Though discovered in 1945, the First Apocalypse of James from Nag Hammadi Codex V, 3 has received very little attention from the scholarly community. This is primarily due to the fragmentary condition of the text. Previous scholarly engagements with the text have led to the conclusion that the purpose of such a revelatory dialogue was to impart instructions for the ascent of the soul to one about to be martyred. The recent discovery of a second copy of the text simply titled “James” as part of the Tchacos Codex has led to not only a greater amount of scholarly interest, but also to different possible interpretations. From NHC V, 3 it was possible to ascertain a pre- and post- martyrdom revelation of Jesus to James, however, the text from Al Minya clearly shows a third revelatory section wherein the martyrdom of James is used as a means of revelation to Addai, the legendary founder of Eastern Syrian Christianity. Chapters one and two answer the question of why James was chosen as the protagonist of the narrative. In chapter one I look in detail at the literary construction of the martyrdom of James and problematize the development of the traditions. Chapter two then turns to a discussion of the figure of James as an authority in the developing Christian community. Chapters three and four are concerned with the literary classification of the text. Chapter three situates the First Apocalypse of James within the overarching genre of apocalyptic literature, and the specific sub-genre of gnostic apocalypses. Chapter four discusses how the text might be understood as a commission narrative while interrogating the lineage of descent beginning with the transmission of the revelation from James to Addai. Following this in chapter five I explore the cosmology of the text with particular attention to the ascent of the soul.

The presented doctoral thesis examines character and significance of the culture of martyrdom (farhang-e shahadat) in contemporary Iranian society with a particular emphasis on delimitation religious-political dimension of this phenomenon and determination of causes and implications of relatively recent reinterpretation which has radically shifted this culture from the religious-spiritual sphere to the political-ideological and even revolutionary. On the one hand, the thesis deals with a complex view of mechanism and manners of the utilization of the Karbala paradigm as the instrument for formulation of politically (and otherwise) motivated aims by different spectres of power structures of the ruling establishment and diverse oppositional social movements and on the other hand it reflects its apolitical standpoint associated with a spiritual experience of believers, which proceeds from the popular religion. These aspects of the political and religious boundary of the culture of martyrdom are examined in detail and given in the context of current socio-political reality. The thesis also strives for presenting of arguments founded on the premise which defines the culture of martyrdom as an essential source for constructing of identities and strengthening of solidarity among Iranian Imami Shi'ites,...

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Thomas Ford was the governor of Illinois at the time of Joseph and Hyrum Smiths’ martyrdoms in Carthage Jail in 1844. Before his tenure as governor, Ford’s professional life included service as an attorney and judge throughout Illinois. His background in the legal field gave him a unique perspective which may have influenced his career as governor of Illinois from 1842-1846. Although Governor Ford is relatively well-known for his association with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its history, his background and the bearing it had on the martyrdom of the Smiths has received relatively little attention from scholars. In this thesis I contend that Governor Ford’s choices in Carthage, Illinois can be traced in some ways to his legal background. I also examine his earliest interactions with Joseph Smith in 1842-1843, and how those interactions may have also been influenced by Ford’s legalistic viewpoints. I suggest it is possible Ford’s legal background more than his political experience may have had the most bearing on those interactions. Chapter one summarizes some of the financial, political, and mobocratic difficulties citizens in Illinois dealt with in the late 1830s and early 1840s. This context shows that even before Ford’s election in 1842, Illinois had severe challenges that affected the Saints and their neighbors. Chapter two explores some of the legal cases Ford heard while serving on the Illinois bench and bar. This chapter investigates the unique balance Ford attempted to maintain between law and justice, while also suggesting Ford may have occasionally strayed from consistently following the law. In chapter three, Ford’s transition into a political figure in Illinois history, as well as his extensive interactions with Smith are analyzed. Throughout these interactions, Ford seemed to frequently rely on his background in law to help him make decisions about Smith. This analysis is continued in chapter four when Ford chose to intervene in Hancock County after the Nauvoo Expositor printing press was destroyed. This chapter systematically relates Ford’s previous legal cases to the specific choices he made in Carthage. As a conclusion, chapter five serves to summarize these findings, and also opens further opportunities for research that demonstrate how Ford’s interactions with the Saints in Illinois may have continued to be affected by his past. This thesis provides research suggesting Ford’s choices surrounding the Smiths in Hancock County can be traced to his past and should not necessarily be considered isolated events in 1844. Furthermore, it adds to our understanding of church history by giving another paradigm in which to examine the martyrdom of Joseph Smith in Carthage Jail.

