The 4^th Book of Maccabees

Chapter 2
¹And why is it amazing that the desires of the mind for the enjoyment of beauty are rendered powerless? ²It is for this reason, certainly, that the temperate Joseph is praised, because by mental effort he overcame sexual desire. ³For when he was young and in his prime for intercourse, by his reason he nullified the frenzy of the passions. ⁴Not only is reason proved to rule over the frenzied urge of sexual desire, but also over every desire. ⁵Thus the law says, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife . . or anything that is your neighbor's." ⁶In fact, since the law has told us not to covet, I could prove to you all the more that reason is able to control desires. Just so it is with the emotions that hinder one from justice. ⁷Otherwise how could it be that someone who is habitually a solitary gormandizer, a glutton, or even a drunkard can learn a better way, unless reason is clearly lord of the emotions? ⁸Thus, as soon as a man adopts a way of life in accordance with the law, even though he is a lover of money, he is forced to act contrary to his natural ways and to lend without interest to the needy and to cancel the debt when the 7th year arrives. ⁹If one is greedy, he is ruled by the law through his reason so that he neither gleans his harvest nor gathers the last grapes from the vineyard. In all other matters we can recognize that reason rules the emotions. ¹⁰For the law prevails even over affection for parents, so that virtue is not abandoned for their sakes. ¹¹It is superior to love for one's wife, so that one rebukes her when she breaks the law. ¹²It takes precedence over love for children, so that one punishes them for misdeeds. ¹³It is sovereign over the relationship of friends, so that one rebukes friends when they act wickedly. ¹⁴Do not consider it paradoxical when reason, through the law, can prevail even over enmity. The fruit trees of the enemy are not cut down, but one preserves the property of enemies from the destroyers and helps raise up what has fallen. ¹⁵It is evident that reason rules even the more violent emotions: lust for power, vainglory, boasting, arrogance, and malice. ¹⁶For the temperate mind repels all these malicious emotions, just as it repels anger - for it is sovereign over even this. ¹⁷When Moses was angry with Dathan and Abiram he did nothing against them in anger, but controlled his anger by reason. ¹⁸For, as I have said, the temperate mind is able to get the better of the emotions, to correct some, and to render others powerless. ¹⁹Why else did Jacob, our most wise father, censure the households of Simeon and Levi for their irrational slaughter of the entire tribe of the Shechemites, saying, "Cursed be their anger"? ²⁰For if reason could not control anger, he would not have spoken thus. ²¹Now when God fashioned man, he planted in him emotions and inclinations, ²²but at the same time he enthroned the mind among the senses as a sacred governor over them all. ²³To the mind he gave the law; and one who lives subject to this will rule a kingdom that is temperate, just, good, and courageous. ²⁴How is it then, one might say, that if reason is master of the emotions, it does not control forgetfulness and ignorance?

Chapter 3
¹This notion is entirely ridiculous; for it is evident that reason rules not over its own emotions, but over those of the body. ²No one of us can eradicate that kind of desire, but reason can provide a way for us not to be enslaved by desire. ³No one of us can eradicate anger from the mind, but reason can help to deal with anger. ⁴No one of us can eradicate malice, but reason can fight at our side so that we are not overcome by malice. ⁵For reason does not uproot the emotions but is their antagonist. ⁶Now this can be explained more clearly by the story of King David's thirst. ⁷David had been attacking the Philistines all day long, and together with the soldiers of his nation had slain many of them. ⁸Then when evening fell, he came, sweating and quite exhausted, to the royal tent, around which the whole army of our ancestors had encamped. ⁹Now all the rest were at supper, ¹⁰but the king was extremely thirsty, and although springs were plentiful there, he could not satisfy his thirst from them. ¹¹But a certain irrational desire for the water in the enemy's territory tormented and inflamed him, undid and consumed him. ¹²When his guards complained bitterly because of the king's craving, 2 staunch young soldiers, respecting the king's desire, armed themselves fully, and taking a pitcher climbed over the enemy's ramparts. ¹³Eluding the sentinels at the gates, they went searching throughout the enemy camp ¹⁴and found the spring, and from it boldly brought the king a drink. ¹⁵But David, although he was burning with thirst, considered it an altogether fearful danger to his soul to drink what was regarded as equivalent to blood. ¹⁶Therefore, opposing reason to desire, he poured out the drink as an offering to God. ¹⁷For the temperate mind can conquer the drives of the emotions and quench the flames of frenzied desires; ¹⁸it can overthrow bodily agonies even when they are extreme, and by nobility of reason spurn all domination by the emotions. ¹⁹The present occasion now invites us to a narrative demonstration of temperate reason. ²⁰At a time when our fathers were enjoying profound peace because of their observance of the law and were prospering, so that even Seleucus Nicanor, king of Asia, had both appropriated money to them for the temple service and recognized their commonwealth - ²¹just at that time certain men attempted a revolution against the public harmony and caused many and various disasters.

Chapter 4
¹Now there was a certain Simon, a political opponent of the noble and good man, Onias, who then held the high priesthood for life. When despite all manner of slander he was unable to injure Onias in the eyes of the nation, he fled the country with the purpose of betraying it. ²So he came to Apollonius, governor of Syria, Phoenicia, and Cilicia, and said, ³"I have come here because I am loyal to the king's government, to report that in the Jerusalem treasuries there are deposited tens of thousands in private funds, which are not the property of the temple but belong to King Seleucus." ⁴When Apollonius learned the details of these things, he praised Simon for his service to the king and went up to Seleucus to inform him of the rich treasure. ⁵On receiving authority to deal with this matter, he proceeded quickly to our country accompanied by the accursed Simon and a very strong military force. ⁶He said that he had come with the king's authority to seize the private funds in the treasury. ⁷The people indignantly protested his words, considering it outrageous that those who had committed deposits to the sacred treasury should be deprived of them, and did all that they could to prevent it. ⁸But, uttering threats, Apollonius went on to the temple. ⁹While the priests together with women and children were imploring God in the temple to shield the holy place that was being treated so contemptuously, ¹⁰and while Apollonius was going up with his armed forces to seize the money, angels on horseback with lightning flashing from their weapons appeared from heaven, instilling in them great fear and trembling. ¹¹Then Apollonius fell down half dead in the temple area that was open to all, stretched out his hands toward heaven, and with tears besought the Hebrews to pray for him and propitiate the wrath of the heavenly army. ¹²For he said that he had committed a sin deserving of death, and that if he were delivered he would praise the blessedness of the holy place before all people. ¹³Moved by these words, Onias the high priest, although otherwise he had scruples about doing so, prayed for him lest King Seleucus suppose that Apollonius had been overcome by human treachery and not by divine justice. ¹⁴So Apollonius, having been preserved beyond all expectations, went away to report to the king what had happened to him. ¹⁵When King Seleucus died, his son Antiochus Epiphanes succeeded to the throne, an arrogant and terrible man, ¹⁶who removed Onias from the priesthood and appointed Onias's brother Jason as high priest. ¹⁷Jason agreed that if the office were conferred upon him he would pay the king 3,660 talents annually. ¹⁸So the king appointed him high priest and ruler of the nation. ¹⁹Jason changed the nation's way of life and altered its form of government in complete violation of the law, ²⁰so that not only was a gymnasium constructed at the very citadel of our native land, but also the temple service was abolished. ²¹The divine justice was angered by these acts and caused Antiochus himself to make war on them. ²²For when he was warring against Ptolemy in Egypt, he heard that a rumor of his death had spread and that the people of Jerusalem had rejoiced greatly. He speedily marched against them, ²³and after he had plundered them he issued a decree that if any of them should be found observing the ancestral law they should die. ²⁴When, by means of his decrees, he had not been able in any way to put an end to the people's observance of the law, but saw that all his threats and punishments were being disregarded, ²⁵even to the point that women, because they had circumcised their sons, were thrown headlong from heights along with their infants, though they had known beforehand that they would suffer this - ²⁶when, then, his decrees were despised by the people, he himself, through torture, tried to compel everyone in the nation to eat defiling foods and to renounce Judaism.

Chapter 5
¹The tyrant Antiochus, sitting in state with his counselors on a certain high place, and with his armed soldiers standing about him, ²ordered the guards to seize each and every Hebrew and to compel them to eat pork and food sacrificed to idols. ³If any were not willing to eat defiling food, they were to be broken on the wheel and killed. ⁴And when many persons had been rounded up, one man, Eleazar by name, leader of the flock, was brought before the king. He was a man of priestly family, learned in the law, advanced in age, and known to many in the tyrant's court because of his philosophy. ⁵When Antiochus saw him he said, ⁶"Before I begin to torture you, old man, I would advise you to save yourself by eating pork, ⁷for I respect your age and your gray hairs. Although you have had them for so long a time, it does not seem to me that you are a philosopher when you observe the religion of the Jews. ⁸Why, when nature has granted it to us, should you abhor eating the very excellent meat of this animal? ⁹It is senseless not to enjoy delicious things that are not shameful, and wrong to spurn the gifts of nature. ¹⁰It seems to me that you will do something even more senseless if, by holding a vain opinion concerning the truth, you continue to despise me to your own hurt. ¹¹Will you not awaken from your foolish philosophy, dispel your futile reasonings, adopt a mind appropriate to your years, philosophize according to the truth of what is beneficial, ¹²and have compassion on your old age by honoring my humane advice? ¹³For consider this, that if there is some power watching over this religion of yours, it will excuse you from any transgression that arises out of compulsion." ¹⁴When the tyrant urged him in this fashion to eat meat unlawfully, Eleazar asked to have a word. ¹⁵When he had received permission to speak, he began to address the people as follows: ¹⁶"We, O Antiochus, who have been persuaded to govern our lives by the divine law, think that there is no compulsion more powerful than our obedience to the law. ¹⁷Therefore we consider that we should not transgress it in any respect. ¹⁸Even if, as you suppose, our law were not truly divine and we had wrongly held it to be divine, not even so would it be right for us to invalidate our reputation for piety. ¹⁹Therefore do not suppose that it would be a petty sin if we were to eat defiling food; ²⁰to transgress the law in matters either small or great is of equal seriousness, ²¹for in either case the law is equally despised. ²²You scoff at our philosophy as though living by it were irrational, ²³but it teaches us self-control, so that we master all pleasures and desires, and it also trains us in courage, so that we endure any suffering willingly; ²⁴it instructs us in justice, so that in all our dealings we act impartially, and it teaches us piety, so that with proper reverence we worship the only real God. ²⁵"Therefore we do not eat defiling food; for since we believe that the law was established by God, we know that in the nature of things the Creator of the world in giving us the law has shown sympathy toward us. ²⁶He has permitted us to eat what will be most suitable for our lives, but he has forbidden us to eat meats that would be contrary to this. ²⁷It would be tyrannical for you to compel us not only to transgress the law, but also to eat in such a way that you may deride us for eating defiling foods, which are most hateful to us. ²⁸But you shall have no such occasion to laugh at me, ²⁹nor will I transgress the sacred oaths of my ancestors concerning the keeping of the law, ³⁰not even if you gouge out my eyes and burn my entrails. ³¹I am not so old and cowardly as not to be young in reason on behalf of piety. ³²Therefore get your torture wheels ready and fan the fire more vehemently! ³³I do not so pity my old age as to break the ancestral law by my own act. ³⁴I will not play false to you, O law that trained me, nor will I renounce you, beloved self-control. ³⁵I will not put you to shame, philosophical reason, nor will I reject you, honored priesthood and knowledge of the law. ³⁶You, O king, shall not stain the honorable mouth of my old age, nor my long life lived lawfully. ³⁷The fathers will receive me as pure, as one who does not fear your violence even to death. ³⁸You may tyrannize the ungodly, but you shall not dominate my religious principles either by word or by deed."

Chapter 6
¹When Eleazar in this manner had made eloquent response to the exhortations of the tyrant, the guards who were standing by dragged him violently to the instruments of torture. ²First they stripped the old man, who remained adorned with the gracefulness of his piety. ³And after they had tied his arms on each side they scourged him, ⁴while a herald opposite him cried out, "Obey the king's commands!" ⁵But the courageous and noble man, as a true Eleazar, was unmoved, as though being tortured in a dream; ⁶yet while the old man's eyes were raised to heaven, his flesh was being torn by scourges, his blood flowing, and his sides were being cut to pieces. ⁷And though he fell to the ground because his body could not endure the agonies, he kept his reason upright and unswerving. ⁸One of the cruel guards rushed at him and began to kick him in the side to make him get up again after he fell. ⁹But he bore the pains and scorned the punishment and endured the tortures. ¹⁰And like a noble athlete the old man, while being beaten, was victorious over his torturers; ¹¹in fact, with his face bathed in sweat, and gasping heavily for breath, he amazed even his torturers by his courageous spirit. ¹²At that point, partly out of pity for his old age, ¹³partly out of sympathy from their acquaintance with him, partly out of admiration for his endurance, some of the king's retinue came to him and said, ¹⁴"Eleazar, why are you so irrationally destroying yourself through these evil things? ¹⁵We will set before you some cooked meat; save yourself by pretending to eat pork." ¹⁶But Eleazar, as though more bitterly tormented by this counsel, cried out: ¹⁷"May we, the children of Abraham, never think so basely that out of cowardice we feign a role unbecoming to us! ¹⁸For it would be irrational if we, who have lived in accordance with truth to old age and have maintained in accordance with law the reputation of such a life, should now change our course, ¹⁹become a pattern of impiety to the young, in becoming an example of the eating of defiling food. ²⁰It would be shameful if we should survive for a little while and during that time be a laughing stock to all for our cowardice, ²¹and if we should be despised by the tyrant as unmanly, and not protect our divine law even to death. ²²Therefore, O children of Abraham, die nobly for your religion! ²³And you, guards of the tyrant, why do you delay?" ²⁴When they saw that he was so courageous in the face of the afflictions, and that he had not been changed by their compassion, the guards brought him to the fire. ²⁵There they burned him with maliciously contrived instruments, threw him down, and poured stinking liquids into his nostrils. ²⁶When he was now burned to his very bones and about to expire, he lifted up his eyes to God and said, ²⁷"You know, O God, that though I might have saved myself, I am dying in burning torments for the sake of the law. ²⁸Be merciful to your people, and let our punishment suffice for them. ²⁹Make my blood their purification, and take my life in exchange for theirs." ³⁰And after he said this, the holy man died nobly in his tortures, and by reason he resisted even to the very tortures of death for the sake of the law. ³¹Admittedly, then, devout reason is sovereign over the emotions. ³²For if the emotions had prevailed over reason, we would have testified to their domination. ³³But now that reason has conquered the emotions, we properly attribute to it the power to govern. ³⁴And it is right for us to acknowledge the dominance of reason when it masters even external agonies. It would be ridiculous to deny it. ³⁵And I have proved not only that reason has mastered agonies, but also that it masters pleasures and in no respect yields to them.

Chapter 7
¹For like a most skillful pilot, the reason of our father Eleazar steered the ship of religion over the sea of the emotions, ²and though buffeted by the stormings of the tyrant and overwhelmed by the mighty waves of tortures, ³in no way did he turn the rudder of religion until he sailed into the haven of immortal victory. ⁴No city besieged with many ingenious war machines has ever held out as did that most holy man. Although his sacred life was consumed by tortures and racks, he conquered the besiegers with the shield of his devout reason. ⁵For in setting his mind firm like a jutting cliff, our father Eleazar broke the maddening waves of the emotions. ⁶O priest, worthy of the priesthood, you neither defiled your sacred teeth nor profaned your stomach, which had room only for reverence and purity, by eating defiling foods. ⁷O man in harmony with the law and philosopher of divine life! ⁸Such should be those who are administrators of the law, shielding it with their own blood and noble sweat in sufferings even to death. ⁹You, father, strengthened our loyalty to the law through your glorious endurance, and you did not abandon the holiness which you praised, but by your deeds you made your words of divine philosophy credible. ¹⁰O aged man, more powerful than tortures; O elder, fiercer than fire; O supreme king over the passions, Eleazar! ¹¹For just as our father Aaron, armed with the censer, ran through the multitude of the people and conquered the fiery angel, ¹²so the descendant of Aaron, Eleazar, though being consumed by the fire, remained unmoved in his reason. ¹³Most amazing, indeed, though he was an old man, his body no longer tense and firm, his muscles flabby, his sinews feeble, he became young again ¹⁴in spirit through reason; and by reason like that of Isaac he rendered the many-headed rack ineffective. ¹⁵O man of blessed age and of venerable gray hair and of law-abiding life, whom the faithful seal of death has perfected! ¹⁶If, therefore, because of piety an aged man despised tortures even to death, most certainly devout reason is governor of the emotions. ¹⁷Some perhaps might say, "Not everyone has full command of his emotions, because not everyone has prudent reason." ¹⁸But as many as attend to religion with a whole heart, these alone are able to control the passions of the flesh, ¹⁹since they believe that they, like our patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, do not die to God, but live in God. ²⁰No contradiction therefore arises when some persons appear to be dominated by their emotions because of the weakness of their reason. ²¹What person who lives as a philosopher by the whole rule of philosophy, and trusts in God, ²²and knows that it is blessed to endure any suffering for the sake of virtue, would not be able to overcome the emotions through godliness? ²³For only the wise and courageous man is lord of his emotions.

Chapter 8
¹For this is why even the very young, by following a philosophy in accordance with devout reason, have prevailed over the most painful instruments of torture. ²For when the tyrant was conspicuously defeated in his first attempt, being unable to compel an aged man to eat defiling foods, then in violent rage he commanded that others of the Hebrew captives be brought, and that any who ate defiling food should be freed after eating, but if any were to refuse, these should be tortured even more cruelly. ³When the tyrant had given these orders, 7 brothers - handsome, modest, noble, and accomplished in every way - were brought before him along with their aged mother. ⁴When the tyrant saw them, grouped about their mother as if in a chorus, he was pleased with them. And struck by their appearance and nobility, he smiled at them, and summoned them nearer and said, ⁵"Young men, I admire each and everyone of you in a kindly manner, and greatly respect the beauty and the number of such brothers. Not only do I advise you not to display the same madness as that of the old man who has just been tortured, but I also exhort you to yield to me and enjoy my friendship. ⁶Just as I am able to punish those who disobey my orders, so I can be a benefactor to those who obey me. ⁷Trust me, then, and you will have positions of authority in my government if you will renounce the ancestral tradition of your national life. ⁸And enjoy your youth by adopting the Greek way of life and by changing your manner of living. ⁹But if by disobedience you rouse my anger, you will compel me to destroy each and everyone of you with dreadful punishments through tortures. ¹⁰Therefore take pity on yourselves. Even I, your enemy, have compassion for your youth and handsome appearance. ¹¹Will you not consider this, that if you disobey, nothing remains for you but to die on the rack?" ¹²When he had said these things, he ordered the instruments of torture to be brought forward so as to persuade them out of fear to eat the defiling food. ¹³And when the guards had placed before them wheels and joint-dislocators, rack and hooks and catapults and caldrons, braziers and thumbscrews and iron claws and wedges and bellows, the tyrant resumed speaking: ¹⁴"Be afraid, young fellows, and whatever justice you revere will be merciful to you when you transgress under compulsion." ¹⁵But when they had heard the inducements and saw the dreadful devices, not only were they not afraid, but they also opposed the tyrant with their own philosophy, and by their right reasoning nullified his tyranny. ¹⁶Let us consider, on the other hand, what arguments might have been used if some of them had been cowardly and unmanly. Would they not have been these? ¹⁷"O wretches that we are and so senseless! Since the king has summoned and exhorted us to accept kind treatment if we obey him, ¹⁸why do we take pleasure in vain resolves and venture upon a disobedience that brings death? ¹⁹O men and brothers, should we not fear the instruments of torture and consider the threats of torments, and give up this vain opinion and this arrogance that threatens to destroy us? ²⁰Let us take pity on our youth and have compassion on our mother's age; ²¹and let us seriously consider that if we disobey we are dead! ²²Also, divine justice will excuse us for fearing the king when we are under compulsion. ²³Why do we banish ourselves from this most pleasant life and deprive ourselves of this delightful world? ²⁴Let us not struggle against compulsion nor take hollow pride in being put to the rack. ²⁵Not even the law itself would arbitrarily slay us for fearing the instruments of torture. ²⁶Why does such contentiousness excite us and such a fatal stubbornness please us, when we can live in peace if we obey the king?" ²⁷But the youths, though about to be tortured, neither said any of these things nor even seriously considered them. ²⁸For they were contemptuous of the emotions and sovereign over agonies, ²⁹so that as soon as the tyrant had ceased counseling them to eat defiling food, all with one voice together, as from one mind, said:

Chapter 9
¹"Why do you delay, O tyrant? For we are ready to die rather than transgress our ancestral commandments; ²we are obviously putting our forefathers to shame unless we should practice ready obedience to the law and to Moses our counselor. ³Tyrant and counselor of lawlessness, in your hatred for us do not pity us more than we pity ourselves. ⁴For we consider this pity of yours which insures our safety through transgression of the law to be more grievous than death itself. ⁵You are trying to terrify us by threatening us with death by torture, as though a short time ago you learned nothing from Eleazar. ⁶And if the aged men of the Hebrews because of their religion lived piously while enduring torture, it would be even more fitting that we young men should die despising your coercive tortures, which our aged instructor also overcame. ⁷Therefore, tyrant, put us to the test; and if you take our lives because of our religion, do not suppose that you can injure us by torturing us. ⁸For we, through this severe suffering and endurance, shall have the prize of virtue and shall be with God, for whom we suffer; ⁹but you, because of your bloodthirstiness toward us, will deservedly undergo from the divine justice eternal torment by fire." ¹⁰When they had said these things the tyrant not only was angry, as at those who are disobedient, but also was enraged, as at those who are ungrateful. ¹¹Then at his command the guards brought forward the eldest, and having torn off his tunic, they bound his hands and arms with thongs on each side. ¹²When they had worn themselves out beating him with scourges, without accomplishing anything, they placed him upon the wheel. ¹³When the noble youth was stretched out around this, his limbs were dislocated, ¹⁴and though broken in every member he denounced the tyrant, saying, ¹⁵"Most abominable tyrant, enemy of heavenly justice, savage of mind, you are mangling me in this manner, not because I am a murderer, or as one who acts impiously, but because I protect the divine law." ¹⁶And when the guards said, "Agree to eat so that you may be released from the tortures," ¹⁷he replied, "You abominable lackeys, your wheel is not so powerful as to strangle my reason. Cut my limbs, burn my flesh, and twist my joints. ¹⁸Through all these tortures I will convince you that sons of the Hebrews alone are invincible where virtue is concerned." ¹⁹While he was saying these things, they spread fire under him, and while fanning the flames they tightened the wheel further. ²⁰The wheel was completely smeared with blood, and the heap of coals was being quenched by the drippings of gore, and pieces of flesh were falling off the axles of the machine. ²¹Although the ligaments joining his bones were already severed, the courageous youth, worthy of Abraham, did not groan, ²²but as though transformed by fire into immortality he nobly endured the rackings. ²³"Imitate me, brothers," he said. "Do not leave your post in my struggle or renounce our courageous brotherhood. ²⁴Fight the sacred and noble battle for religion. Thereby the just Providence of our ancestors may become merciful to our nation and take vengeance on the accursed tyrant." ²⁵When he had said this, the saintly youth broke the thread of life. ²⁶While all were marveling at his courageous spirit, the guards brought in the next eldest, and after fitting themselves with iron gauntlets having sharp hooks, they bound him to the torture machine and catapult. ²⁷Before torturing him, they inquired if he were willing to eat, and they heard this noble decision. ²⁸These leopard-like beasts tore out his sinews with the iron hands, flayed all his flesh up to his chin, and tore away his scalp. But he steadfastly endured this agony and said, ²⁹"How sweet is any kind of death for the religion of our fathers!" ³⁰To the tyrant he said, "Do you not think, you most savage tyrant, that you are being tortured more than I, as you see the arrogant design of your tyranny being defeated by our endurance for the sake of religion? ³¹I lighten my pain by the joys that come from virtue, ³²but you suffer torture by the threats that come from impiety. You will not escape, most abominable tyrant, the judgments of the divine wrath."

Chapter 10
¹When he too had endured a glorious death, the 3rd was led in, and many repeatedly urged him to save himself by tasting the meat. ²But he shouted, "Do you not know that the same father begot me and those who died, and the same mother bore me, and that I was brought up on the same teachings? ³I do not renounce the noble kinship that binds me to my brothers." ^4,5Enraged by the man's boldness, they disjointed his hands and feet with their instruments, dismembering him by prying his limbs from their sockets, ⁶and breaking his fingers and arms and legs and elbows. ⁷Since they were not able in any way to break his spirit, they abandoned the instruments and scalped him with their fingernails in a Scythian fashion. ⁸They immediately brought him to the wheel, and while his vertebrae were being dislocated upon it he saw his own flesh torn all around and drops of blood flowing from his entrails. ⁹When he was about to die, he said, ¹⁰"We, most abominable tyrant, are suffering because of our godly training and virtue, ¹¹but you, because of your impiety and bloodthirstiness, will undergo unceasing torments." ¹²When he also had died in a manner worthy of his brothers, they dragged in the 4th, saying, ¹³"As for you, do not give way to the same insanity as your brothers, but obey the king and save yourself." ¹⁴But he said to them, "You do not have a fire hot enough to make me play the coward. ¹⁵No, by the blessed death of my brothers, by the eternal destruction of the tyrant, and by the everlasting life of the pious, I will not renounce our noble brotherhood. ¹⁶Contrive tortures, tyrant, so that you may learn from them that I am a brother to those who have just been tortured." ¹⁷When he heard this, the bloodthirsty, murderous, and utterly abominable Antiochus gave orders to cut out his tongue. ¹⁸But he said, "Even if you remove my organ of speech, God hears also those who are mute. ¹⁹See, here is my tongue; cut it off, for in spite of this you will not make our reason speechless. ²⁰Gladly, for the sake of God, we let our bodily members be mutilated. ²¹God will visit you swiftly, for you are cutting out a tongue that has been melodious with divine hymns."

Chapter 11
¹When this one died also, after being cruelly tortured, the 5th leaped up, saying, ²"I will not refuse, tyrant, to be tortured for the sake of virtue. ³I have come of my own accord, so that by murdering me you will incur punishment from the heavenly justice for even more crimes. ⁴Hater of virtue, hater of mankind, for what act of ours are you destroying us in this way? ⁵Is it because we revere the Creator of all things and live according to his virtuous law? ⁶But these deeds deserve honors, not tortures." ^7-9While he was saying these things, the guards bound him and dragged him to the catapult; ¹⁰they tied him to it on his knees, and fitting iron clamps on them, they twisted his back around the wedge on the wheel, so that he was completely curled back like a scorpion, and all his members were disjointed. ¹¹In this condition, gasping for breath and in anguish of body, ¹²he said, "Tyrant, they are splendid favors that you grant us against your will, because through these noble sufferings you give us an opportunity to show our endurance for the law." ¹³After he too had died, the 6th, a mere boy, was led in. When the tyrant inquired whether he was willing to eat and be released, he said, ¹⁴"I am younger in age than my brothers, but I am their equal in mind. ¹⁵Since to this end we were born and bred, we ought likewise to die for the same principles. ¹⁶So if you intend to torture me for not eating defiling foods, go on torturing!" ¹⁷When he had said this, they led him to the wheel. ¹⁸He was carefully stretched tight upon it, his back was broken, and he was roasted from underneath. ¹⁹To his back they applied sharp spits that had been heated in the fire, and pierced his ribs so that his entrails were burned through. ²⁰While being tortured he said, "O contest befitting holiness, in which so many of us brothers have been summoned to an arena of sufferings for religion, and in which we have not been defeated! ²¹For religious knowledge, O tyrant, is invincible. ²²I also, equipped with nobility, will die with my brothers, ²³and I myself will bring a great avenger upon you, you inventor of tortures and enemy of those who are truly devout. ²⁴We 6 boys have paralyzed your tyranny! ²⁵Since you have not been able to persuade us to change our mind or to force us to eat defiling foods, is not this your downfall? ²⁶Your fire is cold to us, and the catapults painless, and your violence powerless. ²⁷For it is not the guards of the tyrant but those of the divine law that are set over us; therefore, unconquered, we hold fast to reason."

Chapter 12
¹When he also, thrown into the caldron, had died a blessed death, the 7th and youngest of all came forward. ²Even though the tyrant had been fearfully reproached by the brothers, he felt strong compassion for this child when he saw that he was already in fetters. He summoned him to come nearer and tried to console him, saying, ³"You see the result of your brothers' stupidity, for they died in torments because of their disobedience. ⁴You too, if you do not obey, will be miserably tortured and die before your time, ⁵but if you yield to persuasion you will be my friend and a leader in the government of the kingdom." ⁶When he had so pleaded, he sent for the boy's mother to show compassion on her who had been bereaved of so many sons and to influence her to persuade the surviving son to obey and save himself. ⁷But when his mother had exhorted him in the Hebrew language, as we shall tell a little later, ⁸he said, "Let me loose, let me speak to the king and to all his friends that are with him." ⁹Extremely pleased by the boy's declaration, they freed him at once. ¹⁰Running to the nearest of the braziers, ¹¹he said, "You profane tyrant, most impious of all the wicked, since you have received good things and also your kingdom from God, were you not ashamed to murder his servants and torture on the wheel those who practice religion? ¹²Because of this, justice has laid up for you intense and eternal fire and tortures, and these throughout all time will never let you go. ¹³As a man, were you not ashamed, you most savage beast, to cut out the tongues of men who have feelings like yours and are made of the same elements as you, and to maltreat and torture them in this way? ¹⁴Surely they by dying nobly fulfilled their service to God, but you will wail bitterly for having slain without cause the contestants for virtue." ¹⁵Then because he too was about to die, he said, ¹⁶"I do not desert the excellent example of my brothers, ¹⁷and I call on the God of our fathers to be merciful to our nation; ¹⁸but on you he will take vengeance both in this present life and when you are dead." ¹⁹After he had uttered these imprecations, he flung himself into the braziers and so ended his life.

Chapter 13
¹Since, then, the 7 brothers despised sufferings even unto death, everyone must concede that devout reason is sovereign over the emotions. ²For if they had been slaves to their emotions and had eaten defiling food, we would say that they had been conquered by these emotions. ³But in fact it was not so. Instead, by reason, which is praised before God, they prevailed over their emotions. ⁴The supremacy of the mind over these cannot be overlooked, for the brothers mastered both emotions and pains. ⁵How then can one fail to confess the sovereignty of right reason over emotion in those who were not turned back by fiery agonies? ⁶For just as towers jutting out over harbors hold back the threatening waves and make it calm for those who sail into the inner basin, ⁷so the 7-towered right reason of the youths, by fortifying the harbor of religion, conquered the tempest of the emotions. ⁸For they constituted a holy chorus of religion and encouraged one another, saying, ⁹"Brothers, let us die like brothers for the sake of the law; let us imitate the 3 youths in Assyria who despised the same ordeal of the furnace. ¹⁰Let us not be cowardly in the demonstration of our piety." ¹¹While one said, "Courage, brother," another said, "Bear up nobly," ¹²and another reminded them, "Remember whence you came, and the father by whose hand Isaac would have submitted to being slain for the sake of religion." ¹³Each of them and all of them together looking at one another, cheerful and undaunted, said, "Let us with all our hearts consecrate ourselves to God, who gave us our lives, and let us use our bodies as a bulwark for the law. ¹⁴Let us not fear him who thinks he is killing us, ¹⁵for great is the struggle of the soul and the danger of eternal torment lying before those who transgress the commandment of God. ¹⁶Therefore let us put on the full armor of self-control, which is divine reason. ¹⁷For if we so die, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us, and all the fathers will praise us." ¹⁸Those who were left behind said to each of the brothers who were being dragged away, "Do not put us to shame, brother, or betray the brothers who have died before us." ¹⁹You are not ignorant of the affection of brotherhood, which the divine and all-wise Providence has bequeathed through the fathers to their descendants and which was implanted in the mother's womb. ²⁰There each of the brothers dwelt the same length of time and was shaped during the same period of time; and growing from the same blood and through the same life, they were brought to the light of day. ²¹When they were born after an equal time of gestation, they drank milk from the same fountains. For such embraces brotherly-loving souls are nourished; ²²and they grow stronger from this common nurture and daily companionship, and from both general education and our discipline in the law of God. ²³Therefore, when sympathy and brotherly affection had been so established, the brothers were the more sympathetic to one another. ²⁴Since they had been educated by the same law and trained in the same virtues and brought up in right living, they loved one another all the more. ²⁵A common zeal for nobility expanded their goodwill and harmony toward one another, ²⁶because, with the aid of their religion, they rendered their brotherly love more fervent. ²⁷But although nature and companionship and virtuous habits had augmented the affection of brotherhood, those who were left endured for the sake of religion, while watching their brothers being maltreated and tortured to death.

Chapter 14
¹Furthermore, they encouraged them to face the torture, so that they not only despised their agonies, but also mastered the emotions of brotherly love. ²O reason, more royal than kings and freer than the free! ³O sacred and harmonious concord of the 7 brothers on behalf of religion! ⁴None of the 7 youths proved coward or shrank from death, ⁵but all of them, as though running the course toward immortality, hastened to death by torture. ⁶Just as the hands and feet are moved in harmony with the guidance of the mind, so those holy youths, as though moved by an immortal spirit of devotion, agreed to go to death for its sake. ⁷O most holy 7, brothers in harmony! For just as the 7 days of creation move in choral dance around religion, ⁸so these youths, forming a chorus, encircled the sevenfold fear of tortures and dissolved it. ⁹Even now, we ourselves shudder as we hear of the tribulations of these young men; they not only saw what was happening, yes, not only heard the direct word of threat, but also bore the sufferings patiently, and in agonies of fire at that. ¹⁰What could be more excruciatingly painful than this? For the power of fire is intense and swift, and it consumed their bodies quickly. ¹¹Do not consider it amazing that reason had full command over these men in their tortures, since the mind of woman despised even more diverse agonies, ¹²for the mother of the 7 young men bore up under the rackings of each one of her children. ¹³Observe how complex is a mother's love for her children, which draws everything toward an emotion felt in her inmost parts. ¹⁴Even unreasoning animals, like mankind, have a sympathy and parental love for their offspring. ¹⁵For example, among birds, the ones that are tame protect their young by building on the housetops, ¹⁶and the others, by building in precipitous chasms and in holes and tops of trees, hatch the nestlings and ward off the intruder. ¹⁷If they are not able to keep him away, they do what they can to help their young by flying in circles around them in the anguish of love, warning them with their own calls. ¹⁸And why is it necessary to demonstrate sympathy for children by the example of unreasoning animals, ¹⁹since even bees at the time for making honeycombs defend themselves against intruders as though with an iron dart sting those who approach their hive and defend it even to the death? ²⁰But sympathy for her children did not sway the mother of the young men; she was of the same mind as Abraham.

