1. Raphael, S. P. traces the history of the notion of afterlife in his Jewish Views of the Afterlife (London, 1994).Google Scholar His analysis relies heavily on biblical, apocryphal and pseudepigraphic, rabbinic, midrashic philosophical, kabbalistic, and Hasidic literature. His book, however, does not include many of the sources analyzed below, of which some show attempts at historical writing. Urbach, E. E. addressed the issue of reward and punishment in The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs (Jerusalem, 1979), pp. 436–448, and on suffering, pp. 444–448.Google Scholar

2. By martyrdom I refer to forms of voluntary death that are exercised in a religious context, a phenomenon usually described in rabbinic Judaism as “the sanctification of the Divine Name” (qiddush ha-Shem). The martyr, therefore, is one who consciously chooses death over life for religious reasons. On rabbinic definition and usage of the term, see Grunewald, E., “Qiddush ha-Shem: An Examination of a term” (Hebrew), Molad 24 (1968): 476–484,Google Scholar and Saftai, S., “Qiddush ha-Shem in the Teachings of the Tannaim” (Hebrew), Zion 43 (1979): 28–42. Voluntary death in rabbinic writings will be analyzed below.Google Scholar

3. Although this fundamental caveat should always be observed when dealing with martyrological accounts, each account deserves an individual treatment. The sources describing events during the Crusades, for example, reflect genuine attempts at writing historical reports, although recording history was not consistently their only objective. See discussion and relevant scholarly works below.

4. 2 Maccabees 6:18–30. The translation is from the Dropsie College edition of Jewish Apocryphal Literature, ed. Zeitlin, S., trans. S. Tedesche (New York, 1953).Google Scholar

5. Ibid.

6. On the story of the mother and her seven sons, see the classical works of Guttmann, J., “The Mother and Her Seven Sons in the Aggada and the Second and Fourth Maccabean Books” (Hebrew), in Commentationes Iudaico-Hellenisticae in Memoriam Iohanis Lewy, ed. Schwabe, M. and J. Guttmann (Jerusalem, 1949), pp. 25–37,Google Scholar and Cohen, G. D., “The Story of Hannah and Her Seven Sons in Hebrew Literature,” in Mordecai M. Kaplan Jubilee Volume (New York, 1953), Hebrew sec, pp. 109–172.Google Scholar

7. 2 Maccabees 7.

8. Representations of the resurrection of the dead appear in several places in the Bible. Ezekiel's vision of the awakened dry bones in the valley (37:1–13) provides a well-known illustration. Other passages appear in Isaiah 26:19 and the apocalyptic vision of Daniel 12:1–2. See also Birkeland, H., “The Belief in the Resurrection of the Dead in the Old Testament,” Stadia Theologica 3 (1950): 60–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The difference between the biblical depiction and 2 Maccabees lies in the fact that the Bible recounts prophecies, while 2 Maccabees describes “actual events.” Moreover, the prophecies refer to the nation of Israel and its collective fate, not to individuals and certainly not to individual martyrs. Daniel's description of a final judgment, punishment, and reward is somewhat closer in nature to that of 2 Maccabees, which is not surprising given the fact that Daniel's last six chapters were written sometime around the date of the Hasmonean revolt. To these biblical depictions we may add the story of Elisha, who brings a boy back to life (2 Kings 4:32–35, 1 Kings 17:17–22). Elisha's revival of the boy, however, describes a miracle rather than a reward. For a possible Zoroastrian influence on the concept of bodily resurrection in Ezekiel, see Lang, B., “Street Theater, Raising the Dead, and the Zoroastrian Connection in Ezekiel's Prophecy,” in Ezekiel and His Book, ed. Lust, J. (Leuven University Press, 1986), pp. 297–316;Google ScholarMcDannell, C. and Lang, B., Heaven: A History (New Haven, 1988), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar And compareGreenspoon, L. J., “The Origin of the Idea of Resurrection,” in Tradition in Transformation, ed. Halpem, B. and Levenson, J.D. (Bloomington,, 1981), pp. 247–350.Google Scholar

9. Zeitlin, Solomon, The Rise and Fall of the Judaean State (Philadelphia, 1968), p. 90;Google ScholarTcherikover, V., Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews (New York, 1979), p. 200;Google Scholaridem, , “Antiochus in Jerusalem” (Hebrew), Tarbiz 20 (1949): 61–67;Google Scholaridem, , “The Persecution of Antiochus and Its Problems” (Hebrew), Eshkolot 1 (1954): 86–109;Google ScholarBaer, Y., “The Persecution of the Monotheistic Religion by Antiochus Epiphanes” (Hebrew), Zion 38 (1971): 32–47;Google ScholarDerfler, S., The Hasmonean Revolt: Rebellion or Revolution (Lewiston, 1990), 4:59–64;Google ScholarSilvers, J., The Hasmoneans and their Supporters (Atlanta, 1990), p. 24.Google Scholar

10. On the “rationalization” of martyrdom, see Agus, A.E., The Binding of Isaac and the Messiah (Albany, N.Y., 1988), pp. 14–16.Google Scholar

11. G. W. Bowersock believes that the two stories of martyrdom in 2 Maccabees are a late addition to the text. He writes: “So if the two stories in the books of the Maccabees have nothing to do either with the authentic history of the Maccabees or with the lost original text that recounted it, it may be suggested that they have everything to do with the aspirations and literature of the early Christians.” In other words, he sees the stories as the product of a first-century “or slightly later” Palestinian copier or translator. Martyrdom and Rome (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 12–13. Although Bowersock's suggestion would support the article's theses, I did not find enough evidence to accept his theory.

12. The theology that followed King Josiah's reforms maintained no promise for the dead regardless of circumstances. See, for example, Job 14:12, 26:5–6, 42:10; and especially Isaiah 26:14, “They are dead, they can never live. Rephaim [i.e., the dead] they can never rise,” or Ecclesiastes 9:5, “The living know they will die, but the dead know nothing, nor they have any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.” See M. Smith's revised version of his essential Th.D. dissertation, Palestinian Parties and Politics That Shaped the Old Testament (New York, 1971), where he describes the outcome of the conflict between the Yahweh-alone and the syncretist parties. See also Albright, W. F., Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan (London, 1968);Google ScholarLang, B., Monotheism and the Prophetic Minority (Sheffield, 1983), pp. 13–59;Google Scholar McDannell and Lang, Heaven: A History, pp. 1–11; Smith, M. S., The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (San Francisco, 1990).Google Scholar

13. 2 Maccabees 12:4315.

