In Second Chronicles, chapter twenty-four, verse twenty-one, Zechariah, a prophet of Judah, suffered martyrdom because he remained loyal to God’s truth and righteous ways that testified against the apostasy of the king and his people. Jesus referred to this martyrdom and God’s planned vengeance on the generation at that time, as in Matthew twenty-three, verse thirty-five, and Luke eleven, verse fifty-one. He called Zechariah’s blood “righteous” because the prophet stood with God when the majority had forsaken His ways. The prophet was killed “between the altar and the temple.”
Namely, the people whom he addressed, having been easily corrupted by the examples of their apostate king and princes, are the people who conspired against Zechariah. And that immediately, without even color of law, not so much as accusing him of being a blasphemer, a traitor, a false prophet, or guilty of any crime. A priest, a prophet, and a judge shed innocent blood and polluted the court of the temple, the sabbath, and the day of expiation, for on that day, their tradition says, this happened.
Zechariah is not the only one. There is one in the Old Testament: Abel. He is the first martyr and is one of the sons of Adam and Eve. In Genesis four, Cain kills his brother because of His sacrifice offering that did not receive approval from God.
The first New Testament martyr that we know of is John the Baptist. His execution by Herod the Tetrarch in Matthew fourteen, verses one through twelve. Herod imprisoned John because John disapproved of the king’s divorce to marry his sister-in-law.
In Acts chapters six and seven, Stephen boldly preached the Gospel. He called out those who put Jesus on the cross. The godly activity from Stephen did not make the religious leaders happy. They bit and stoned Stephen in Acts seven, verses fifty-four through sixty. James also received death by King Herod Agrippa I in Acts twelve, verses one and two, when the king was persecuting the church. During this time, the king also imprisoned Peter. He planned to kill Peter, but an angel came and rescued the Apostle from a locked prison.