The Martyrs of Jesus

By Jim Hopkins

      Witness (Gr. MARTUS) is a word that has also been translated martyr in three verses. It is found in the following places:

Acts 22:20 And when the blood of thy MARTYR Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. (KJV)

Rev. 2:13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful MARTYR, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

Rev. 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the MARTYRS of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

 

      The dictionary definition of martyr is: 1a) any of those persons who choose to suffer or die rather than give up their faith or principles 1b) any person tortured or killed because of his or her beliefs 2) a person who suffers great pain or misery for a long time 3) a person who assumes an attitude of self-sacrifice or suffering in order to arouse felling of pity, guilt, etc. in others.

      Vine's Expository Dictionary gives: "Martyr: see Witness." Under Witness he gives: MARTUS or MARTUR (whence Eng., martyr, one who bears witness by his death) denotes one who can or does aver what he has seen or heard or know; Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon under MARTUS gives: (Aeolic MARTUR, a form not found in the N.T.... a WITNESS (one who avers, or can aver, what he himself has seen or heard or knows by any other means); a. in a legal sense: Mt.18:16; Mt.26:65; Mk.14:63; Ac.6:13; 7:58; 2Co.13:1; 1Ti.5:19; Heb.10:28. b. in a historic sense: Ac.10:41; 1Ti.6:12; [2Ti.2:2]; one who is a spectator of anything, i.e., a contest, Heb.12:1; w. a gen. of the obj., Lk.24:28; Ac.1:22; 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; G L T Tr WH; 10:39; 26:16; 1Pe.5:1; w. a gen. of the possessor 'one who testifies for one', Acts 1:8 L T Tr WH; 13:31; w. a gen. of the possessor and of the obj., Ac.5:32 Rec.; MARTURA EINAI TINI, to be a witness for one, serve him by testimony, Ac.1:8 R G; 22;15; [Lk.11:48 T Tr WH]. He is said to be a witness, to whose attestation appeal is made; hence the formulas MARTUS MOU ESTIN O THEOS Rom.1:9; Phil.1:8; THEOS MARTUS, 1Th.2:5; MARTURA THEON EPIKALOUMAI, 2Co.1:23; HUMEIS MARTURES K. O THEOS, 1Th.2:10; the faithful interpreters of God's counsels are called GOD'S WITNESSES; Rev.11:3; Christ is reckoned among them, Rev.1:5; 3:14. c. in an ethical sense: those are called MARTURES 'JESOU who after his example have proved the strength and genuineness of their faith in Christ by undergoing a violent death [cf B. D. Am. ed. and Dict. of Chris. Antiq. s. v. Martyr]: Ac.22:20; Rev.2:13; 17:6.*

A. Definitions given by the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology for the words, "Witness, Testimony":

1. "In classical use the noun martyria means making an active appearance and statements as a witness (martys). Also found are the nouns martyrion for the evidence, the proof... and martys for the witness himself.

2. "In OT use martyrion has a sense which accords with its later usage in classical Greek, namely, that of the piece of evidence which calls to mind a particular event, or of the deeds. The thought of suffering involved in bearing witness to one's faith even to the point of death and the high esteem paid to martyrdom were widespread in Judaism. Nevertheless, one must still note that terms like martys, martyria or martyreo and even martyrion were manifestly never used for such heroes of faith. In his detailed and careful analysis, N. Brox has demonstrated conclusively that "the Old Testament and later Judaism are excluded as the place of origin of the title of "martyr", as it developed in the early history of Christianity, and also that no real equivalence between martyrs and prophets...can be found" (Zeuge und Martyrer, 1961, 172).

3. "In the NT the legal use of the word, common to classical Greek and the LXX, dominates the few examples in the Synoptics, of which, as well as the instances of katamartyreo already mentioned, the 4 occurrences of martyria and the 2 passages with martys also occur in the account of the trial of Jesus, and each time are related to the (false) evidence produced there. The quotations from Deut. 19:15 and 17:6 are to be understood in the same sense; similarly the mention of witnesses in the proceedings against Stephen.

a. "Paul's use of the words is also closely linked to the LXX usage.

b. "Paul is probably the first to give the noun martyrion a new meaning and content, when he says in I Cor. 1:6: "Even as the testimony [martyrion] of Christ was confirmed among you." It can no longer here be a matter of a document, or a piece of evidence or recollection giving encouragement or warning; the word is used in the sense of the gospel, the proclaimed message of salvation in Christ.

c. "In the Synoptic Gospels a further expansion of the conceptual area of witness over and above the legal usage can be recognized. While according to Mk 1:44, the sacrifice of the healed man is offered eis martyrion, for a testimony, i.e., in recognition and as proof that the healing had taken place (according to Moses' regulations), the same formulation in Mt. 10:18 (the sending out of the twelve) - the arrest and the trial of the disciples would be eis martyrion' to the Jews and Gentiles - can scarcely be understood only in the sense of an accusation. It can include the point that such tribunals would provide opportunities for testifying to Christ in public. Tangible evidence for the prosecution (for a place in God's judgment) is provided by the dust which the rejected messengers of Jesus are to shake from their feet and to leave behind.

d. "A new aspect of the concept of being a witness is revealed by Luke in Acts. ...martyresai occurs for the first time in Acts 23:11 without an object, meaning "to bear witness" in the sense of proclaiming Christ. Paul is to continue in Rome to bear witness to his Lord. This corresponds exactly with the meaning of martyrion in Acts 4:33 ("with great power the apostles gave their testimony") and takes up that conception of martys, witness, which is found for the first time in Lk 24:48. It is repeated almost immediately in Acts 1:8 in the commission by Jesus with the proclamation of the message of the kingdom, who are witnesses. They are more precisely defined in Acts 1:22 as witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus and of his deeds. Thus Luke is no longer using the word witness for witnesses of facts, but specifically for the witnesses of the risen Lord, who by this very qualification are authorized and legitimated as his witnesses among the nations. From this two things become clear: first, that their way, the way of a witness, is a way of rejection, suffering, and possibly also of death; second, that it is distinguished not by the later understanding of martyrdom, i.e., of one who bears witness to the point of death, but by the full proclamation of the message of Christ.

e. "One may not cite the martyr's death as the characteristic of witnesses, particularly as in Rev. 17:6 saints are mentioned with the martyres' as having been similarly put to death on account of their faith."

      Now, I quoted all that to show that Vine and Thayer concede that Martyr is not a form found in the NT yet acknowledge its use in 3 places without a concession statement. But the Theological Dictionary says "that one may not cite the martyr's death as the characteristic of witnesses" and gives Rev. 17:6 as reason. For if the saints are put to death for their faith, why are they not called martyrs along with the martyrs of Jesus?

      From this finding can we not conclude that the term MARTUS O JESOU really applies to the witnesses of Jesus who were sought out because of their testimony of having seen the resurrected Jesus? Paul mentions that Jesus appeared to more than 500 brethren at the same time, most of whom were still living, though some had fallen asleep. (1Co.15:6). So Stephen, Antipas, and those of Rev.17:6 were those who had seen Jesus after his resurrection and where known as the "witnesses of Jesus." The existance of these witnesses also does something else; it gives credibility to the early date of the book of Revelation. The persecution that befell the witnesses was all about their having seen Jesus and they were still alive to tell it.

May the Lord bless you in your study of God's Word.