CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT FROM
Alfred C. Barnes
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029308503
THE
FOURTH BOOK
OF MACCABEES:
CONTAINING
REFLECTIONS ON RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE: LIKEWISE, AN ACCOUNT OF HELIODORUS’ ATTEMPT TO PLUNDER THE TEMPLE: AND THE HISTORY OF ELEAZAR AND THE SEVEN BRETHREN PERSECUTED EVEN TO DEATH FOR THEIR ADHERENCE TO RELIGION.
CHAPTER VIII
B.C. 167
Seven brethren, with their mother, are brought forth to the torture.
Through this it was, that seven boys, governing their conduct by religious principle, overcame still severer torments.
For when the tyrant was signally defeated in his first attempt, not having been able to force the old man to eat unclean meats; then in violent anger he commanded to bring others of the grown-up a Hebrew captives: and, if they would eat the unclean food, to let them go when they had eaten; but, if they refused, to torment them with greater severity. The tyrant having given these orders, there were brought forward seven brethren b together with their aged mother, handsome and modest youths, and ingenuous, and altogether graceful in appearance. Whom when the tyrant beheld encircling their mother as in a dance, he was pleased with them; and being struck with their fair and ingenuous appearance, he smiled upon them, and having called them near to him, said; ” O young men, I have an affectionate admiration of the beauty of each of you; and greatly respecting so numerous a band of brothers, I not only advise you not to fall into the same madness with that old man who was recently tortured: but moreover I counsel you to yield, and to enjoy my friendship: for, as I have the power c to ” punish those who disobey my commands, so have I also power to confer favours upon those who are obedient to me. Trust to me d therefore, and you shall receive stations of authority e in my affairs, after you have renounced the ordinance of the policy of your fathers f : and ”
” adopting the Grecian mode g of life, and living according to it, enjoy your youth with all its delights. For, if you dispose me to anger by your disobedience, you will compel me, with dreadful punishments, to destroy every one of you by tortures. Have mercy therefore on your selves, whom even I an enemy pity on account of your youthful age and your fair forms. Will you not take this into consideration, that if you disobey, there is nothing in store for you but to die during torments?”
And thus saying, he commanded the instruments of torture to be brought forward; that even by terror he might persuade them to eat the unclean meats. And when his guards brought out the wheels, and dislocating racks, and pullies h, and catapeltae, and caldrons, and fryingpans, and rings, and iron fetters, and wedges, and materials for kindling fire: the tyrant went on to say; “Young men, be afraid: and that just Deity, whom you worship, will pardon you for having transgressed upon compulsion.” But they, though hearing seductive words, and beholding terrible things i, not only were not afraid, but even replied to the tyrant’s arguments; and, by the excellence of their reasoning, demolished his power.
Now let us consider the matter closely. If there had been among them any who were weak-minded and void of courage, what sort of words would they have used? Would they not have been these? ” Wretched and most foolish that we are! when the king exhorts and invites us to accept his kindness, shall we not obey him? Why do we amuse ourselves with vain desires, and venture on a disobedience which will only bring our death? Brethren, shall we not fear these implements of torture, and reflect on the threats of torment, and fly from this vain glory and fatal ostentation? Let us have mercy on our own prime of life, and compassion on our mother’s age: and let us consider, that by disobedience we shall instantly die. But Divine Justice itself will pardon us, that we were afraid of the king through stern necessity.”
“Why do we withdraw ourselves from a most delightful life, and deprive ourselves of the world with its enjoyments? Let us not struggle against necessity; nor seek vain glory in our own torments. Not even the law itself adjudges us to death, for having against our wills k dreaded the instruments of torture. From whence has so great a love of strife settled itself in us, and a fatal obstinacy delights us, when we might live unmolested l by obeying the king?”
But nothing of this kind did the young men say, nor even thought of it, when they were on the point of being tortured : for they were regardless m
of suffering, and superior to a sense of pain. So that, as soon as the tyrant had ceased from advising them to eat the unclean meats, they all with one voice, as if from one mind, pake thus unto him.
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