conkermaniac

I don't think that many of Christ's closest followers knew that they were dying for a lie. They were obviously being duped by this Jesus guy.

Clutch

The more relevant question, to my mind, is: Does the bible represent any martyrs as being killed strictly on account of holding to Jesus' physical resurrection, and as having a chance to avoid death by recanting the belief in Jesus' physical resurrection specifically?

If not, then not only is "Nobody would die for a lie" demonstrably false from hundreds of known incidents, but it's not even relevant.

MortalWombat

I believe there are only two instances that one could count as martyrdom of Christians in the whole New Testament, and both of them occur in Acts.

1. Stephen

It is inferred in the story that Stephen is stoned for blasphemy. Nowhere is it shown that he talks about the physical resurrection of Jesus. The closest thing to that would be right before the mob seizes him, he cries out "Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But he doesn't mention the Resurrection in his whole speech to the Sanhedrin. And keep in mind that according to Acts, Stephen was a later convert, not an eyewitness to Jesus, so he wouldn't have even been in a position to know whether or not the Resurrection was a lie.

Acts says that after Stephen's death, the church of Jerusalem was persecuted and scattered, but no deaths are mentioned during this persecution, just that some were imprisoned.

2. James the brother of John

All it says about James the brother of John is that Herod had him put to the sword, but no reason is given.