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Perfect Martyr - The Stoning of Stephen and the Construction of Christian Identity (Hardcover)
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Perfect Martyr - The Stoning of Stephen and the Construction of Christian Identity (Hardcover)
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A number of recent studies have examined martyrdom as a means of
identity construction. Shelly Matthews argues that the story of St.
Stephen, the first Christian martyr, should be brought into this
scholarly conversation. Stephen's story is told in the biblical
book of Acts. He has, with near unanimity, been classified as
unquestionably a real historical figure, probably because of the
narrative coherence and canonical status of the book in which he
appears. Matthews points to multiple signals that Stephen functions
for Luke (the author of Acts) as a symbolic character. She suggests
reframing the Stephen story not in terms of the impossible task of
ascertaining "what really happened," but in terms of rhetoric and
ethics. All aspects of the Stephen story, she argues, from his name
to the manner in which he is killed, are perfectly suited to the
rhetorical aims of Luke-Acts. The story undergirds Acts' hostile
depiction of the Jews; conforms largely to Roman imperial aims; and
introduces radical identity claims of a "marcionite" character.
Stephen's role as a typological martyr also explains this
2nd-century text's otherwise eccentric treatment of Christian
martyrdom. Matthews juxtaposes the Stephen story with related
extra-canonical narratives of the martyrdom of James, thus
undercutting the perfect coherence and singularity of the canonical
narrative and evoking a more complex historical narrative of
violence, solidarity, and resistance among Jews and Christians
under empire. Finally, she looks at the traditional reason Stephen
is considered the perfect martyr: his dying prayer for the
forgiveness of his persecutors. Noting that this prayer was
frequently read as idealizing Stephen, while having no effect on
those for whom he prayed, she discovers a parallel the Roman
discourse of clemency. Any other reading, she says, poses a
potentially radical challenge to the cosmic framework of talionic
justice, which explains the prayer's complicated reception history.
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