14. According to Zeitlin, “These Judaeans… were the first martyrs in history.” Rise and Fall of the Judaean State, p. 91. See also Klausner, J., History of the Second Temple (Hebrew), 5 vols., 2nd ed. (Jerusalem, 1950), 3:17.Google ScholarKochva, B.Bar too sees these refugees as “martyrs (cf. 1 Maccabees 1.63) who chose to be passive and refrain from all defensive action.” Judas Maccabaeus (New Rochelle, N.Y., 1989), p. 482CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15. 1 Maccabees 2:29–38.

16. On the identity and ideology of these thousand refugees, see the divers opinions of K. Schubert, The Dead Sea Community (New York, 1959), pp. 32–35; Cross, F.N., Jr., The Library of Ancient Qumran (Garden City, N.Y., 1961), pp. 131–134;Google ScholarMantel, D., Anshe Keneset ha-Gedolah (Tel Aviv, 1983) pp. 104,142;Google ScholarKampen, J., The Hasideans and the Origin of Pharisaism (Atlanta, 1988), pp. 76,81;Google ScholarSievers, J., The Hasmoneans and Their Supporters: From Mattathias to the Death of John Hyrcanus [(Atlanta, 1990), p. 26.Google Scholar On whether or not Jews fought on the Sabbath and Mattathias' reaction to the refugees' martyrdom (1 Maccabees 2:39–41), see Herr, D., “The Question of Halakhot of War on the Sabbath” (Hebrew), Tarbitz 30 (1971): 242–256,Google Scholar 341–356; Mantel, Anshe Keneset ha-Gedolah, pp. 102–107; Kampen, Hasidean, pp. 78–80; Siever, Hasmoneans, p. 39; Kochva, B. Bar, The Battles of the Hasmoneans: The Time of Judas Maccabaeus (Jerusalem, 1980), pp. 331–342;Google ScholarSchiffrnan, L.H., Law, Custom, and Messianism in the Dead Sea Sect (Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1993), pp. 130–131.Google Scholar

17. A. Seth Pringle-Pattison's general statement about divine justice and punishment applies also to our study cases.“Justice itself, for primitive thought—and for a great deal of thought that is not primitive—is mainly concerned with punishment,” not with reward. The Idea of Immortality (Oxford, 1922), p. 119.

18. Referring to the first century C.E., Flusser, D. argues that “There is also, as far as can be seen, no instance showing that resurrection should be the crown and consequence of the expiatory death of a martyr.” Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (Jerusalem, 1988), p. 235. Flusser, however, seems to overlook 2 Maccabees 7, unless he meant to say that resurrection was an integral part of the eschatological drama in general, not only of the martyrological one.Google Scholar

19. In accordance with my definition of martyrdom, I am referring here only to conflicts with Jews who were ready to be killed rather than let the Romans change the religious status quo in Jerusalem, but refused to take up arms. As is well known, the conflicts with the militant Jewish factions ended in bloodshed.

20. Josephus Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII, iii, 1. The following translations of Josephus' works are from the Loeb Classical Library.

21. Josephus, Ant. XVIII, viii, 2.

22. Ibid, 2–3.

23. Ibid., 2.

24. Philo of Alexandria, The Embassy to Gaius, XXXII, 229–236, trans. F. H. Colson, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass., 1962).

25. Ibid., XXIX, 192. Philo's fatalistic view resurfaces in his On Joseph 68. “I will fear none of the tyrant's menaces, even though he threaten me with death, for death is a lesser evil than dissimulation.”

26. See also his interpretation of Paradise and the Tree of Life. “Of Paradise,” he writes, “so far as the literal meaning is concerned, there is no need to give an explicit interpretation…. Symbolically, however, it is wisdom or knowledge of the divine and human and their causes.” On Genesis II, 8, and see also II, 9.

27. On the Preliminary Studies 86–87.

28. Josephus, War VII, viii, 7. From his narration of Mattathias' speech to his sons, it is clear that immortality does not indicate a postmortem condition. In his opinion, only the fame of deeds and heroism are immortal. “For though our bodies are mortal and subject to death, we can through the memory of our deeds, attain the heights of immortality.” Ant. XII, vi, 3. On Masada and relevant bibliography, see Feldman, L.H., “Masada: A Critique of Recent Scholarship,” in Christianity, Judaism and Other Greco-Roman Cults, ed. by Neusner, J. (Leiden, 1975), pt. pp. 218–248. Interestingly, the Jewish Kantian philosopher Hermann Cohen held a similar view. In his opinion, it is not the i0ndividual that is immortal, but only his heritage as it influences human history. A. Arkush, “Immortality,” in Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, ed. A. A. Cohen and P. Mendes-Flohr (New York, 1987), pp. 479–82.Google Scholar

29. War II, viii, 5. Josephus' soldiers, who threaten to kill him if he does not agree to kill himself with them, do not mention supernatural rewards as an incentive for dying. Instead they offered him only a noble place in the history of his people. “If you [Josephus] meet death willingly, you will have died as general of the Jews, if unwillingly, as a traitor.” War II, viii, 4.

30. On suicide as a virtuous ideal in Roman literature, see Cicero's account of Cato of Utica in Tusculan Disputations 1:71–75 or Seneca, On Providence 2:9–12 and Epistle 12:10, to mention only a few examples. Ant. XIV, iv, 3 is one illustration that Josephus had his Roman historian counterparts in mind when writing.

31. On the sects, see Finkelstein, L., The Pharisees (Philadelphia, 1940), esp. vol. 2, pp. 110–112,Google Scholar 145–159, 178; Guttmann, A., Rabbinic Judaism in the Making (Detroit, 1970), pp. 124–141;Google ScholarMoyen, J. Le, Les Sadducees (Paris, 1972);Google ScholarSandmel, S., Judaism and Christian Beginnings (New York, 1978), pp. 154–165;Google ScholarNeusner, J.,jurfaism in the Beginning of Christianity (London, 1984), p. 26;Google ScholarSchiffinan, L.H., Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls (Philadelphia, 1994), pp. 72–81, their beliefs, pp. 154–157.Google Scholar

32. See, for example, San. 90a-b, where it is declared that those who denounce resurrection after death will not be resurrected. I will return to the rabbinic period below.

33. Josephus, War II, viii, 14, and Ant. XVIII, i, 4. See also Ant. X, xi, 7.

34. Josephus, Ant. XVIII, i, 16. According to Paul, the Sadducees fit the segment of society that opposes the belief in resurrection and instead believed that it was better for them to “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 1 Corinthians 15, especially, 15:32. Acts 23:8 also relates that the Sadducees did not believe in angels and spirits.