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The study, “Between honor and shame: Martyrdom in 2 Maccabees 6-7 within the socio-cultural arena”, presents a look at how the community viewed martyrdom in 2 Maccabees 6:18-7:42 from the perspective of honor and shame. The chief objective is to determine whether or not the community supported or challenged the notion of the martyrs’ death being either honorable or shameful. In order to reach a satisfactory conclusion to this objective, this study set as goals the identification of key themes which shed light upon the views of the community in regard to the martyrs, as well as the investigation of the community’s understanding of honor and shame found in 2 Maccabees 6:18-7:42. This study incorporates a contextual analytical method comprising of an analysis of sociocultural vocabulary, an analysis of the socio-cultural vocabulary within the Greek text of 2 Maccabees 6:18-7:42 and a synthesis of the analysis of both the socio-cultural and the Greek context. As criteria for the study of the socio-cultural context the aspects of sacred-profane, pure-impure, the patron-client relationship and the relationship between individual and group(s) are implemented. Core-findings of this study may be divided into two main categories: evidence in defence of an honorable conduct during death, and evidence in defence of the dishonorable manner of death. Evidence in defence of honorable conduct during death, are: • The martyrs remain completely loyal and devoted to God (their Chief-Patron), His laws and • the customs of the forefathers. • They are portrayed as being bodily whole. • They safeguard their set-apartness. • They remain pure – especially in the ritualistic sense. • As individuals belonging to the collected identity of various groups, the martyrs prove themselves loyal and honorable. Evidence in defence for the dishonorable manner in which the martyrs die, are: • Torture was deemed disgraceful by the community and would therefore degrade honor. • Mutilation went into the very fabric of the wholeness of the body by destroying the bodily unity, thereby disqualifying a person to come into the realm of the sacred. • Certain members of the community would regard the martyrs’ rejection of the lesser patrons’ favor as disrespectful and therefore as dishonorable conduct. Despite this evidence, it is still found that the community could remain undecided on how to judge the martyrs and martyrdom. Therefore, it is proposed, and successfully implemented, that an emotional argument might be the key to tipping the scale toward viewing the martyrs and martyrdom as honorable. It must therefore be concluded that the community would have indeed challenged the notion of martyrdom being honorable, for torture and mutilations in themselves, were regarded as being disgraceful. Yet the community would have been persuaded to accept the honor of the martyrs because of their honorable conduct and the emotional appeal made by the author of Maccabees. / Thesis (MA (Greek))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Cette thèse porte sur un corpus hagiographique de vingt-sept textes latins d’Afrique du Nord, daté du IIe au VIe siècle. Ce corpus n’avait jamais fait l’objet d’une synthèse depuis les travaux de P. Monceaux au début du XXe siècle. Dans une première partie, tous les textes latins ont été réunis, accompagnés d’une traduction personnelle et d’un apparat des sources exhaustif : plusieurs ont fait l’objet d’une nouvelle édition critique, et un nouveau texte, la recension longue de la Passion de Marciana, a ainsi été découvert. Ce corpus fait ensuite l’objet d’une étude historique. Les deux premières parties étudient ces textes comme témoignages de la christianisation de l’Afrique, vue à travers l’étude du phénomène complexe des persécutions et du martyre. La troisième partie illustre les multiples potentialités du discours hagiographique, qui concourt à faire du martyr un nouveau héros chrétien, héritier du héros païen et du thème judéo-hellénistique du Juste souffrant. La dernière aborde le corpus comme témoignage de la culture littéraire des élites africaines et apporte une contribution à l’histoire culturelle de l’Afrique du Nord et à celle de la circulation des idées et des oeuvres. Elle traite aussi de manière nouvelle la question de l’africitas, selon les méthodes du LASLA de l’Université de Liège auxquelles j’ai voulu soumettre trois passions de Maurétanie Césarienne. / This thesis focuses on a corpus of twenty-seven hagiographic texts from Roman North Africa, dated from the second to the sixth century. None synthesis on this corpus had been