Christian Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs

This book examines late antique and medieval devotional texts and materials, ranging from the eastern Mediterranean to northwestern Europe, related to the Maccabean martyrs. This unique group of people were Jews who died for the Mosaic Law before the birth of Jesus. Joslyn-Siemiatkoski demonstrates that Christian thinkers constructed memories of the Maccabean martyrs that simultaneously appropriated Jewish traditions and obscured the Jewish origins of Christianity.