35. Josephus, War II, viii, 14, and Ant. XVIII, i, 3, and see L. Finkelstein, Movo le-Masekhot Avot ve-Avot de Rabbi Natan (New York, 1950), pp. 222–223.

36. Josephus, War II, viii, 14; Ant. XVIII, i, 3; Acts 23:6, “revive and live again.” See also, T. F. Glasson, Greek Influence in Jewish Eschatology (London, 1961), pp. 30–31.

37. War III, viii, 5. In Against Apion he writes that those who live in accordance with the laws, including those who have died for them, “God has granted [them] a renewed existence and in the revolution of the ages the gift of a better life.” This, however, is not to say that those who died for the laws did so in order to be rewarded. As he indicates, the motivation of the “many of our countrymen” was only their preference “to brave all manner of suffering rather than to utter a single word against the Law.” Against Apion II, 29. Also, in Ibid. I, 8:42–43, and II, 32, the willingness to suffer death is explained in relation to the fear of transgressing die Law. In these descriptions, too, reward is absent. In Ant. XVIII, i, 3, Josephus says that, according to the Pharisees, all souls survive death, regardless of the way it was achieved, and that the righteous and the evil receive their “rewards and punishments under the earth.”

38. Schiffrnan, L.H., “At the Crossroads: Tannaitic Perspectives on the Jewish-Christian Schism,” in Jewish and Christian Self-definition, ed. Sanders, E.P., 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1980), pp. 140–141;Google Scholar idem, The Eschatological Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Atlanta, 1989), pp. 1–9. On the connection between the world to come and the resurrection of the dead, see Moore, G.F., Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era (Cambridge, Mass., 1927–30), vol. 2, pp. 378–385, 387, 392–395.Google Scholar

39. Sandmel, Judaism and Christian Beginnings, pp. 200–208, and esp. 208. Schiffinan, Law, Custom, and Messianism, pp. 268–311; Moore, Judaism, 2:323–376. As Schiffinan points out, a clear ideological combination of the restorative and Utopian trends is evident for the first time in the Qumran documents, which set the foundations for the Jewish messianic ideology, with its special dialectic characteristics. Also, Schiffinan, Eschatological Community, pp. 3–8; idem, “Jewish Sectarianism in Second Temple Times,” in Great Schisms in Jewish History, ed. Jospe, R. and Wagner, S.M. (New York, 1981), pp. 116.Google Scholar

40. On the Essenes and a possible connection to the sect at Qumran, see Smith, M., “The Description of the Essenes in Josephus and the Philosophumena,” Hebrew Union College Annual 29 (1958): 273–313;Google ScholarRussell, D.S., The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic (Philadelphia, 1964), pp. 22, 23–24;Google ScholarVermes, G., “The Etymology of 'Essenes,.” Revue de Qumrân 2 (1960): 427–44;Google Scholar idem, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran in Perspective (Philadelphia, 1981); idem and Goodman, M.D., eds., The Essenes According to the Classical Sources (Sheffield, 1989); Schiffinan, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, pp. 78–79.Google Scholar

41. Josephus, War II, viii, 11. See also Ant. XVIII, i, 5. Philo does not discuss the Essene eschatology in his description. The three sectarian views come into play in Jesus' dispute with the Sadducees. They posed the dilemma of a remarried widow who, in accordance with Jewish Law, had to marry her husband's six brothers after each one's death. Jesus' solution of the Sadducees' dilemma clearly indicated that he approached resurrection differently. Accordingly, the resurrection of the dead would be more than the simple resurrection that the Pharisees had suggested. Those “worthy of resurrection from the dead… become like angels and are no longer liable of death. Children of the resurrection, they are children of God.” Luke 20, Matt. 22:23–33, Mark 12:18–27. In other words, their resurrection is not in this corporeal world. By this answer, Jesus avoided the dilemma the Pharisees would face when trying to solve the Sadducees' question about the widow, which was based on the Pharisaic belief in a future resurrection in the physical world. Josephus' report of the widow Glaphyra in War II, vii, 4, is reminiscent of the above-mentioned gospels.

42. War II, viii, 10. The statement “in order to induce them [the Essenes] to blaspheme their lawgiver or to eat some forbidden thing” clearly draws on Second Maccabees. The talmudic reports indicate that the Roman decrees forced Jews to transgress only positive commandments. The transgression of negative commandments, such as eating pork and bowing before idols, was characteristic of Antiochus' persecution. “Confident that they would receive them back again” also echoes Second Maccabees.

43. According to S. Baron, it is possible that The Assumption of Moses, also known as The Testament of Moses, was written after the fall of Jerusalem. Baron, Social and Religious History, vol. 2, p. 59. Russell dates the book somewhere between 6 and 30 c.E. Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, pp. 58–59, 148, n. 1. “The Assumption of Moses,” in Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, ed. R. H. Charles, vol. 2 (Oxford, 1913), pp. 407–424. See also The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. J. H. Charlesworth (New York, 1985), vol. 1, pp. 919–921.

44. Assumption of Moses, chap. 9. See also Licht, J., “Taxo or the Apocalyptic Doctrine of Vengeance,” Journal of Jewish Studies 12, nos. 3–4 (1961): 95–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45. Chap. 10. Quotations are from Charles's edition. As J. Priest points out, “Whether this is to be interpreted literally or metaphorically remains problematical.” Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1, p. 933, n f. The phrase in terram, which is translated as “in Gehenna,” does not necessarily indicate a contrast between heaven and Gehenna, but rather, a contrast between the salvation of Israel and the fall of its adversaries. Ibid., n. f.

