Myrte martel mortel wie speelt daar met 'n wortel?

2 Maccabees is dated
anywhere from the middle of the second century B.C.
to the middle of the first century A.C.,
the current consensus
is to date it before
Christ.

There is
an enormous literature
on the Maccabean texts and their relations to martyrology.
We will treat here only what is directly related to our own arguments:
preferring to suggest that a nascent notion of martyrdom is already present
in the very likely
"pre-Christian"
2 Maccabees and that it undergoes very similar development
among Jews and Christians in 4 Maccabees, Polycarp, the Martyrs of Lyons
& eventually Pionius, Akiva, Hanina,
and so on
...

A
new discourse
appeared in late antiquity,
one that was different from what
had gone before!

But
in order
to make thus point,
we need to be more specific about
what we mean by
martyrdom.

There must be
new constituents of this discourse,
elements that define late antique martyrology, elements that we cannot find in 2 Maccabees,
at least?

Oddly,
the characteristic
"the conceptual system of posthumous recognition and anticipated reward,"
is perhaps the oldest, most clearly pre-Christian
element of martyrology.

This element
is already well attested in 2 Maccabees:
the notion that the martyr is immediately
"saved,"
and it appears markedly in 4 Maccabees,
as well!

The conceptions
of life after death
and the resurrection of the body are also precisely concurrent
with the Maccabean
rebellion.

In
the later language,
this would be expressed as a conviction that he or she has
"earned salvation in a single hour!"

Thus
we can suggest,
that the following are the closely related elements that constitute the novelty of late antiquw martyrdom
as a practice of both rabbinic Jews and Christians, without yet taking a stand
on the order of their
precedence:

1.
A ritualized and performative speech act
associated with the statement of pure essence
becomes the central action of the martyrology.

In rabbinic texts, this is the declaration of the oneness of G d via the recitation of the
"Hear O Israel!"

For Christians, it is the declaration of the essence of self:
"I am a Christian!"

In both, this is the final act of the martyr's life.

For Christian texts, this is new with the Martyrium Polycarpi.

For rabbinic Jews, it begins with the stories about Polycarp's contemporary, Rabbi Akiva.

There is a slight possibility of a form of this element as early as 2 Maccabees,
but there is a great of doubt as to the proper interpretation of this text.

In 2 Maccabees 6:6 we can read:
"No one was allowed to observe the Sabbath
or to keep the traditional festivals or even to confess
that {s}he was a Jew{ess}!"

This verse has been much discussed in the literature.

It obviously cannot mean what it seems to mean on the face of it,
that one was forbidden to call oneself by the name
"Jew,"
as later on it would be forbidden to call oneself
by the name
"Christian,"
since
"Jew"
in this period was primarily an ethnic and not a religious identity,
and it would ne absurd to expect someone
not to admit to being a
"Ioudaios."

Some consider this the only exceptional passage in the entire work in which
"Ioudaios"
means
"Jew"
and not
"Judean."
Moreover, even in the later Roman period, it was not forbidden to call oneself
"Jew,",
as it was to call oneself
"Christian."
This is why the non-Christian, Jewish parallel to
"Christianus sum"
is the declaration of the
Shema
and not the cognate
"Ioudaios eimi,"
since even then it would have made as much sense to forbid someone to be a Jew
as it would to forbid her to ne a Greek.

In
a commentary
on this verse, it was written:
the prohibition of the observance
of Sabbaths and festivals is easy to understand,
but what is the meaning of "no one was allowed to ... confess {s}he was a Jew{ess}"?

There is no parallel in the contemporary apocalypses or in the accounts of First Maccabees and Josephus!

Later the mere acknowledgment of the name
"Christian"
was to be a crime, but did Antiochus forbid Jews
to call themselves Jews? Surely our studies have shown that in the imposed cult Antiochus was trying
to force Jews to return to what he thought was the original
"wholesome"
Jewish pattern.

The words may ne hyperbole: Jews went on
practicing Judaism in secret,
but for a practicing Jew
to admit {s}he was
Jewish was
suicidal!

However, in speaking of
"confessing that one is Jewish,"
Jason may be alluding to a ritual. Josephus seems to call the recitation twice daily of the Shema
{See Deut. 6:4} or of some other such formula "bearing witness" (martyrein) ....
Jason could have called the same ritual
"confessing that one
is Jewish!"


Het
lijkt verdacht
veel op de 'behandeling' van Joden
door Christenen gedurende de afgelopen 2000 jaar?

Of hoe tegenwoordig op sommige plaatsen bepaalde mensen ageren
voor & tegen 'de islam & de koran', 't bouwen van kerken &
moskeeen, klokgelui &
gebedsoproep!

Moeten
en kunnen
bijbels & korans,
theisten & atheisten,
joden, christenen, moslims e.d.
nog steeds 'verboden
gaan worden'?

Waar
liggen die
grenzen tussen cultuur
& religie als het gaat om lange gewaden, diverse hoofddoekjes &
het beoefenen van
'gebeden'?

Of
t.a.v. besnijdenis,
dope, hope, slachten,
medicijnen, bloedtransfusies,
verplichte vaccinaties, voedsel,
vrijwillige drank
& drugs
{e.d.}?

Wie
gaat er
dan vaststellen wie
'wat' is, hoe men wel of niet
mag 'handelen', doen & laten
'bijeen- & samenkomen'
& 'getuigen'?

Literatuur
of religieuze/politieke opinies
'verspreiden'?