Chapter 15
¹O reason of the children, tyrant over the emotions! O religion, more desirable to the mother than her children! ²2 courses were open to this mother, that of religion, and that of preserving her 7 sons for a time, as the tyrant had promised. ³She loved religion more, religion that preserves them for eternal life according to God's promise. ⁴In what manner might I express the emotions of parents who love their children? We impress upon the character of a small child a wondrous likeness both of mind and of form. Especially is this true of mothers, who because of their birthpangs have a deeper sympathy toward their offspring than do the fathers. ⁵Considering that mothers are the weaker sex and give birth to many, they are more devoted to their children. ⁶The mother of the 7 boys, more than any other mother, loved her children. In 7 pregnancies she had implanted in herself tender love toward them, ⁷and because of the many pains she suffered with each of them she had sympathy for them; ⁸yet because of the fear of God she disdained the temporary safety of her children. ⁹Not only so, but also because of the nobility of her sons and their ready obedience to the law she felt a greater tenderness toward them. ¹⁰For they were righteous and self-controlled and brave and magnanimous, and loved their brothers and their mother, so that they obeyed her even to death in keeping the ordinances. ¹¹Nevertheless, though so many factors influenced the mother to suffer with them out of love for her children, in the case of none of them were the various tortures strong enough to pervert her reason. ¹²Instead, the mother urged them on, each child singly and all together, to death for the sake of religion. ¹³O sacred nature and affection of parental love, yearning of parents toward offspring, nurture and indomitable suffering by mothers! ¹⁴This mother, who saw them tortured and burned one by one, because of religion did not change her attitude. ¹⁵She watched the flesh of her children consumed by fire, their toes and fingers scattered on the ground, and the flesh of the head to the chin exposed like masks. ¹⁶O mother, tried now by more bitter pains than even the birth-pangs you suffered for them! ¹⁷O woman, who alone gave birth to such complete devotion! ¹⁸When the first-born breathed his last it did not turn you aside, nor when the 2nd in torments looked at you piteously nor when the 3rd expired; ¹⁹nor did you weep when you looked at the eyes of each one in his tortures gazing boldly at the same agonies, and saw in their nostrils the signs of the approach of death. ²⁰When you saw the flesh of children burned upon the flesh of other children, severed hands upon hands, scalped heads upon heads, and corpses fallen on other corpses and when you saw the place filled with many spectators of the torturings, you did not shed tears. ²¹Neither the melodies of sirens nor the songs of swans attract the attention of their hearers as did the voices of the children in torture calling to their mother. ²²How great and how many torments the mother then suffered as her sons were tortured on the wheel and with the hot irons! ²³But devout reason, giving her heart a man's courage in the very midst of her emotions, strengthened her to disregard her temporal love for her children. ²⁴Although she witnessed the destruction of 7 children and the ingenious and various rackings, this noble mother disregarded all these because of faith in God. ²⁵For as in the council chamber of her own soul she saw mighty advocates - nature, family, parental love, and the rackings of her children - ²⁶this mother held 2 ballots, one bearing death and the other deliverance for her children. ²⁷She did not approve the deliverance which would preserve the 7 sons for a short time, ²⁸but as the daughter of God-fearing Abraham she remembered his fortitude. ²⁹O mother of the nation, vindicator of the law and champion of religion, who carried away the prize of the contest in your heart! ³⁰O more noble than males in steadfastness, and more manly than men in endurance! ³¹Just as Noah's ark, carrying the world in the universal flood, stoutly endured the waves, ³²so you, O guardian of the law, overwhelmed from every side by the flood of your emotions and the violent winds, the torture of your sons, endured nobly and withstood the wintry storms that assail religion.

Chapter 16
¹If, then, a woman, advanced in years and mother of 7 sons, endured seeing her children tortured to death, it must be admitted that devout reason is sovereign over the emotions. ²Thus I have demonstrated not only that men have ruled over the emotions, but also that a woman has despised the fiercest tortures. ³The lions surrounding Daniel were not so savage, nor was the raging fiery furnace of Mishael so intensely hot, as was her innate parental love, inflamed as she saw her 7 sons tortured in such varied ways. ⁴But the mother quenched so many and such great emotions by devout reason. ⁵Consider this also. If this woman, though a mother, had been fainthearted, she would have mourned over them and perhaps spoken as follows: ⁶"O how wretched am I and many times unhappy! After bearing 7 children, I am now the mother of none! ⁷O 7 childbirths all in vain, 7 profitless pregnancies, fruitless nurturings and wretched nursings! ⁸In vain, my sons, I endured many birth-pangs for you, and the more grievous anxieties of your upbringing. ⁹Alas for my children, some unmarried, others married and without offspring. I shall not see your children or have the happiness of being called grandmother. ¹⁰Alas, I who had so many and beautiful children am a widow and alone, with many sorrows. ¹¹Nor when I die, shall I have any of my sons to bury me." ¹²Yet the sacred and God-fearing mother did not wail with such a lament for any of them, nor did she dissuade any of them from dying, nor did she grieve as they were dying, ¹³but, as though having a mind like adamant and giving rebirth for immortality to the whole number of her sons, she implored them and urged them on to death for the sake of religion. ¹⁴O mother, soldier of God in the cause of religion, elder and woman! By steadfastness you have conquered even a tyrant, and in word and deed you have proved more powerful than a man. ¹⁵For when you and your sons were arrested together, you stood and watched Eleazar being tortured, and said to your sons in the Hebrew language, ¹⁶"My sons, noble is the contest to which you are called to bear witness for the nation. Fight zealously for our ancestral law. ¹⁷For it would be shameful if, while an aged man endures such agonies for the sake of religion, you young men were to be terrified by tortures. ¹⁸Remember that it is through God that you have had a share in the world and have enjoyed life, ¹⁹and therefore you ought to endure any suffering for the sake of God. ²⁰For his sake also our father Abraham was zealous to sacrifice his son Isaac, the ancestor of our nation; and when Isaac saw his father's hand wielding a sword and descending upon him, he did not cower. ²¹And Daniel the righteous was thrown to the lions, and Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael were hurled into the fiery furnace and endured it for the sake of God. ²²You too must have the same faith in God and not be grieved. ²³It is unreasonable for people who have religious knowledge not to withstand pain." ²⁴By these words the mother of the 7 encouraged and persuaded each of her sons to die rather than violate God's commandment. ²⁵They knew also that those who die for the sake of God live in God, as do Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs.