made since P. Monceaux’s work in the early twentieth century. In the first part, all the latin texts were collected, together with a translation and an exhaustive research of the sources : for many ofthem I gave a new critical edition, and a new text, the long recension of the Passion of Marciana, has been discovered. This corpus is then studied from an historical point of view. The first two sections examine these texts as evidence of the christianization of Africa, through the study of the complex phenomenon of persecutions and martyrdom. The third partillustrates the multiple potentialities of hagiographic discourse, which tends to make a new Christian hero, combination of pagan hero and of the theme of Judeo-Hellenistic Just suffering. The latter addresses the corpus as evidence of the literary culture of African elites and contributes to the cultural history of North Africa and of the circulation of ideas and works. It also discusses the question of the africitas, according to the methods of the LASLA of the University of Liège, methods applied to three passions of Caesarean Mauretania.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Valeria Camargo.pdf: 1164029 bytes, checksum: e748d6c883d897f31ab4731ac8c6f737 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-12 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The terrible suicide terrorist attacks the so called human bombs - generally associated to Muslim radical groups have been submitted to misunderstood interpretations. Anti-Islamic authors impute this actions to Islam as a whole, as being consequence of a concept of jihad understood as a holy war , or a conflict of civilizations that Muslim carry on in order to overcome the enemies of Islamic faith and culture. On the other hand, radical groups consider these actions as a political defense of Islam or as an altruistic suicide and a kind of martyrdom for Allâh´s cause. In face of these interpretations, the thesis aims to point out a new view by going deep into the Islamic sources, namely Koran and Ahadith. First, an explanation is made about Islamic sources. The most important texts on the subject have been collected according to some key words, by following the hypothesis that the true meaning of jihad is not an aggressive and violent action. Jihad must be understood in a wild sense of practicing virtues, love and social justice. So, suicide terrorism is never altruistic but a real suicide; not a martyrdom but an anti-social behavior that is definitively condemned by Koran and Ahadith. In order to emphasize this position, the thesis points out the spiritual and mystic aspects of Islamic faith and its social solidarity. It also rejects the interpretations and generalizations of anti-Islamic writers who impute to Islam the responsibility and the strategic logic of the suicide terrorism / Os terríveis ataques terroristas suicidas as chamadas bombas humanas - que em geral são associados a grupos islâmicos fundamentalistas têm sido objeto de interpretações enviesadas. Autores não-islâmico e anti-islâmicos atribuem o suicídio terrorista ao Islã como um todo, a refletir um conflito de civilizações ou uma guerra santa com base numa leitura belicosa e expansionista de jihad. Por outro lado, grupos islâmicos extremistas os acolhem como ações políticas cujos perpetradores são considerados suicidas altruístas e mártires pela causa de Allâh. Ante essas interpretações, a tese vai em busca de uma leitura a partir das fontes islâmicas, em especial, o Alcorão e os Ahadith. Após uma explicação sobre o Islamismo e suas fontes, realiza um inventário dos principais textos que as fontes oferecem em torno do objeto e os agrupa a partir de alguns temas chave. Em seguida passa a uma análise interpretativa dos textos coletados, tendo como guia a hipótese de que o verdadeiro sentido de jihad descarta a belicosidade agressiva e contém um sentido amplo de esforço e virtudes, de amor ao próximo e de justiça social. As ações das bombas humanas devem ser consideradas como atos de suicídio e homicídio; são anti-sociais e não têm nenhum respaldo nos livros sagrados. Por isso, a tese se preocupa em ressaltar, nas fontes e interpretações islâmicas, os aspectos espirituais, místicos e socialmente solidários do Islã. Rejeita também as interpretações e generalizações anti-islâmicas que são feitas a partir dos ataques suicidas terroristas

