Late legends and early evidence about the apostles

Program / Course 16: Historical Defense / Lesson 6.2

What you will learn

• Identify which apostle deaths are attested by early sources and which depend on late tradition.
• Explain the character and date of the apocryphal Acts that supply many details.
• Describe what the early evidence does and does not show about the apostles suffering for the resurrection claim.
• Make a careful statement of the argument from apostolic martyrdom.

The big idea

A common claim says that all the apostles died as martyrs for preaching the resurrection. The early evidence is much narrower. Acts reports the execution of James the son of Zebedee. Josephus reports the stoning of James the brother of Jesus. Clement of Rome and later writers indicate that Peter and Paul were killed, probably at Rome. For most of the others there is no reliable early report of how they died. The many vivid stories come from late and often legendary texts. This does not remove the argument from martyrdom, but it forces it to be stated modestly.

Key terms

Apocryphal Acts

Late second and third century stories of the travels and deaths of the apostles, such as the Acts of Peter, Acts of Andrew and Acts of Thomas. They are mostly romances and not reliable history.

Church tradition

Beliefs handed down in the church about the past. Its reliability varies and has to be judged for each case.

Eusebius

Bishop of Caesarea (about AD 260 to 340), who wrote the first Church History, collecting and quoting earlier writers.

Legend

A story that grows over time and often reflects the needs of a community more than the facts.

Martyrologies

Lists of martyrs and their feast days compiled in later centuries.

The Twelve

The inner group of disciples chosen by Jesus. Their names differ slightly in the lists of the Gospels, and Matthias replaced Judas (Acts 1:26).

Background

Popular accounts of the apostles’ deaths are specific: Andrew crucified on an X-shaped cross, Bartholomew flayed alive, Thomas speared in India. They are often repeated as if they were well documented. A historian asks where each comes from and how early it is. The answer for most of them is that the source is a text written one hundred and fifty years or more after the events, or later still.

This does not show that the apostles were not martyrs. It shows that the claim has to be tested one case at a time. For some the evidence is good, for some it is thin, and for others it is nonexistent. What follows divides the cases accordingly.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The best attested cases

James the son of Zebedee: Acts 12:2 says that Herod Agrippa killed James the brother of John with the sword. Acts was written some decades later, but the event is quite specific and Agrippa’s reign (AD 41 to 44) fixes the date. This is strong evidence for an apostle killed for the movement, though Acts does not say that he was offered his life if he recanted.

James the brother of Jesus: Josephus says that he was stoned on the order of the high priest Ananus about AD 62. James was an important leader but is not counted among the Twelve. Christian writers later add details, such as Hegesippus (known through Eusebius), which are often legendary.

Step 2: Peter and Paul

Peter and Paul are linked with Rome. The earliest suggestions of their deaths are in John 21:18-19, which hints that Peter will be taken where he does not want to go and glorify God by his death, and in 1 Clement 5 (about AD 96), which refers to Peter’s many labors and to Paul’s imprisonment and witness before rulers. Ignatius, writing to Rome, says he is not issuing commands to them as Peter and Paul did (Romans 4:3). Dionysius of Corinth, around AD 170, wrote that both taught in Italy and were martyred at the same time, as Eusebius reports. Around AD 200, Gaius of Rome mentioned the monuments of the apostles on the Vatican hill and the Ostian road.

The details are later. That Peter was crucified upside down comes from the Acts of Peter, a late second century romance, and that Paul was beheaded is found in the Acts of Paul and in Tertullian. Acts itself does not narrate Paul’s death. These later details may be correct, but they are not strongly supported.

Step 3: The other apostles

For most of the Twelve, reliable early reports of their deaths do not exist. The traditions about Andrew, Thomas, Bartholomew, Philip, Matthew, Thaddaeus and others come from the apocryphal Acts, from legends such as those later collected in the Golden Legend, and from regional traditions in places like India and Armenia. Some may preserve a historical memory. None can be shown to do so by independent evidence.

On John, the oldest traditions say he lived to old age in Ephesus (Irenaeus and Polycrates of Ephesus, late second century). Judas, according to Matthew and Acts, died by suicide or a fall.

