Maccabean Martyr Traditions in Paul's Theology of Atonement

Did Martyr Theology Shape Paul's Conception of Jesus's Death?

Williams

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781498271608
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In an age in which scholars continue to produce books on the nature and significance of Jesus's death, books that often assume the Old Testament cult was the New Testament authors' primary background for their conception of Jesus's death, Jarvis J. Williams offers a fresh and novel contribution regarding both the nature of and background influences behind Paul's conception of Jesus's death. He argues that Paul's conception of Jesus's death both as an atoning sacrifice and as a saving event for Jews and Gentiles was significantly influenced by Maccabean Martyr Theology. To argue his thesis, Williams engages in an intense exegesis of 2 and 4 Maccabees while also interacting with other Second Temple Jewish texts that are relevant to his thesis. Williams further interacts with relevant Old Testament texts and the key texts in the Pauline corpus. He argues that the authors of 2 and 4 Maccabees present the deaths of the Jewish martyrs during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes IV as atoning sacrifices and as a saving event for Israel. He further argues that, although the Old Testament's cultic language certainly influenced Paul's understanding of Jesus's death at certain junctures in his letters, the Old Testament cult alone-which emphasized animal sacrifices-cannot fully explain why or even how Paul could conceive of Jesus's death, a human sacrifice, as both an atoning sacrifice and a saving event for Jews and Gentiles. Finally, Williams highlights the lexical, theological, and conceptual parallels between Martyr Theology and Paul's conception of Jesus's death. Even if scholars disagree with Williams's thesis or methodology, serious Pauline scholars interested in the background influences behind and the nature and significance of Jesus's death in Paul's theology will want to interact with this work.

1

Introduction and History of Research

Introduction

Many scholars have investigated the nature and significance of Jesus’s death in the Pauline corpus. This is evident by the numerous monographs,1 Pauline theologies,2 essays,3 dissertations,4 and articles5 that have analyzed Jesus’s death in the Pauline corpus. Several of the previous investigations considered the background influences behind, the nature of, and the significance of Jesus’s death in Paul,6 and many of the previous investigations of Jesus’s death in the Pauline corpus were significant contributions to Pauline Studies. Since recent scholarship questions whether Paul conceived of Jesus’s death as an atoning sacrifice or as a saving event,7 a fresh analysis of Paul’s conception of Jesus’s death and of the background influences behind his conception of Jesus’s death is needed.

Thesis

My thesis is that Paul presents Jesus’s death both as an atoning sacrifice and as a saving event for Jews and Gentiles, because Martyr Theology shaped his conception of Jesus’s death. I do not argue that Martyr Theology was the only influence behind Paul’s conception of Jesus’s death, but that Martyr Theology best explains why Paul would and could conceive of Jesus’s death both as an atoning sacrifice and as a saving event for Jews and Gentiles. I primarily argue my thesis by means of an exegetical investigation and comparison of key texts in 2 and 4 Maccabees and in Paul’s letters. I also consider other Second Temple Jewish texts that appear to contain a Martyr Theology. The exegesis serves to highlight soteriological, lexical, or conceptual parallels between Martyr Theology and Paul’s conception of Jesus’s death.

I develop 4 arguments throughout the book to defend the proposed thesis: (1) the deaths of the Jewish martyrs functioned as atoning sacrifices for Israel’s sin. (2) Their deaths were a saving event for the nation. (3) Paul ascribes to Jesus’s death language that closely parallels the martyrs’ deaths in 2 and 4 Maccabees. (4) The parallels with and similarities between the martyrs’ deaths in 2 and 4 Maccabees and Paul’s presentation of Jesus’s death suggest that Paul borrowed from the ideas and concepts in Martyr Theology regarding the death of the righteous for others to present Jesus’s death both as an atoning sacrifice and as a saving event for Jews and Gentiles.

This chapter introduces the thesis, the concept of Maccabean martyrdom, and it presents a history of research of much of the relevant literature pertaining to the thesis. Chapter 2 investigates selected texts from Greco-Roman literature, Leviticus 16, Isaiah 53, and the key texts in 2 and 4 Maccabees to support that 2 and 4 Maccabees speak of the deaths of the martyrs with similar language found in Greco-Roman literature, the OT cult, and Isaiah 53. Chapter 3 investigates Genesis 22, Exodus 32, Numbers 25, and Isaiah 53 to see if these texts could have exclusively shaped the authors’ conception of the martyrs’ deaths in 2 and 4 Maccabees or Paul’s conception of Jesus’s death. Since each of the OT texts that I investigate in chapter 3 mentions human sacrifice and since three of the four mention human sacrifice for the benefit of others, I limit my investigation to these specific OT texts. I argue that with the possible exception of Isaiah 53, the above OT texts do not exclusively provide the background behind the authors’ conception of the martyrs’ deaths in 2 and 4 Maccabees or Paul’s conception of Jesus’s death.

