How the disciples died

Reflection

Church tradition holds that most of Jesus's original apostles died as martyrs, executed for continuing to proclaim that Jesus had risen from the dead, though the historical detail behind each account varies in reliability. What is often noted as significant is not simply that they died, but that they were willing to die for something they claimed to have witnessed firsthand, the resurrection, rather than for a secondhand belief passed to them by others. This observation is sometimes used as an argument for the truth of the resurrection: people rarely maintain a costly lie under threat of death, especially when the deception offers them nothing. It is not a knockdown proof, since traditions about individual apostles' deaths are not all equally well attested historically, but it does point to the sincerity of the earliest witnesses. Whatever one makes of the argument's force, it is worth sitting with the basic fact that the first Christians paid dearly for their conviction, and did not walk it back under pressure.

Questions to sit with

• Does the apostles' willingness to suffer affect how seriously you take their testimony?
• What would you be willing to suffer for the things you believe most deeply?
• How do you distinguish sincere conviction from mere stubbornness in yourself or others?

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