46. Assumption of Moses 9:1–7. This is not the first time the book makes such claims. See, for example, 1:18, 10:1–10.

47. The following quotations are from The Third and Fourth Books of Maccabees, edited and translated by M. Hadas, in the Dropsie College Edition of Jewish Apocryphal Literature, 1953. For dating, see introduction, p. 96, and also Bickermann, E., “The Date of IV Maccabees,” in Louis Ginzberg Jubilee Volume (New York, 1945), pp. 105–112.Google Scholar Hadas accepts Guttmann's specific placement of the book in the reign of Caligula. Others place the origin of the book in Lietzmann, Alexandria. H., The Beginnings of the Christian Church (New York, 1922), p. 107.Google Scholar In contrast, Hadas sets the origin of the book in Antioch, pp. 109–113. Similarly, G. W. Bowersock suggests Asia Minor as the book's source of origin, Martyrdom and Rome, p. 79, and inclines toward Dupont-Sommer's, A. dating of it to the period of Trajan or Hadrian, Le quatrieme livre des Machabees (Paris, 1939).Google Scholar

48. Maccabees 17:18, 7:19, 16:25, 13:17, and see also the statement about the martyrs' mother in 17:5 “lighting the way to piety for your seven starlike sons; honored by God, and with them fixed in heaven. For your childbearing was of our Father Abraham [emphasis added].” These descriptions resonate contemporary Christian views, and it is possible that the accounts reflect Christian influence. The idea of the martyrs being received by the patriarchs has its parallel in Luke 20:37, “Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

49. Dualism of human nature was more typical of Greek philosophy. See Russell, Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, p. 153.

50. In the speech of Eleazar: “Make my blood an expiation for them, and take my life as a ransom for theirs “ (6:29); “Great is the trial of soul, and the danger laid up in eternal tribulation, for those who transgress the commandment of God” (13:15); “And it was because of them that our nation obtained peace; they renewed the observance of the Law in their country, and lifted their enemies' siege. But the tyrant Antiochus was punished upon earth, and is yet chastised after his death” (18:4–5).

51. Grimm, C.L.W.,“Viertes Buch der Maccabaer,” in Kurzgefasstes exegetisches handbuch zu en Apokryphen des alten Testaments (Leipzig, 1857), p. 289; J. Freudenthal, Die Flavius Josephus beigelegte Schrift ueber Herrschaft der Vernunft (IV Makkabaerbuch), eine Predigt aus dem ersten nachchristlichen Jahrhundert (Breslau, 1869), pp. 117–120, 123, 165; Hadas, Third and Fourth Books of Maccabees, pp. 25, 186.Google Scholar

52. In Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2:554, n. b.

53. Deissmann, A. offers a different structure, “Das vierte Makkabaerbuch,” in L. Kautzsch's Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des alten Testaments (Tübingen, 1900), 2:149–177, but, as Hadas points out, without solving the problems, p. 236.Google Scholar

54. Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2:561, n. d.

55. E. SchOrer already suggested that “the text seems to be not quite free from Christian interpolations.” The Literature of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus (New York, 1972), pp. 244–246, especially n. 30.

56. “Believing that to God they die not… but live to God” has its parallels in the New Testament: Rom. 6:10, 14:8; Gal. 2:19; on the patriarchs, Mark 12:26; Matt. 22:32; Luke 20:37–38. The grammatically odd verse “have their stand before the throne of God and live the life of eternal blessedness” has its parallel in Rev. 7:15. It is worth quoting this passage about Christian martyrs in full. “They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb. That is why they stand before the throne of God and minister to him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will dwell with them…. the lamb who is at the heart of the throne will be their shepherd.” According to St. Augustine, the Church preserved and honored the Maccabean books because of their martyred heroes. City of God 18:36. On stylistic and conceptual similarities between Fourth Maccabees and Dio Chrysostom, see DuPont-Sommer, Le quatrième livre des Machabees, p. 76, and conversely, Hadas, Third and Fourth Books of Maccabees, pp. 98–99, esp. n. 15. For the influence of the book on Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, and Ambrose, see Hadas, pp. 123, 127. See also Frend, W. H. C., Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Garden City, N.Y., 1967), pp. 18–21,Google Scholar esp. nn. 159–160, and pp. 417, 464, 558. About the possible influence of the book on Ignatius, see Munier's, C. survey, “Ou en est la question d 'Ignace d 'Antioche? Bilan d'un siècle de recherches 1870–1988,” in Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt 2 27:1 (1993), pp. 359–484. In contrast, see Anderson, who suggests “a common climate of thought and religious imagination shared by both.” Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2:539, followed by Bowersock, Martyrdom and Rome, pp. 77–81.Google Scholar

57. Hadas rightly argues that “among the Jews, apparently, the book did not survive the Hellenized milieu out of which it rose,” p. 123, and “It is true that Jewish tradition offers no direct evidence of a commemoration of the martyrs of IV Maccabees.” But he then goes on to say: “It is natural to assume that the Christian commemoration of these martyrs was a continuation of a Jewish institution,” p. 109.

58. To this day, the Eighteen Benedictions prayer, recited daily in synagogues, asserts: “You are eternally powerful, O Lord; You are mighty to save. You sustain the living with loving kindness. You make the dead live with great mercy. You support those who fall… and carry out the faith to those how sleep in the dust. Who can be like You, master of powers, and who can resemble You, a king who brings death, and makes alive, and makes salvation sprout? You are reliable in that You bring the dead to life. Blessed are You, O Lord, who brings the dead back to life.” Quoted in Sandmel, Judaism and Christian Beginnings, p. 148.

59. See also the second-century M. Sanhedrin 10.1.

60. Ket. 111b, San. 90a

61. San. 92b makes a connection between resurrection and the three protagonists of the Book of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who were eventually viewed in Jewish literature as martyrs, although they had never died as such. To be sure, in the talmudic passage the miracle that the three companions experienced is related to the resurrection that Ezekiel envisioned, but the passage does not claim that resurrection is the martyrs' reward. The resurrection in the valley of Dura (Daniel 3:33) is one of six miracles that God performed on the day He saved the three biblical heroes in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar. In contrast, Agus sees a connection between martyrdom and resurrection in the passage. Binding of Isaac and the Messiah, pp. 43–44. Pesikta de-Rab Kahana, zot habberaka, associates Isaac's akedah with the future resurrection of Israel. It is not clear whether the Pesikta views Isaac as an actual sacrifice, although he is depicted as a willing participant. The nature of resurrection, however, is identical to what the Pharisees had envisioned; that is, the final and predetermined apocalyptic event in which God will bring the dead to life, only here the resurrection of the nation, not of Isaac, will come to be because of his willingness to be sacrificed. On the development of the notion of the actual akedah, see Levenson, J. D., The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son (New Haven, 1993), esp. pp. 173–199.Google Scholar

62. Similar prohibitions already existed in the Book of Jubilees, chap. 20. See again Safrai, “Qiddush ha-Shem, ” p. 39.

63. For example, Baba Kama 61a, “No halakhic matter may be quoted in the name of one who surrenders himself to meet death for words of the Torah.” Baba Kama, followed by the story of David pouring out the water brought him by his soldiers (2 Sam. 23:16–17), emphasizes that one should not look forward to risking his life in the name of the Torah. Also, Ber. 3a, 8b, Tan. 5b, Shab. 32a, Pes. 112a. On the importance of life in the Bible, see Greenberg, M., “The Sanctity of Life in the Bible” (Hebrew), in Sanctity of Life and Martyrdom, ed. I. M. Garni and Ravitzky, A. (Jerusalem, 1992), pp. 35–54.Google Scholar

64. On the verse and its meaning, see D. Schwartz, “What Should He Answer? And He Should Live by Them” (Hebrew), in Sanctity of Life, pp. 6–83.

