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Contributor
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: MT
Posts: 10,656
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www.newadvent.org/cathen/
www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/
These two online catholic encyclopedias seem to provide halfway-scholarly histories of the myths (and almost all of them are no more than myths) on the deaths of the apostles and notable disciples. At least they will tell you the sources and so on. I was sent an email from a Christian club on campus recently about this. I will post the email and I will post the reply.
THE E-MAIL: Subject: How the apostles really died.
"He is no fool, to give what he cannot keep, and to gain what he cannot lose" - J. Elliot
Did you know how the apostles died? This is something I read about which really touches my heart and would make anyone marvel at the zeal and strong faith of the apostles and disciples of our Lord. I would like to share them with you.
Matthew - suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound.
Mark
- died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead.
Luke- was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost.
John - faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.
Peter - was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross. According to church tradition it was because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Jesus Christ had died.
James the Just - the leader of the church in Jerusalem, was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller's club. This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the Temptation.
James the Greater - a son of Zebedee, was a fisherman by trade when Jesus called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, James was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem. The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.
Bartholomew, also known as Nathanael - was a missionary to Asia. He witnessed for our Lord in present day Turkey. Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia where he was flayed to death by a whip.
Andrew - was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it." He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he expired.
Thomas - was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the sub-continent.
Jude, the brother of Jesus - was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.
Matthias - the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.
Barnabas - one of the group of seventy disciples, wrote the Epistle of Barnabas. He preached throughout Italy and Cyprus. Barnabas was stoned to death at Salonica.
Paul - was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67. Paul endured a lengthy imprisonment which allowed him to write his many epistles to the churches he had formed throughout the Roman Empire. These letters, which taught many of the foundational doctrines of Christianity, form a large portion of the New Testament.
*****
How can anyone place so much trust in something or someone unless they have personally experienced and truly believed that it's the truth or it's real?
Perhaps that is also a reminder to us that our sufferings here are indeed minor compared to the intense persecution and cold cruelty faced by the apostles/ disciples during their times for the sake of the Faith.
God Bless... MY REPLY:
Subject: RE: How the apostles really died.
Hello Christian Fellowship! Whenever we get a chain e-mail, it usually feels good to believe it, and we all would like to. Some of them are accurate, and most of them are just plain wrong. The thing about the deaths of the apostles is that all of them (except one) don't have any written record in the New Testament itself. Instead, we have to depend on Catholic church myth. In fact, almost all knowledge of their lives, not just their deaths, are dependent on Catholic church tradition. Can we depend on Catholic church myth? Not really, since many apostle deaths have a diversity of contradictory claims associated with them. And, if the earliest accounts of a apostle's death happened 100-300 years afterward (and almost all of them are that way), then I think the testimony should be taken with a little more than a grain of salt.
The email I am responding to concluded with the challenge: "How can anyone place so much trust in something or someone unless they have personally experienced and truly believed that it's the truth or it's real?"
The implied answer is, "Nobody would sacrifice their lives for something they don't absolutely believe as the truth." Even accepting the legitimacy of mythical accounts of martyrdom, perhaps there would be a better argument for Christianity, since there are many examples of religious leaders dying for their cause, and they probably had some personal uncertainty about it.
Marshall Applewhite -- the leader of the Heaven's Gate cult, who died by drinking rat poison and cyanide.
Jim Jones -- leader of the Jonestown cult, who died by by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid.
David Koresh -- leader of the Branch Davidians, who died when his compound lit fire in a stand-off against federal government law enforcement.
Those are times when people certainly died for what they led people to believe. What follows is mostly my own research on the deaths of the Christian apostles.
Matthew -- According to Catholic Online on Matthew's death, "It is uncertain whether he died a natural death or received the crown of martyrdom."
source: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=84
Notice the phrase, "crown of martyrdom." This reflects the view that martyrdom is an achievement, a prize to be expected from all the great heroes of Christiandom. That was the view taken throughout the entire history of Christianity, established by Jesus Christ himself. Therefore, you would expect that the biographies of the apostles transmitted from Christian to Christian would at times change in favor of them having been martyred--the more horrible the killing, the greater the heroism and more believable the story to religious adherents.
