For centuries martyrdom has played a formative role in the Judeo-Christian world. This book investigates how martyrdom came to play this role in Jewish life and how it evolved thereafter. The book attempts to provide a linear history of martyrdom that stretches from the Hellenistic period to the dawn of the modern era, concluding with unavoidable references to the Holocaust. The latter references are preliminary and are intended to be helpful in future investigations.

This study is comparative in nature. It analyzes the conditions that produced Jewish and Christian martyrs in the pagan world and examines both the foreign ideals that the two creeds fed upon, as well as the two groups' own concepts. With an emphasis on Jewish martyrs, I hope to show how those concepts inspired the followers of each faith and how they also influenced each other. Finally, I will explore how and why the theological rivalry between the two groups continued to produce martyrs in the Christian world, until Jews concluded that this highly regarded practice must end.

My investigation, then, is multidimensional. Looking inward, I examine the function of martyrdom within the group: its use as a means to rationalize catastrophes, as a way to restructure Judaism and Jewries after destructions, as a tool for socialization and growth, as a way to legitimize emerging authorities and leaders, and as a didactical tool that instructs how to interact with members of the group and with outsiders.