65. San. 74a-b, 75a, 110b; A.Z. 27b; Pes. 25a-b, 26a, 53b; Shab. 130a; YT San. 3, 21b.

66. This is not to say that these narratives do not have legal functions. One of the purposes of these narratives is to validate the halakhic rulings, but their legal implications need to be deduced.

67. In Pesikta Rabbati 43 the mother is saying to her hesitant young son: “O my son, do you wish that in the time-to-come all your brothers be in the bosom of Abraham?” The phrase “the time-to-come” is missing in the Nushat Ha-Garaz printed edition, while Friedmann's edition, based on the Vienna 1880 editio princeps, adds to the mother's statement: “while you are in the bosom of Esau.” R. Ulmer notes in her synoptic edition of Pesikta Rabbati that the Warsaw, 1893 edition and the Friedmann edition, Vienna, 1880, are inadequate. Moreover, she writes: “Friedmann frequently emended the text based upon his own conjecture.” (Atlanta, 1977), vol. 1, p. xxxvii. This may explain the unusual ending and statement in the story and may suggest a late “emendation,” in my opinion medieval. “In the bosom of Abraham” is frequently used in the Hebrew narratives of the First Crusade. These sources and their descriptions are discussed below. Meanwhile, “He [God] will place him [R. Meshullam's son, Isaac] in the bosom of Abraham,” in Habermann, A., Sefer Gezerot Ashkenaz ve-Zarfat (Jerusalem, 1945), pp. 47, 96.Google Scholar

68. Zeitlin, S., “The Legend of the Ten Martyrs and Its Apocalyptic Origins,” Jewish Quarterly Review 36 (1945–46): 1–16;CrossRefGoogle ScholarScholem, G., Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York, 1961), p. 51;Google ScholarDan, J., “The Importance and Meaning of the Story of the Ten Martyrs” (Hebrew), in Studies in Literature Presented to Simon Halkin, ed. Fleischer, E., (Jerusalem, 1973), pp. 15–22;Google Scholaridem, , “The Hekhalot and the Story of the Ten Martyrs” (Hebrew), Eshel Be 'er Sheva 2 (1980): 63–80;Google ScholarHirschler, M., “Midrash Asara Harugei Malkhut” (Hebrew), Sinai 71 (1974): 218–228.Google Scholar

69. Thereafter, he is mentioned as Aher, i.e., a different man or a stranger. Kid. 39b.

70. San. 14a; A.Z. 8b, 27b; Y. A.Z. 2:2, 4,1; Shab. 14:4. See also Krauss, “Ten Martyrs,” pp. 111–112; O. Oppenheimer, “Sanctity of Life and Martyrdom in the Wake of Bar Kochva's Rebellion” (Hebrew) in Sanctity of Life, pp. 85–97, esp. pp. 92–93.

71. S. Safrai, “Qiddush ha-Shem,” pp. 28–42, esp. pp. 36–38. See also Lieberman, S., “The Martyrs of Caesarea,” Annuaire de I'Institut de Philologie et d'histoire orientates et Slaves 7 (1934–44): 420–421;Google Scholar Urbach, Sages, p. 882, n. 76; Oppenheimer, “Sanctity of Life and Martyrdom,” pp. 90–91; Agus, Binding of Isaac and the Messiah, pp. 59–60 and nn. 85–88. Also, M. Ber. 9:5, T. Ber. 7:7, and Sifre to Deuteronomy 6:5. Variant statements also do not include “destined to the world to come,” which appears in Bet ha-Midrash, ed. Jellinek, A. (Jerusalem, 1938), 6:27. In contrast, see Bet ha-Midrash, 3:34. Thus it could be that “destined to the world to come” is a late medieval addition, a possibility that will become more persuasive as this article progresses.Google Scholar

72. This corresponds with another amoraic opinion that only a commandment (misvah) can be the reward for performing a misvah. Avot 4:2, B. Ber. 17a. The precepts that are related to reward are “honoring father and mother, the practice of loving kindness, and making peace between man and his fellow; but the study of the Torah is equal to them all,” M. Pe'ah 1:1. Urbach, Sages, pp. 346, 443–444. On the commandments, see Safrai, S., Be Shilhe ha-Bayit ha-Sheni uvi-Tekufat ha-Mishnah (Jerusalem, 1983), p. 103;Google Scholar See also Flusser, D. on the Torah and reward, “He Has Planted It [i.e., the Law] as Eternal Life in Our Midst” (Hebrew), Tarbiz 58 (1988–89): 47–153;Google ScholarFriedman, , “In the Past: ‘May He Plant His Torah in Our Hearts’—In the Future” ( Hebrew), Tarbiz 60 (1990–91): 265–268; Schiffinan, “At the Crossroads,” p. 141.Google Scholar

73. Ber. 61b; and see Tanchuma, Tetzave 5.

74. Em. 21b. In answering R. Eliezer's question regarding the meaning of Deuteronomy 6:5, Akiva interprets that one should love God “even if He takes away thy soul,” but no divine reward is mentioned. Lack of reward indicates the true nature of the devotee's unconditional love of God.

75. Lack of reward is emphasized in the story of R. Simeon ben Gamliel and R. Ishmael the High Priest. Watching the execution of his colleague, R. Ishmael cried bitterly, “Where is Torah, and where is its reward?” Next, during R. Ishmael's execution, “The ministering angels said to the Holy One: ‘Such a righteous man, to whom You showed all the treasures of the worlds above and the mysteries of the worlds below—should he be put to death in so strange a way? Such is Torah and such is its reward?’… A divine voice came forth and said: ‘If I hear another [such] cry, I will turn the world to void and desolation!’ When R. Ishmael heard this, he fell silent.” Midrash Ele Ezkerah, in Bet ha-Midrash, 2:64–72. This Midrash focuses on the punishment of “the wicked government” and the elimination of Israel's enemy in return for the sacrifice of the ten rabbis, not as their reward.