The study, “Between honor and shame: Martyrdom in 2 Maccabees 6-7 within the socio-cultural arena”, presents a look at how the community viewed martyrdom in 2 Maccabees 6:18-7:42 from the perspective of honor and shame. The chief objective is to determine whether or not the community supported or challenged the notion of the martyrs’ death being either honorable or shameful. In order to reach a satisfactory conclusion to this objective, this study set as goals the identification of key themes which shed light upon the views of the community in regard to the martyrs, as well as the investigation of the community’s understanding of honor and shame found in 2 Maccabees 6:18-7:42. This study incorporates a contextual analytical method comprising of an analysis of sociocultural vocabulary, an analysis of the socio-cultural vocabulary within the Greek text of 2 Maccabees 6:18-7:42 and a synthesis of the analysis of both the socio-cultural and the Greek context. As criteria for the study of the socio-cultural context the aspects of sacred-profane, pure-impure, the patron-client relationship and the relationship between individual and group(s) are implemented. Core-findings of this study may be divided into two main categories: evidence in defence of an honorable conduct during death, and evidence in defence of the dishonorable manner of death. Evidence in defence of honorable conduct during death, are: • The martyrs remain completely loyal and devoted to God (their Chief-Patron), His laws and • the customs of the forefathers. • They are portrayed as being bodily whole. • They safeguard their set-apartness. • They remain pure – especially in the ritualistic sense. • As individuals belonging to the collected identity of various groups, the martyrs prove themselves loyal and honorable. Evidence in defence for the dishonorable manner in which the martyrs die, are: • Torture was deemed disgraceful by the community and would therefore degrade honor. • Mutilation went into the very fabric of the wholeness of the body by destroying the bodily unity, thereby disqualifying a person to come into the realm of the sacred. • Certain members of the community would regard the martyrs’ rejection of the lesser patrons’ favor as disrespectful and therefore as dishonorable conduct. Despite this evidence, it is still found that the community could remain undecided on how to judge the martyrs and martyrdom. Therefore, it is proposed, and successfully implemented, that an emotional argument might be the key to tipping the scale toward viewing the martyrs and martyrdom as honorable. It must therefore be concluded that the community would have indeed challenged the notion of martyrdom being honorable, for torture and mutilations in themselves, were regarded as being disgraceful. Yet the community would have been persuaded to accept the honor of the martyrs because of their honorable conduct and the emotional appeal made by the author of Maccabees. / Thesis (MA (Greek))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

This paper explores the contribution of Portuguese Jesuit António Francisco Cardim’s work entitled Elogios, e ramalhete de flores borrifadocom o sangue dos religiosos da Companhia de Iesu (Roma 1646/Lisboa 1650) to laying the textual and visual foundation for the Society of Jesus’ discourse on, and representations of, martyrdom in the 16th and 17th centuries. The paper discusses first the circumstances of the preparation and circulation (in manuscript and print) of the volume for propaganda and spiritual education purposes. Additionally, in the light of the contemporaneous production on Japan, the paper explores the images used in the printed editions of the Elogios, especially their roots, their relation to the narrations, and the way in which images and text reflected a perception of martyrdom well ingrained in the Jesuit discourse. / El presente trabajo estudia la contribución ibérica a la construcción del patrimonio textual y visual sobre el cual la Compañía de Jesús, durante los siglos XVI y XVII, elaboró sus discursos y representaciones en torno al martirio. En concreto, analiza la obra del jesuita portugués António Francisco Cardim titulada Elogios, e ramalhete de flores borrifado com o sangue dos religiosos da Companhia de Iesu (Roma, 1646/Lisboa, 1650). En primer lugar, toma en consideración algunos aspectos relativos a los contextos de elaboración y circulación (manuscrita e impresa) del volumen, teniendo en cuenta sus objetivos propagandísticos y edificantes. Tras situar el escrito de Cardim en el marco de la producción contemporánea sobre Japón, se considera asimismo la naturaleza de las imágenes que se incorporaron a las ediciones impresas de los Elogios, susmúltiples raíces, su relación con las narrativas que acompañaban y el modo en el que textos y grabados reflejaban una percepción sobre el martirio bien arraigadaen el discurso jesuita.