Originally posted by psstein
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We do have Christian martyrdom literature of the first century. Martyrdom aggrandizement is just as evident in the earlier works as the later works. Acts shows the martyrdom of Stephen and James. Luke's dramatic martyrdom of Stephen falls into the typical martyrdom genre I'm talking about that we see illustrated in other works of his time. Of course we also have the drama of Christ's own martyrdom expressed in the gospels, more so in Matthew. The second century Christian expressions of martyrdom are clearly following a consistent pattern we see expressed from the first century writings about Christian martyrdom (examples: Matthew 5:11-12; Luke 21:16-19; Acts 5:40-41, 9:15-17, 14:21-22, 21:13; Romans 5:3-4; 1 Peter 4:12-16; Hebrews 11:35-38; Revelation 2:10, 20:4). Nothing magically happened in the second century that didn't happen in the first century. The genre never changed. The only thing that inexplicably changes is Luke's handling of the apostle Paul, unless Luke wrote the work before Paul's martyrdom which I feel best explains this inconsistency. Luke also doesn't mention the martyrdom of James (described in Josephus), another key figure in Acts, which I believe adds to this date explanation.
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