76. A.Z. 17b.

77. It is possible that “the world to come” in Akiva's and Teradyon's accounts refers to a posthistoric existence, i.e., the Pharisaic view of the resurrection of the dead at the end-of-time, instead to a heavenly postmortem existence. See, for example, Shab. 89a, where it is stated that the heavenly realm is reserved for angels and not for human beings. A.Z. 17a generally indicates that the reward of the righteous is eternal life, which means after the resurrection. See also the prelude to R. Haninah ben Teradyon's story in 18a, where the world to come is associated with resurrection. Another association between the world to come and resurrection can be found in Kid. 39b.

78. Teradyon's Roman executioner also received a share in the world to come. Here we see the principle once again: he received his reward for expediting Teradyon's death (in order to bring quick relief from the torture), and not for his self-annihilation that followed, A.Z. 18a. A similar story is told in Tan. 29a. Here, too, the Roman officer, who found R. Gamliel in his hiding place, asks, “If I save you, will you bring me into the world to come?” His suicide, which followed, was not a factor in the dialogue.

79. Doubts that the dead could be resurrected from the sea come into play in Eusebius' narration of the Christian martyrs of Lyons. Eusebius reassured his readers that even drowning in large bodies of water could not prevent the martyrs' physical resurrection. After disposing of the ashes of the martyrs in the Rhone River, “that they may have no hope of resurrection,” their persecutors sarcastically exclaimed: “Now let us see if they will rise again and if their god can help them and save them from our hands.” History of the Church 5:1, 60–63. The same question regarding the resurrection of those who kill themselves by drowning is asked by R. Moses' wife in the famous story of the four captives in Daud's, Abraham ibnSefer ha-Qabbalah (The Book of Tradition), ed. and trans. Cohen, G. D. (Philadelphia, 1967), pp. 63–64.Google Scholar

80. Ket. 111b deals with the same question of where the eschatological drama would take place. According to Ket. 111b, everyone will be resurrected, “even a Canaanite maidservant,” as long as they dwell in the land of Israel. “Those who die outside the land of Israel will not live again… and those who die in the land of My delight will live again, but those who do not die there will not.” The emphasis on the word “land” could only increase the complication of the youths' dilemma. Because of the talmudic approach to the importance of the place of resurrection, it became common for Diaspora Jews to send decomposed bodies to the Land of Israel for burial. Other rabbinic opinions compromised and promised a miraculous universal gathering of the dead in the Land of Israel for the purpose of resurrection. Pesikta Rabbati 1:6, Ket. 35b. See also Raphael, Jewish Views of the Afterlife, pp. 158–160

81. For example, the importance of observing the Sabbath and dwelling in the sukkah as meritorious acts is discussed by Rubenstein, J. L., “An Eschatological Drama: Bavli Avodah Zarah 2a–3b,” AJS Review 1 (1996): 1–37. Note that in the world to come the eternal reward, symbolized by the sukkah, is collective, and is reserved for the nation of Israel for studying Torah in this world. On the concept of divine justice, see again Urbach, Sages, pp. 448–461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

82. Some talmudic passages indicate that those who were ready to die in order to avoid transgression received their reward in this life (like the biblical heroes Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah), because miracles were performed to save them from death. See the case of R. Jonathan in A.Z. 17a-b or Kid. 39b.

83. Kid.40a-b.

84. The epistle was published by Mann, J. in Text and Studies in Jewish History and Literature, 2 vols. (Cincinnati, 1931), vol. 1, pp. 23–24.Google Scholar Since the epistle mentions the Book of Josippon, it is obvious that it was written after 953, the time the book came to light. See the introduction to Sefer Josippon, ed. Flusser, D., 2 vols. (Jerusalem, 1981), esp. vol. 2, p. 63, n. 183, p. 165;Google Scholaridem, , “The Author of Sefer Josippon: His Character and His Period,” (Hebrew), Zion 18 (1953): 109–126.Google Scholar Also, Baer, Y., “The Hebrew Sefer Josipphon” (Hebrew) in Sefer Dinur (Jerusalem, 1949), pp. 178–205.Google Scholar On the letter, see Cassuto, U., “Una lettera ebraica de secolo X,” Giornale delta Societa Asiatica Italiana 29 (1918–1920): 97–110;Google ScholarKrauss, S., “Un document sur Phistoire de Juifs en Italie,” Revue des etudes juives 67 (1920): 40–43;Google ScholarScharf, A., Byzantine Jewry (London, 1971), p. 170. And see also A. Grossman's important article, “The Roots of Qiddush ha-Shem in Early Ashkenaz,” in Sanctity of Life and Martyrdom, pp. 99–130. The last known persecution in Italy during the Byzantine regime took place under Emperor Romanus I, who was deposed in 944. The epistle may have been written against this background.Google Scholar

85. This is reminiscent of R. Haninah ben Teradyon's death with the Torah. In his case, too, the letters of the Torah did not burn.

86. Mann, Text and Studies, 1:25.

87. This is despite the author's familiarity with Sefer Josippon, which promises paradise, “the great light,” and a “good hotel” to Jews. Flusser, Sefer Josippon, 1:382,424. This notion is elaborated in the later (12th cent.) “version c” of the book. On these images, see Baer, “Hebrew Sefer Josipphon,” pp. 194–195, 199–203, and compare with Flusser, Sefer Josippon, 2:32, n. 82, pp. 96–98. In the epistle, only the community's lot shifts from darkness to light.

88. It is worthy of mention that Justinian's sixth-century Novella 146 accuses the Jews of renouncing the belief in resurrection, the end-of-days, and the day of judgment. Juster, J. sees in these accusations a proof of the long impact of Sadducee doctrines on Byzantine Jews, which eventually led to Karaism. Les Juifs dans I'Empire romain, 2 vols. (Paris, 1914), 1:377–374.Google Scholar See also Merchavia, Ch., The Church Versus Talmudic and Midrashic Literature (500–1248) (Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1970), pp. 11, 445–46.Google Scholar

89. On the source and events it describes, see Chazan, R., Medieval Jewry in Northern France (Baltimore, 1973), pp. 12–15;Google Scholaridem, , “1007–1012: Initial Crisis for Northern European Jewry,” in Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 38–39 (1970–71): 101–117.Google Scholar Conversely, see Stow's, K. R.The “1007 Anonymous” and Papal Sovereignty: Jewish Perceptions of the Papacy and Papal Policy in the High Middle Ages, in Hebrew Union College Annual Supplements 4 (Cincinnati, 1984),Google Scholar and Chazan's, review of it in Speculum 62 (1987): 728–731. And again see Stow in Alienated Minority (Cambridge, 1994), p. 95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

