Acts 22:20

Acts 22:20. And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death. It is hardly likely that the sense in which we understand the word ‘martyr,' viz. ‘one who dies for his religion, belonged as yet to the Greek word μάρτυρ or μάρτυς. It would therefore be more strictly accurate to render here, ‘the blood of thy witness Stephen.' But there is little doubt that, very early indeed in the Christian story, the, to us, well-known sense of the beautiful word martyr became attached to it. Probably the transition from the general sense of ‘witness' to the specific meaning of ‘martyr' is traceable to its use in such passages as this and Revelation 2:13; Revelation 11:3; Revelation 17:6: ‘Antipas, my faithful martyr:' ‘And I will give power unto my two witnesses' (better, martyrs); And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; it must be borne in mind that the Revelation was written many years (possibly thirty years) after the compilation of these ‘Acts.' Thus the word before the close of the first century had began to acquire the special Christian sense which in the second was so well known. Eusebius tells us, for instance (H. E. v. 2), how the martyrs of Lyons (second century) positively refused the title ‘martyrs,' considering it appropriate only to Christ: ‘If any of us, either by letter or conversation, called them martyrs, they gravely reproved us, for they gladly gave up the title of martyr to Christ the true and faithful Martyr, the first begotten of the dead, the Prince of Divine life.' ‘The transition from the first sense (witness) to the second sense (martyr) may be easily accounted for. Many, who had only seen with the eye of faith, suffered persecution and death as a proof of their sincerity. For such constancy the Greek had no adequate term. It was necessary for the Christians to provide one None was more appropriate than μάρτυρ. seeing what had been the fate of those whom Christ had appointed His witnesses (chap. Acts 1:8). They almost all suffered; hence, to witness became a synonym for to suffer, while the witnessing was in itself a kind of suffering' (Humphry).