Step 4: What the argument can claim

Defenders of the argument from martyrdom say that the question is not whether every apostle died for the faith but whether the first witnesses were willing to suffer for their testimony. Paul’s own sufferings (2 Corinthians 11), the death of James son of Zebedee, the death of James the Lord’s brother, and the strong tradition about Peter and Paul together show that leaders and witnesses faced danger. The claim then is a modest one: a number of key witnesses suffered for the message, and some probably died.

Critics respond that willingness to suffer shows only sincerity, as the next lesson explains, and that the modest claim is no longer the dramatic one often given. They add that some executions were for political reasons, not for refusing to recant a specific claim, and that no source says an apostle was offered release for denying the resurrection.

Step 5: Using tradition responsibly

Church tradition has value as a record of what early communities believed, and it should not be discarded because it is late. A responsible student separates three levels: events reported by early sources, events reported by later sources with plausible claims, and legends. The responsible conclusion for each level is different: confidence, tentative acceptance, and treating the story as a witness to later devotion.

Catholic and Orthodox Christians have long honored the apostles’ feasts and shrines, and archaeological work under St. Peter’s in Rome has been interpreted by the Catholic Church as supporting the tradition of Peter’s burial there. Scholars debate how much that evidence proves.

1. How early is the earliest source for this apostle’s death?
2. Is the report from a historian, a letter, or a romance?
3. Does the source say the apostle was offered a way out, and refused?
4. Which details seem to come from the author’s own aims?
5. What is the safest statement I can make about the apostles’ deaths?
6. Do I give church tradition the same scrutiny I give other late sources?

Examples

Different perspectives

Catholic

The Catholic Church maintains the tradition that Peter was martyred in Rome and buried on the Vatican hill. Pope Paul VI said in 1968 that bones found under the basilica were identified with Peter’s. Catholic scholars acknowledge that the apocryphal Acts are unreliable for the other apostles.

Orthodox

Orthodox Christians commemorate the apostles’ martyrdom in their feast days and honor Andrew as the founder of the church of Constantinople by tradition. Orthodox scholars generally keep these traditions as part of the church’s memory while distinguishing legend and history.

Protestant apologists

Many cite the deaths of Peter, Paul and James as evidence of the sincerity of the first witnesses. Careful apologists, such as those who prefer to speak of a few well attested cases, avoid the claim that all the apostles died as martyrs.

Skeptical scholars

Bart Ehrman and others point out that most traditions about the deaths of the apostles are late and legendary, and conclude that the claim that all of them were martyred is unfounded. They accept the evidence for James, Peter and Paul.

Historians of early Christianity

They treat the apocryphal Acts as valuable evidence for second and third century Christianity but not for the apostolic age, and stress that tradition needs independent confirmation.

Why it matters

The argument that the apostles died for the resurrection is common and persuasive in appearance. A student who knows exactly which cases are well founded can use the argument correctly, or avoid using it, and will not be caught by a challenge to claims that go beyond the evidence.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. Have you heard the claim that all the apostles were martyred? Where?
2. How should you treat a tradition that is probably partly true but cannot be checked?
3. What is lost when an argument claims too much?
4. Why might communities have wanted to tell stories about the deaths of the apostles?

Independent assignment

A responsible table of apostle deaths

In your own notebook, list the Twelve and Paul, James the Lord’s brother and Stephen. For each, give the traditional account of the death, the earliest source and its date, and a rating of firm, possible or legendary. Add 200 words on what the table allows you to say. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study

• Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians (1 Clement) Read chapter 5 on Peter and Paul.
• Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Ephesians Compare with Ignatius’ own words about apostolic authority and suffering.
• Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies Read his statements on John in Ephesus.
• J. B. Lightfoot, ed., The Apostolic Fathers Use for the early evidence outside the New Testament.
• John 21:18 Jesus hints at the manner of Peter’s death.
• 2 Timothy 4:6 Paul speaks of being ready to be offered.
• Acts 12:2 Herod kills James the brother of John.