90. The two Latin reports are by Raoul Glaber in J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 142, col. 635, and Adhemar de Chabannes in M. Bouquet, Recueil des historiens des Gaul et de la France, 10:152. Also in Blumenkranz, B., Le auteurs Chrétiens Latins du Moyen Age sur les Juifs et le Judaïsme (Paris, 1963), pp. 250–251, 256–257. On these sources, see Chazan, “1007–1012: Initial Crisis,” and Stow, The “1007 Anonymous”, pp. 29–31. There are two versions of Adhemar's report. Only one version mentions Jewish self-killing. Blumenkranz raises the possibility that the version that mentions suicide is a later one and refers to the martyrs of the First Crusade (to be discussed below). Les auteurs Chrétiens, p. 251, n. 3.Google Scholar

91. Habermann, Gezerot, pp. 19–20, originally published by Berliner, A. in Ozar Tov (1878), pp. 46–48.Google Scholar

92. The three Hebrew documents were first published in a critical edition by Neubaure, A. and Stern, M. in Hebraische Berichte uber die Judenverfolgungen wahrend der Kreuzzuge (Berlin, 1892).Google Scholar They were reprinted in A. Habermann, Sefer Gezerot Ashkenaz ve-Zarfat. There are a few English translations available. The most useful ones are Eidelberg's, S.The Jews and the Crusaders (Medison, 1977)Google Scholar and the recent translation of two of the three—Shlomo bar Shimshon's report and the “Mainz Anonymous”—in Chazan's, R.European Jewry and the First Crusade (Berkeley, 1987).Google Scholar Chazan designates the source attributed to Shlomo bar Shimshon as L (for “long”) and the anonymous one as S (for “short”). All the translations below are mine, as is the use of italics for emphasis. The historical validity of these sources and the methodological approach they require are discussed by Chazan in European Jewry, pp. 40–49; “The Hebrew Crusade Chronicles,” Revue des etudes juives 133 (1974): 235–254; “The Hebrew Chronicles: Further Reflections,” AJS Review 3 (1978): 79–98; “The Facticity of Medieval Narrative: A Case Study of the Hebrew First Crusade Narratives,” AJS Review 16 (1992): 31–56; and compare with Marcus, I. G., “From Politics to Martyrdom: Shifting Paradigms in the Hebrew Narratives of the 1096 Crusading Riots,” Prooftext 2 (1982): 40–52;Google Scholar“History, Story and Collective Memory: Narrative in Early Ashkenazic Culture,” in The Midrashic Imagination, ed. Fishbane, M. (Albany, N.Y., 1993), pp. 255–279.Google Scholar See also Cohen, G. D., “The Hebrew Crusade Chronicles and the Ashkenazic Tradition,” in Minhah le-Nahum: Biblical and Other Studies in Honor ofNahum M. Sarna, ed. Fishbane, M. and M. Brettler (SheflSeld, 1993), pp. 36–53;Google ScholarCohen, J., “The Persecution of 1096: The Sociocultural Context of the Narratives of Martyrdom” (Hebrew), Zion 59 (1994): 169–208;Google Scholar and recently, Goldin, S., who was kind enough to send me his “The Socialization for Qiddush ha-Shem among Medieval Jews,” Journal of Medieval History 23, no. 2 (1997): 117–138. Our topic and prime interest in martyrological notions and symbols spares us here from discussing the facticity of the sources.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

93. Habermann, Gezerot, p. 75, “the pious of High were sanctified to ascend to God all together, infant and elderly.”

94. Habermann, “to stand in His palace,” p. 73; “they are in the King's palace,” p. 74; “hassidai Elyon,” pp. 26, 29, 75; “they are bonded in the bond of life in the King's chamber,” p. 82, to mention only a few examples.

95. Habermann, Gezerot, p. 31; Eidelberg, Jews and the Crusaders, p. 31; Chazan, L, pp. 253–254. The language of the description here is reminiscent of the language of Sefer Josippon; the essence of the description, however, differs, because it refers to the martyrs' reward.

96. Habermann, Gezerot, p. 25; Chazan, L, p. 244.

97. Habermann, Gezerot, p. 82.

98. Habermann, Gezerot, pp. 48–49; Eidelberg, Jews and the Crusaders, p. 56; Chazan, L, pp. 281–282.

99. Unlike the above-mentioned talmudic description in Baba Batra 10b.

100. Habermann, Gezerot, p. 42; Eidelberg, Jews and the Crusaders, p. 47; Chazan, L, p. 271.

101. Habermann, Gezerot, p. 45; Eidelberg, Jews and the Crusaders, p. 52; Chazan, L, p. 276.

102. For example, see the case of the dying Shmaryahu, who refused to convert, and declared, according to the source: “For this day I have hoped all my life.” Habermann, Gezerot, p. 51; Chazan, L, pp. 284–285. Also the voluntary death of Asher bar Joseph and Meir bar Shmuel, a lad. Gezerot, p. 55. Marcus suggests that Jews chose self-destruction to prevent any contact with crusaders, which they considered pollution. “From Politics to Martyrdom,” p. 48.

103. Habermann, Gezerot, pp. 36–38; Chazan, L, pp. 262–265. Cohen, “Persecutions of 1096,” p. 191

104. Habermann, Gezerot, pp. 49–50; Eidelberg, Jews and the Crusaders, p. 58; Chazan, L, p. 283. In the Ban epistle the phrase “from darkness to light” symbolized the end of oppression, but in the Hebrew sources of 1096 it denotes the martyrs' transition from the physical to the divine realm.

