Pappus and Julianus, the Maccabaean martyrs, and rabbinic martyrdom history in Late Antiquity

Résumé 0

Starting with the varied references to Pappus and Julianus (or Lollianus) in rabbinic works, this paper examines the construction of a martyrdom history in rabbinic works of the fifth to seventh century that is retrojected onto rabbis of the first and second centuries. The reuse of one fragment of the Pappus and Julianus story in a rabbinic account of the martyrdom of a woman and her seven sons suggests a partial context. For this story, we can plausibly argue for the “rediscovery” of a story from 2 and 4 Maccabees in response to the emerging Christian cult of the Maccabean Martyrs in the second half of the fourth century. If this case is indicative, the emerging interest in martyrdom may be rooted in a broader discourse of martyrdom in the late antique Christian Roman East. Whether or not in conversation (contention) with Christian martyrdom, the stories depict a resistant stance in which tribunals represent the locus of resistance. The accused, typically a rabbi, stands before the emperor, who presides as judge over a cognitio extraordinaria. The hero triumphs by resisting the demands of an oppressive state to violate the divine Torah, and, as in our cases, calls into question the very legitimacy of the emperor as judge.