2 - Ignatius and IV Maccabees

Summary

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Ignatius of Antioch, as we know him from his letters, is that his zeal for death at the hands of the Roman authorities is wholly untouched by the language of martyrdom. As Charles Munier recently observed, “Ignace ne connait pas encore les acceptions techniques des termes μáρτυς, μαρτύριον, pour désigner le témoignage sanglant; bien mieux, il ne connaît aucun terme réservé à cette signification.” Ignatius's career is assigned by Eusebius to the early second century (HE 3.36.2–4), and his sanguinary demise at Rome is put, not perhaps with complete accuracy, in AD 107 (Chron.). If μáρτυς had meant martyr at that time, Ignatius would undoubtedly have availed himself of the word.