Christian persecution has been going on for 2,000 years. Most Christians, when asked who the first Martyr was will reply, “Steven”. But who was the second recorded?
Unless it’s a Miss America contest or American Idol, 2nd place always gets overlooked and forgotten compared with 1st.
Who was the 2nd man to walk on the moon?
Who was the 2nd President of the USA?
Who was the 2nd person to fly a plane?
In the case of martyrs, the second person on record may not be as well known, but his story is no less incredible.
Clemens Alexandrinus by way of John Foxe tells us about this second recorded Martyr.
Herod (yes the same Herod we have all grown to hate), had just appointed a governor of Judea. This man, like many politicians today wanted to make a name for himself and so started to persecute Christians. James came across his desk and the Governor thought he’d hit the jack-pot.
Jesus’ own brother had fallen into his lap like a gift from the gods
The Governor became more and more impressed with this man who shared the Christ’s own blood. James had courage and stood undaunted in a way like he had never seen. While James was being led to his death the Governor unexpectedly threw himself at the feet of James and begged forgiveness all the while professing his own Christianity.
James of course forgave, and the Governor refused to let James die alone, but wished his own head be separated from his body so James would not be alone in his martyrdom.
His wish was granted.
*This is a weekly feature taken from “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs”.
[...] Foxe’s Friday: James the Less 21 08 2009 He could have been called “The other James”, “James the Second”, or even “Jimmy2″. Unfortunately Church history refers to the second James martyred as “James the Less”. This is more than likely due to the unfortunate fact that the 2nd person to be martyred in Foxe’s book had already taken the title of “James the Great” who I wrote about a few weeks ago. [...]