MARTYR (mar'tar), (Gr. ndprvs,mar'toos,a wit ness).
This word means properly a zvitness, and is applied in the New Testament-0) To judicial witnesses (Matt. xviii :16; xxvi:65; Mark kiv: 63; Acts vi :13; vii :58; 2 COr. Xiii :1 ; I Tim. v :19; Heb. x:28). The Septuagint also uses it for the Hebrew 'V ed, in Deut. xvii:6 ; Prov. xxiv :28. (2) To one who has testified. or can testify to the truth of what he has seen, heard, or known. This is a frequent sense in the New Testament: as in Luke xxiv:48; Acts i :8, 22; Rom. i :9; 2 Cor. i :23 ; Thess. ii:5, to; I Tim.
vi:t2; 2 Tim. ii:2; I Pet. v:1; Rev. i:5; iii:14; xi:3, and elsewhere. (3) The meaning of the word which has now become the most usual, is that in which it occurs most rarely in the Scrip ture, i. e., one who by his death bears witness to the truth. In this sense we find it only in Acts xxii :2o; Rev. ii:13; xvii :6. This now exclusive sense of the word was brought into general use by the early ecclesiastical writers, who applied it to every one who suffered death in the Christian cause (sce Suicer, Thesaurus Eccles. sub voc.). Stephen was in this sense the first martyr (see STEPHEN) ; and the spiritual honors of his death tended in no small degree to raise to the most extravagant estimation, in the early church, the value of the testimony of blood. Eventually a
martyr's death was supposed, on the alleged au thority of the under-named texts, to cancel all the sins of the past life (Luke xii :5o; Mark x :39) ; to supply -the place of baptism (Matt. x:39) ; and at once to secure admittance to the presence of the Lord in Paradise (Matt. v:to-t2). In imitation of the family custom of annually commemorating at the grave the death of de ceased members, the churches celebrated the deaths of their martyrs by prayer at their graves, and by love-feasts. From this high estimation of the martyrs, Christians were sometimes led to de liver themselves up voluntarily to the public au thorities—thus justifying thecharge of fanaticism brought against them by the heathen. For the most part, however, this practice was discounte nanced, the wordsof Christ himself being brought against it (Matt. x:23; see Gieseler, Eccles. Hist.
to9, I to).