Themes and Intertextualities in Pre‐Nicene Exhortations to Martyrdom

Abstract

This essay examines the recurrent themes, images, borrowed texts, and interpretive traditions found within five early Christian works extolling martyrdom: the Epistle to the Romans attributed to Ignatius, Tertullian's Ad Martyras, Origen's Exhortation to Martyrdom, Cyprian's Exhortation to Martyrdom, and Pseudo-Cyprian's On the Glory of Martyrdom. As manifested by these five texts, the early Christian experience of, reflection upon, and rhetoric concerning “impending” martyrdom resulted in habituated practices that appropriated key imageries and biblical passages. This investigation demonstrates a developing tradition of the employment of particular biblical texts within such martyrial works, including a rising use of specific Gospel traditions. On the one hand, the meager reception of shared themes and especially the lack of common scriptural materials within the Epistle to the Romans resembles Tertullian's Ad Martyras. On the other hand, the Origenian, Cyprianic, and Pseudo-Cyprianic works share a broader range of common themes and biblical quotations.