Historical Validity of Martyr Deaths

About a year ago, Asagra started a topic requesting historical information regarding the deaths of the biblical men who traditionally died martyr deaths. Unfortunately, the conversation quickly went off topic before anyone responded to the origional question. So, here it is again. Can anyone verify the martyr deaths of the leaders of the early church? There don't seem to be many Christians left on this board, but maybe somebody else knows enough about it, cuz, didn't we all used to be one of them? Anyways, that's a topic for another post. Hopefully this can stay on topic long enough to address the question before devolving into a debate on the significance of the supposed deaths.

Welcome Chad,For reference here is the original post Chad mentioned.
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AdminAsgara Queen of the Universe

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Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

There are many specific and documented cases of martyrs but none that I know of for the early ones. Not only don't we know the exact fate of most of the Apostles, we don't even know the names of the second and third waves that were sent out.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

I only heard of one book that was regarded as addressing the topic. Foxes Book Of Martyrs. I think it is online...lemme find the link...
Fox's Book of Martyrs

Thanks. While it's an interesting book, it seems to have been published in the early 1800's, and dosn't seem to give much information as to how he obtained his information. Anybody else have anything to add?

The martyrdom of the various original Apostles are laid out in various Apocraphyl writings in the late 2nd Century. Particularly see the Acts of Paul, Acts of Peter, Acts of Andrew and a few others at Early Christian Writings: New Testament, Apocrypha, Gnostics, Church FathersThat's not to say that they are "true" or not. The very fact that they were written about 100 years after the supposed events should cause a strong suspicion. Frankly, no one has conclusively proven that any of them really existed, much less died a martyr's heroic death. IMHO, the gospels are largely fiction, so I don't put much stock in stuff written about gospel heroes that even the early church leaders did not feel sufficiently trustworthy to warrant inclusion in their canon.SLD

From Governor Pliny of Pontus and Bithynia to Emporer Trajan, AD 112, seeking advice on what to do with Christians:Internet History Sourcebooks ProjectTrajan's reply does not seem too keen on killing people.

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You observed proper procedure, my dear Pliny, in sifting the cases of those who had been denounced to you as Christians. For it is not possible to lay down any general rule to serve as a kind of fixed standard. They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it--that is, by worshiping our gods--even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance. But anonymously posted accusations ought to have no place in any prosecution. For this is both a dangerous kind of precedent and out of keeping with the spirit of our age.

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Trajan's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy."

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion