The Bible records the suffering and death by some of the disciples.

• The New Testament records some of the sufferings of Jesus’ followers (including a couple examples below); however, it does not include all the sufferings, nor the death of Peter and Paul since the books of the Bible were written prior to their deaths.

• Paul summarizes some of his suffering in his 2nd letter to the church of Corinth.

  • Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the depths of the sea. On frequent journeys, [I faced] dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the open country, dangers on the sea, and dangers among false brothers; labor and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and lacking clothing. Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me: my care for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:25-28 CSB emphasis added)

• James, the brother of the apostle John, is killed. This is recorded in the book of Acts.

  • About that time King Herod cruelly attacked some who belonged to the church, and he killed James, John's brother, with the sword. (Acts 12:1-2 CSB)

Early church fathers record the sufferings of Peter and Paul and their willingness to die for their beliefs.

• Clement of Rome is an early church father.

  • 1 Clement 5:2-7 (c96 AD)

  • “Because of envy and jealousy, the greatest and most righteous pillars have been persecuted and contended unto death. Let us set the good apostles before our eyes. Peter, who because of unrighteous envy endured, not one or two, but many afflictions, and having borne witness went to the due glorious place. Because of envy and rivalries, steadfast Paul pointed to the prize. Seven times chained, exiled, stoned, having become a preacher both in the East and in the West, he received honor fitting of his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, unto the boundary on which the sun sets; having testified in the presence of the leaders. Thus he was freed from the world and went to the holy place. He became a great example of steadfastness.”1 (emphasis added)

• Polycarp, an early church father.

  • Polycarp 9:1-2

  • “I exhort you all therefore to be obedient unto the word of righteousness and to practice all endurance, which also ye saw with your own eyes in the blessed Ignatius and Zosimus and Rufus, yea and in others also who came from among yourselves, as well as in Paul himself and the rest of the Apostles; being persuaded that all these ran not in vain but in faith and righteousness, and that they are in their due place in the presence of the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they loved not the present world, but Him that died for our sakes and was raised by God for us.”2 (emphasis added)

• Ignatius of Antioch, an early church father, who wrote 110-115.3

  • ”For I know and believe that He was in the flesh even after the resurrection; and when He came to Peter and his company, He said to them, Lay hold and handle me, and see that I am not a demon without a body. And straitway they touched him and they believed, being joined unto His flesh and His blood. Wherefore also they despised death, nay they were found superior to death. And after His resurrection He [both] ate with them and drank with them.”3 (emphasis added)

• Tertullian, an early church father, mentions the martyrdom of Peter and Paul in his writing prior to 200 A.D.5

  • “That Paul is beheaded has been written in their own blood. And if a heretic wishes his confidence to rest upon a public record, the archives of the empire will speak, as would the stones of Jerusalem. We read the lives of the Caesars: At Rome Nero was the first who stained with blood the rising faith. Then is Peter girt by another, when he is made fast to the cross. Then does Paul obtain a birth suited to Roman citizenship, when in Rome he springs to life again ennobled by martyrdom.”4 (emphasis added)