Chapter 4 investigates the key texts in Paul that demonstrate a soteriological, lexical, or conceptual connection with Martyr Theology. By means of both an exegesis of the key Pauline texts and by an analysis of the parallels between the key texts in 2 and 4 Maccabees and in Paul, I offer arguments in chapter 4 to defend that Martyr Theology shaped Paul’s conception of Jesus’s death as an atoning sacrifice and as a saving event for Jews and Gentiles. Chapter 5 offers conclusions and some implications of chapters 2–4. In the former, I endeavor to coalecse the arguments of chapters 2–4. I especially conclude chapter 5 by suggesting that Martyr Theology’s influence on Paul’s conception of Jesus’s death best explains how he could conceive of Jesus’s death both as an atoning sacrifice and as a saving event for Jews and Gentiles. My conclusions also express why Martyr Theology’s influence on Paul’s conception of Jesus’s death does not truncate the saving significance of Jesus’s death for the nations in his soteriology.8

An Introduction to Maccabean Martyrdom

What is a Maccabean Martyr?

In contrast to the contemporary understanding of martyrdom, I use the terms “martyrdom,” “martyr texts,” “martyr traditions,” and “Martyr Theology” in this book to refer to Maccabean martyrdom: viz., the martyrdom that occurred in the Second Temple period (STP) during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes IV. During this period, righteous Jews refused to forsake the laws of their God and refused to yield to the edicts of pagan authorities.9 Instead, they voluntarily and gladly chose death since they believed to do otherwise would have displeased their God.10

To make the distinction between the concept of martyrdom during the STP and the concept of martyrdom in contemporary society is necessary, because martyrdom has become a popular expression within recent years.11 The term has strong religious overtones, and both Christians and Muslims have used the term to describe those who would die a heroic death for a religious cause.12 Based on the noun ma/rtuj (“witness”) and the verb marture/w (“to bear witness”), some ancient Christian sources have historically attached meanings to martyrdom that emphasize the confessional aspect as the most integral element of a martyr’s actions.13 For example, the Martyrdom of Polycarp was one of the earliest Christian documents where ma/rtuj occurred as a reference to those who remained faithful to their God by refusing to submit to the edicts of pagan authorities (e.g., Mart. Poly. 1:1; 2:1; 14:2).14 Yet, the concept of martyrdom is much older than the Christian vocabulary traditionally used to describe it.15

Jewish Martyrdom and Antiochus Epiphanes IV

The Jewish persecutions, enforced by Antiochus Epiphanes IV (ca. 175–164 BC),16 during the STP was the immediate background behind Jewish martyrdom in 2 and 4 Maccabees.17 Antiochus succeeded his father as ruler over the Seleucid Empire (1 Macc 1:1–10). He was a wicked root (1 Macc 1:10; cf. 4 Macc 8:1) and an arrogant and terrible man (4 Macc 4:15). Two years after he defeated Ptolemy, king of Egypt (1 Macc 1:16–28), he deceived many Jews in Jerusalem by making them think that he would be peaceful toward them (1 Macc 1:29–32). Instead, he conquered Jerusalem and converted the city of David into his own fortress. He placed evil men behind its walls (1 Macc 1:33–35). He corrupted the nation (1 Macc 1:36–40; 4 Macc 4–6), destroyed the Torah (1 Macc 1:56), and made an oath to kill any Jew who obeyed God’s law (1 Macc 1:60–63). Obedience to Antiochus resulted in honor and reward (4 Macc 8:4–7; cf. 1 Macc 1:11), but disobedience resulted in extreme torture and death (4 Macc 5:4; 6:12, 30; 7:12, 25; 8:8–12).18

Jewish Martyrdom and God’s Judgment

In addition to Antiochus’ role in Maccabean martyrdom, certain martyr texts also suggest that Antiochus’ extermination of the Jews who did not obey his reforms was God’s judgment against Israel on account of its sin (2 Macc 6:12–17; 7:32–38). Many Jews apostatized from the Torah and obeyed Antiochus’ Hellenistic reforms (1 Macc 1:11–15). Consequently, God punished the nation through Antiochus so that it would not undergo a more severe, eschatological judgment for its religious apostasy (2 Macc 6:16–17; 7:35; 12:40–42; Ep. Jer. 2; Song of the Three Young Men 1–8, 13; As. Mos. 9:1–5). With the preceding background in mind, the reader should be able to understand better the history of research of the major works t...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• List of Abbreviations
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Introduction and History of Research
• Chapter 2: Martyrdom in 2 and 4 Maccabees
• Chapter 3: Martyrdom in the Old Testament
• Chapter 4: Martyrdom and Jesus’s Death in Paul
• Chapter 5: Conclusion
• Bibliography