105. Albert, of Aix, in Recueil des Historiens des Croisades: Historiens occidenlaux, 5 vols. (Paris, 1844–95), 5:292–293 (hereafter cited as RHC, Oc).Google Scholar

106. Habermann, Gezerot, p. 52; Chazan, L, p. 286.

107. See, for example, Ephraim ben Jacob of Bonn, Sefer Zechira, in Habermann's, Gezerot; SeferHasidim, ed. Margaliot, R. (Jerusalem, 1957), no. 22;Google ScholarKatz, J., “Between 1096 and 1648–9” (Hebrew), in Sefer ha-Yovel le-Y. Baer, ed. Ettinger, J. et al. (Jerusalem, 1961), pp. 318–337;Google ScholarSefer ha-Dmaot, ed. Bernfeld, S. (Berlin, 1884), vol. 3, pp. 291–292, “to sanctify His Name thereby makes us worthy of entering the world to come.”Google ScholarMintz, A., “The Russian Pogroms in Hebrew Literature and Subversion of the Martyrological Ideal,” AJS Review 7–8 (1982–83): 263–300.Google Scholar

108. See J. Hacker, “Was Qiddush ha-Shem Transferred to the Spiritual Realm Toward the Modern Era?” (Hebrew), in Sanctity of Life, pp. 221–232; Fishbane, M., The Kiss of God (Seattle, 1994).Google Scholar

109. According to Baldric of Dol's version of Pope Urban's speech at Clermont, the pontiff compared the crusaders to the children of Israel, who were led out of Egypt by divine force and “have taken that land [of Israel] by their arms, with Jesus as leader. They have driven out the Jebusites and other inhabitants and have themselves inhabited earthly Jerusalem, the image of celestial Jerusalem.” RHC Oc, 4:12–16.

110. Chazan, European Jewry, p. 151.

111. Grossman makes a similar argument. In his opinion, the belief in reward encouraged the survivors to cope with the devastation. Grossman, A., The Early Sages of France (Jerusalem, 1995), p. 498.Google Scholar

112. On the dynamics between Jews and Christians during the First Crusade, see again Chazan's European Jewry, especially p. 323 a 109; also Cohen, “Persecutions of 1096,” pp. 175, 199–200.

113. The four versions are by Guibert of Nogent, Gesta Dei per Francos, RHC Oc, 4:137–140; Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana, ed. Hagenmeyer, H. (Heidelberg, 1913), pp. 132–138;Google Scholar Robert of Rheims, Historia Hierosolimitana, RHC Oc, 3:727–730; and Baldric of Dol, Historia Jerosolimitana, RHC Oc, 4:12–16. See also the anonymous Gesta Francorum etaliorum Hierosolymytanorum, ed. and trans. Hill, R. M. (London, 1962), pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

114. Guibert of Nogent, RtfC Oc, 4:138.

115. Baldric of Dol, RHC Oc, 4:15.

116. Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana, p. 136. Also, “Great will be your reward,” in the Gesta Francorum, trans. Hill, R. and ed. Mynors, R. (London, 1962), pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

117. Baldric of Dol, RffCOc., 4:15.

118. Robert of Rheims, Historia Hierosolimitana, RHC Oc, 3:727–730.

119. Erdmann, C., The Origin of the Idea of Crusade (Princeton, 1977), p. 344.Google Scholar See also Riley-Smith, J., “Death on the First Crusade,” in The End of Strife, ed., D. Loades (1984), p. 17.Google Scholar

120. Mayer, H. E., The Crusades (Oxford, 1988), p. 294.Google Scholar

121. Dreves, G. M., Analecta hymnicaXLV(Leipzig, 1904), 2, p. 78. Quoted from Erdmann, Origin of the Idea of Crusade, p. 345.Google Scholar

122. One of the strongest advocates of the message of self-sacrifice among the officials of the Church was none other than Pope Gregory VII himself. In a message reminiscent of the language of Pope John VIII, Pope Leo IV, and Pope Leo DC (Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 126, col. 816), Gregory asked Countess Matilda of Tuscany to assist him in his efforts on behalf of the Eastern Church. “Do all that you can to give your counsel, and still more your help, to your Creator; for if, as some say, it is a noble thing to die for our country, it is a far more noble and a truly praiseworthy thing to give our corruptible flesh for Christ, who is life eternal.” Gregory himself was ready not only to call for a crusade, but also to participate in it with the same enthusiastic energy he required from others. “As for me, furnished with such sisterly aid I would most gladly cross the sea, if need be to lay down my life for Christ with you whom I always desire should cleave to me in the heavenly country.” Cowdrey, H. E. J., The Epistolae Vagantes of Pope Gregory VII (Oxford, 1972), pp. 13,Google Scholar 29. Other statements of the same kind are found in Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 148, col. 329. See also the important studies of Cowdrey, “Martyrdom and the First Crusade,” in Crusade and Settlement, ed. Edbury, W. P. (Cardiff, 1985), pp. 46–56;Google ScholarRiley-Smith, J., The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (Philadelphia, 1986), pp. 13–30;Google Scholaridem, , “An Approach to Crusading Ethics,” in Reading Medieval Studies 6 (1980): 3–19.Google Scholar

123. RHC Oc, 4:273.

124. The doubtful Lanfranc chose among many examples the case of the nobleman and archbishop Elphege, which disturbed Lanfranc the most, for the masses “number [Elphege] not only among the saints but also among the martyrs, though they confess that he was slain for refusing to ransom himself” from his captors. Being aware that in order to collect the large ransom demanded he would have to strip his vassals of their possessions, the would-be martyr “chose rather to lose his life than keep it on such conditions.” Eadmer, , Vita S. Anselmi, archiepischopi Cantuariensis, lib. I, c. v, s. xlii, ed. and trans. R. W. Southern (London, 1962)Google Scholar

125. Ibid., lib. I, c. v, s. xlii.

126. Only in 1170 was the canonization of saints and martyrs reserved solely to the Church. The endeavors of Guibert and other Church officials to correct the situation were in vain, for in many cases the emotional populace refused to yield to “logic” or to Church policy. Guibert of Nogent, Treatise on Relics, I, chap. 1, col. 614. See also Coulton, G. G., Life in the Middle Ages, 4 vols. in 1 (New York, 1931), vol. 1, pp. 12–13, 15–21.Google Scholar

127. I deal with parallel images of the afterlife during the crusades more specifically in an article I hope to publish in the near future.

128. Versions of the biography exist in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptorum 2 (1829): 331–353 and Vitae Sancti Bonifatii Archiepiscopi Moguntini, in Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum ex Monumentis Germaniae Historicis separatim editi (Hannover and Leipzig, 1905), pp. 1–57. The translation is from Albertson, C., Anglo-Saxon Saints and Heroes (New York: Fordham University Press, 1967), pp. 313–314, emphasis added.Google Scholar

129. Somerville, R., The Councils of Urban II, i: Decreta Claromontenisa (Amsterdam, 1972), p. 74.Google Scholar

130. For example, Russell, J. B., A History of Heaven (Princeton, 1997), p. 55; Droge and Tabor, Noble Death, p. 75.Google Scholar

131. Compare with Ber. 18a: “in paradise there is not eating or drinking or copulation, no business, no envy, no hatred, no ambition.”