewish martyrdom challenges the general consensus that martyrdom was an original Hellenisitic Jewish idea. Instead, Jews like Philo and Josephus internalized the idealized Roman concept of voluntary death and presented it as an old Jewish practice. While martyrs and martyrologies intended to show how Judaisim differed from Christianity, they, in fact, reveal a common mindset. Although the medieval martyrological option was played down during the Holocaust, medieval martyrologies are still featured in contemporary Ashkenazic prayers.Preface; Introduction; 1. Mythic martyrs; 2. Between God and Caesar; 3. 'It is written in the law'; 4. Byzantine burnt offerings; 5. Zarfat; 6. Ve Ashkenaz: traditional manifestations; 7. Ve Ashkenaz: manifestations of a milieu; 8. Singing in the fire; 9. Fire from heaven; 10. Shifting paradigms; Notes; Bibliography; Index.? With lS(