Abstract:
This thesis was conceived as a history of the concept of martyrdom limited to the period concerning its formation: from the writing of the NT to the Martyrdom of Polycarp. The transformations in the semantic field of the term μαρτυρία and its cognates were analyzed as they are revealed in several Ancient Church authors. The Begriffsgeschichte’s (History of the Concepts) methodological guidelines made up the methodological basis for this study of words related to the witness/martyrdom in their textual and historical contexts. Within these contexts one has sought for the reasons for μαρτυρία gaining new meanings for the Christian authors of the first and second century. Before its Christian usage μαρτυρία used to refer to the witness of facts and truths alone but with the Christians, along the course of history, it came to refer to the concept of martyrdom. The sufferings and tribulations, although they haven’t always been constant, were conceived by the Christian people as the environment where the evangelistic mission took place for, just as God had summoned prophets and they had undergone mishaps, so he had called Christ’s witnesses in the New Covenant to announce his Gospel. Besides that, the Christian disciples had, since the beginning, the awareness that they were imitating a man/God condemned to a cross. His life and teaching had death as a consequence. The martyrs, continuing this mission, also bore testimony of Christ with death.