Chapter 17
¹Some of the guards said that when she also was about to be seized and put to death she threw herself into the flames so that no one might touch her body. ²O mother, who with your 7 sons nullified the violence of the tyrant, frustrated his evil designs, and showed the courage of your faith! ³Nobly set like a roof on the pillars of your sons, you held firm and unswerving against the earthquake of the tortures. ⁴Take courage, therefore, O holy-minded mother, maintaining firm an enduring hope in God. ⁵The moon in heaven, with the stars, does not stand so august as you, who, after lighting the way of your star-like 7 sons to piety, stand in honor before God and are firmly set in heaven with them. ⁶For your children were true descendants of father Abraham. ⁷If it were possible for us to paint the history of your piety as an artist might, would not those who first beheld it have shuddered as they saw the mother of the 7 children enduring their varied tortures to death for the sake of religion? ⁸Indeed it would be proper to inscribe upon their tomb these words as a reminder to the people of our nation: ⁹"Here lie buried an aged priest and an aged woman and 7 sons, because of the violence of the tyrant who wished to destroy the way of life of the Hebrews. ¹⁰They vindicated their nation, looking to God and enduring torture even to death." ¹¹Truly the contest in which they were engaged was divine, ¹²for on that day virtue gave the awards and tested them for their endurance. The prize was immortality in endless life. ¹³Eleazar was the first contestant, the mother of the 7 sons entered the competition, and the brothers contended. ¹⁴The tyrant was the antagonist, and the world and the human race were the spectators. ¹⁵Reverence for God was victor and gave the crown to its own athletes. ¹⁶Who did not admire the athletes of the divine legislation? Who were not amazed? ¹⁷The tyrant himself and all his council marveled at their endurance, ¹⁸because of which they now stand before the divine throne and live through blessed eternity. ¹⁹For Moses says, "All who are consecrated are under your hands." ²⁰These, then, who have been consecrated for the sake of God, are honored, not only with this honor, but also by the fact that because of them our enemies did not rule over our nation, ²¹the tyrant was punished, and the homeland purified - they having become, as it were, a ransom for the sin of our nation. ²²And through the blood of those devout ones and their death as an expiation, divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been afflicted. ²³For the tyrant Antiochus, when he saw the courage of their virtue and their endurance under the tortures, proclaimed them to his soldiers as an example for their own endurance, ²⁴and this made them brave and courageous for infantry battle and siege, and he ravaged and conquered all his enemies.

Chapter 18
¹O Israelite children, offspring of the seed of Abraham, obey this law and exercise piety in every way, ²knowing that devout reason is master of all emotions, not only of sufferings from within, but also of those from without. ³Therefore those who gave over their bodies in suffering for the sake of religion were not only admired by men, but also were deemed worthy to share in a divine inheritance. ⁴Because of them the nation gained peace, and by reviving observance of the law in the homeland they ravaged the enemy. ⁵The tyrant Antiochus was both punished on earth and is being chastised after his death. Since in no way whatever was he able to compel the Israelites to become pagans and to abandon their ancestral customs, he left Jerusalem and marched against the Persians. ⁶The mother of 7 sons expressed also these principles to her children: ⁷"I was a pure virgin and did not go outside my father's house; but I guarded the rib from which woman was made. ⁸No seducer corrupted me on a desert plain, nor did the destroyer, the deceitful serpent, defile the purity of my virginity. ⁹In the time of my maturity I remained with my husband, and when these sons had grown up their father died. A happy man was he, who lived out his life with good children, and did not have the grief of bereavement. ¹⁰While he was still with you, he taught you the law and the prophets. ¹¹He read to you about Abel slain by Cain, and Isaac who was offered as a burnt offering, and of Joseph in prison. ¹²He told you of the zeal of Phineas, and he taught you about Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael in the fire. ¹³He praised Daniel in the den of the lions and blessed him. ¹⁴He reminded you of the scripture of Isaiah, which says, 'Even though you go through the fire, the flame shall not consume you.' ¹⁵He sang to you songs of the psalmist David, who said, 'Many are the afflictions of the righteous.' ¹⁶He recounted to you Solomon's proverb, 'There is a tree of life for those who do his will.' ¹⁷He confirmed the saying of Ezekiel, 'Shall these dry bones live?' ¹⁸For he did not forget to teach you the song that Moses taught, which says, ¹⁹'I kill and I make alive: this is your life and the length of your days.' " ²⁰O bitter was that day - and yet not bitter - when that bitter tyrant of the Greeks quenched fire with fire in his cruel caldrons, and in his burning rage brought those 7 sons of the daughter of Abraham to the catapult and back again to more tortures, ²¹pierced the pupils of their eyes and cut out their tongues, and put them to death with various tortures. ²²For these crimes divine justice pursued and will pursue the accursed tyrant. ²³But the sons of Abraham with their victorious mother are gathered together into the chorus of the fathers, and have received pure and immortal souls from God, ²⁴to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.