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.’ 30After he said this, the holy man died nobly in his tortures; even in the tortures of death he resisted, by virtue of reason, for the sake of the law.
31 Admittedly, 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. 34It is right for us to acknowledge the dominance of reason when it masters even external agonies. It would be ridiculous to deny it.* 35I have proved not only that reason has mastered agonies, but also that it masters pleasures and in no respect yields to them.
7For like a most skilful 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 that 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 grey hair and of law-abiding life, whom the faithful seal of death has perfected!
16 If, 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 all have full command of their emotions, because not all have 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 to 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 are masters of their emotions.
8For 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 would be freed after eating, but if any were to refuse, they would be tortured even more cruelly.
3 When the tyrant had given these orders, seven 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 though 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, with favourable feelings I admire each and every one of you, 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. 8Enjoy your youth by adopting the Greek way of life and by changing your manner of living. 9But if by disobedience you arouse my anger, you will compel me to destroy each and every one 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?’
12 When 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. 13When the guards had placed before them wheels and joint-dislocators, rack and hooks* and catapults* and cauldrons, braziers and thumbscrews and iron claws and wedges and bellows, the tyrant resumed speaking: 14‘Be afraid, young fellows; whatever justice you revere will be merciful to you when you transgress under compulsion.’
15 But 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 the following? 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* or take hollow pride in being put to the rack. 25Not even the law itself would arbitrarily put us to death 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?’
27 But 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 counselling them to eat defiling food, all with one voice together, as from one mind, said:
9‘Why do you delay, O tyrant? For we are ready to die rather than transgress our ancestral commandments; 2we are obviously putting our forebears to shame unless we practise ready obedience to the law and to Moses* our counsellor. 3Tyrant and counsellor of lawlessness, in your hatred for us do not pity us more than we pity ourselves.* 4For we consider this pity of yours, which ensures 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, on whose account we suffer; 9but you, because of your bloodthirstiness towards us, will deservedly undergo from the divine justice eternal torment by fire.’
10 When they had said these things, the tyrant was not only indignant, as at those who are disobedient, but also infuriated, 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 with every member disjointed 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 children 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 family ties. 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.
26 While all were marvelling 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 his 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 ancestors!’ 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, you most abominable tyrant, the judgements of the divine wrath.’
10When he too had endured a glorious death, the third 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 as well as 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.’* 5Enraged by the man’s boldness, they disjointed his hands and feet with their instruments, dismembering him by prizing 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 by this, 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.’
12 When he too had died in a manner worthy of his brothers, they dragged in the fourth, 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 family ties. 16Contrive tortures, tyrant, so that you may learn from them that I am a brother to those who have just now 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.’
11When he too died, after being cruelly tortured, the fifth leapt 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 humankind, 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 honours, not tortures.’* 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 favours that you grant us against your will, because through these noble sufferings you give us an opportunity to show our endurance for the law.’
13 When he too had died, the sixth, 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 six boys have paralysed 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.’
12When he too, thrown into the cauldron, had died a blessed death, the seventh and youngest of all came forward. 2Even though the tyrant had been vehemently 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 persuade 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 thus appealed to him, 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 practise 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 killed 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 ancestors 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.*
13Since, then, the seven 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 harbours hold back the threatening waves and make it calm for those who sail into the inner basin, 7so the seven-towered right reason of the youths, by fortifying the harbour 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 three 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 armour 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.’
19 You are not ignorant of the affection of family ties, 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 spent 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. From 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.
23 Therefore, 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 strengthened their goodwill towards one another, and their concord, 26because they could make their brotherly love more fervent with the aid of their religion. 27But although nature and companionship and virtuous habits had augmented the affection of family ties, those who were left endured for the sake of religion, while watching their brothers being maltreated and tortured to death.
14Furthermore, they encouraged them to face the torture, so that they not only despised their agonies, but also mastered the emotions of brotherly love.
2 O reason,* more royal than kings and freer than the free! 3O sacred and harmonious concord of the seven brothers on behalf of religion! 4None of the seven youths proved coward or shrank from death, 5but all of them, as though running the course towards 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 seven, brothers in harmony! For just as the seven 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 suffering of these young men; they not only saw what was happening, 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.
11 Do 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 seven young men bore up under the rackings of each one of her children.
13 Observe how complex is a mother’s love for her children, which draws everything towards an emotion felt in her inmost parts. 14Even unreasoning animals, as well as human beings, 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 the intruder* 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 and, 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.
15O reason of the children, tyrant over the emotions! O religion, more desirable to the mother than her children! 2Two courses were open to this mother, that of religion, and that of preserving her seven sons for a time, as the tyrant had promised. 3She loved religion more, the 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 birth pangs have a deeper sympathy towards 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 seven boys, more than any other mother, loved her children. In seven pregnancies she had implanted in herself tender love towards 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 towards 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.
11 Nevertheless, 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. 12But each child separately and all of them together the mother urged on to death for religion’s sake. 13O sacred nature and affection of parental love, yearning of parents towards 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 being consumed by fire, their toes and fingers scattered* on the ground, and the flesh of the head to the chin exposed like masks.
16 O 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 firstborn breathed his last, it did not turn you aside, nor when the second in torments looked at you piteously nor when the third 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, for the time, her parental love.
24 Although she witnessed the destruction of seven 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 two ballots, one bearing death and the other deliverance for her children. 27She did not approve the deliverance that would preserve the seven sons for a short time, 28but as the daughter of God-fearing Abraham she remembered his fortitude.
29 O 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 courageous 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.
16If, then, a woman, advanced in years and mother of seven 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 seven sons tortured in such varied ways. 4But the mother quenched so many and such great emotions by devout reason.
5 Consider this also: If this woman, though a mother, had been faint-hearted, she would have mourned over them and perhaps spoken as follows:
| << |
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Enter another bible reference:
obb
bible browser
biblemail@oremus.org
v 2.9.2
30 June 2021