Mark -- "As to the manner of his death, the "Acts" of Mark give the saint the glory of martyrdom, and say that he died while being dragged through the streets of Alexandria; so too the Paschal Chronicle. But we have no evidence earlier than the fourth century that the saint was martyred. This earlier silence, however, is not at all decisive against the truth of the later traditions..."
source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09672c.htm
Peter -- "Concerning the manner of Peter's death, we possess a tradition — attested to by Tertullian at the end of the second century (see above) and by Origen (in Eusebius, 'Hist. Eccl.', II, i) — that he suffered crucifixion. Origen says: 'Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downwards, as he himself had desired to suffer'."
source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11744a.htm
Luke -- "The reports of Luke's life after Paul's death are conflicting. Some early writers claim he was martyred, others say he lived a long life. Some say he preached in Greece, others in Gaul. The earliest tradition we have says that he died at 84 Boeotia after settling in Greece to write his Gospel."
source: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=76
John -- "...according to Tertullian's testimony (De praescript., xxxvi [year 200 CE]), John had been thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil before the Porta Latina at Rome without suffering injury. After Domitian's death the Apostle returned to Ephesus during the reign of Trajan, and at Ephesus he died about A.D. 100 at a great age."
source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08492a.htm
James the Just --
1) Josephus on James the Just: Josephus claims that James was stoned.
"According to a passage in "Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned."
source: Josephus's Jewish Antiquities, (xx.9), 93-94 CE, http://sacred-texts.com/jud/josephus/ant-20.htm
2) Eusebius on James the Just: Eusebius quotes Clement as having said, "But there were two Jameses: one called the Just, who was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple and was beaten to death with a club by a fuller, and another who was beheaded." Eusebius then quotes Hegesippus on the death of James the Just, as having been pushed from the temple and stoned.
"The manner of James' death has been already indicated by the above-quoted words of Clement, who records that he was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple, and was beaten to death with a club. But Hegesippus, who lived immediately after the apostles, gives the most accurate account in the fifth book of his Memoirs. He writes as follows:
[...]
So they went up and threw down the just man, and said to each other, 'Let us stone James the Just.' And they began to stone him, for he was not killed by the fall; but he turned and knelt down and said, 'I entreat you, Lord God our Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' Luke 23:34
[...]
Josephus, at least, has not hesitated to testify this in his writings, where he says, 'These things happened to the Jews to avenge James the Just, who was a brother of Jesus, that is called the Christ. For the Jews slew him, although he was a most just man.' [Note: Josephus actually testifies no such thing. Eusebius was probably wrong in claiming Hegesippus' accuracy.]"
source: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250102.htm
James the Greater -- "According to a tradition, which, as we learn from Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., II, ix, 2, 3 [324 CE]), was received from Clement of Alexandria (in the seventh book of his lost "Hypotyposes"), the accuser who led the Apostle to judgment, moved by his confession, became himself a Christian, and they were beheaded together. As Clement testifies expressly that the account was given him "by those who were before him," this tradition has a better foundation than many other traditions and legends respecting the Apostolic labours and death of St. James, which are related in the Latin "Passio Jacobi Majoris", the Ethiopic "Acts of James", and so on."
source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08279b.htm
Bartholomew -- "The manner of his death, said to have occurred at Albanopolis in Armenia, is equally uncertain; according to some, he was beheaded, according to others, flayed alive and crucified, head downward, by order of Astyages, for having converted his brother, Polymius, King of Armenia. On account of this latter legend, he is often represented in art (e.g. in Michelangelo's Last Judgment) as flayed and holding in his hand his own skin."
source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02313c.htm
Andrew -- "When the Apostles went forth to preach to the Nations, Andrew seems to have taken an important part, but unfortunately we have no certainty as to the extent or place of his labours. Eusebius (H.E. III:1), relying, apparently, upon Origen, assigns Scythia as his mission field: Andras de [eilechen] ten Skythian; while St. Gregory of Nazianzus (Or. 33) mentions Epirus; St. Jerome (Ep. ad Marcell.) Achaia; and Theodoret (on Ps. cxvi) Hellas. Probably these various accounts are correct, for Nicephorus (H.E. II:39), relying upon early writers, states that Andrew preached in Cappadocia, Galatia, and Bithynia, then in the land of the anthropophagi and the Scythian deserts, afterwards in Byzantium itself, where he appointed St. Stachys as its first bishop, and finally in Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, and Achaia. It is generally agreed that he was crucified by order of the Roman Governor, Aegeas or Aegeates, at Patrae in Achaia, and that he was bound, not nailed, to the cross, in order to prolong his sufferings. The cross on which he suffered is commonly held to have been the decussate cross, now known as St. Andrew's, though the evidence for this view seems to be no older than the fourteenth century. His martyrdom took place during the reign of Nero, on 30 November, A.D. 60); and both the Latin and Greek Churches keep 30 November as his feast."
source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01471a.htm
Thomas -- "Strange occurences followed and Christ under the appearence of Thomas exhorted the bride to remain a Virgin. Coming to India Thomas undertook to build a palace for Gundafor, but spend the money entrusted to him on the poor. Gundafor imprisoned him; but the Apostle escaped miraculously and Gundafor was converted. Going about the country to preach, Thomas met with strange adventures from dragons and wild asses. Then he came to the city of King Misdai (Syriac Mazdai), where he converted Tertia the wife of Misdai and Vazan his son. After this he was condemed to death, led out of city to a hill, and pierced through with spears by four soldiers. He was buried in the tomb of the ancient kings but his remains were afterwards removed to the West."
source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14658b.htm
Jude, the brother of Jesus -- "beaten to death with a club, then beheaded post-mortem in 1st century Persia"
source: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj03.htm (no further sources given, this is probably late Armenian myth)
Matthias -- "All further information concerning the life and death of Matthias is vague and contradictory. According to Nicephorus (Hist. eccl., 2, 40), he first preached the Gospel in Judea, then in Ethiopia (that is to say, Colchis) and was crucified. The Synopsis of Dorotheus contains this tradition: Matthias in interiore Æthiopia, ubi Hyssus maris portus et Phasis fluvius est, hominibus barbaris et carnivoris praedicavit Evangelium. Mortuus est autem in Sebastopoli, ibique prope templum Solis sepultus (Matthias preached theGospel to barbarians and cannibals in the interior of Ethiopia, at the harbour of the sea of Hyssus, at the mouth of the river Phasis. He died at Sebastopolis, and was buried there, near the Temple of the Sun). Still another tradition maintains that Matthias was stoned at Jerusalem by the Jews, and then beheaded (cf. Tillemont, "Mémoires pour servir �* l'histoire eccl. des six premiers siècles", I, 406-7)."
source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10066a.htm
Barnabas -- "Various traditions represent him as the first Bishop of Milan, as preaching at Alexandria and at Rome, whose fourth (?) bishop, St. Clement, he is said to have converted, and as having suffered martyrdom in Cyprus. The traditions are all late and untrustworthy."
source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02300a.htm
Paul -- "Other writers have been more particular concerning his death: they say that it was not by the command of Nero that he was martyred, but by that of the prefects of the city, Nero being then absent; that he was beheaded at Aquae Salviae, about three miles from Rome, on Feb. 22; that he could not be crucified, as Peter was, because he was a freeman of the city of Rome. But there is great uncertainty on these subjects, so that we cannot positively rely on any account that even the ancients have transmitted to us concerning the death of this apostle; and much less on the accounts given by the moderns; and least of all on those which are to be found in the Martyrologists. Whether Paul ever returned after this to Rome has not yet been satisfactorily proved. It is probable that he did, and suffered death there, as stated above; but still we have no certainty" (Commentary on the Bible by Adam Clarke, commentary on Acts 28:31)."
source: http://www.biblestudy.org/question/sauldie.html
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11-24-2007, 04:52 PM
