HarperCollins Study Bible, page 432
11.13–27 The speeches of the sixth brother become more elaborate as the author builds toward a climax.
11.13 The pathos is heightened by the fact that the sixth brother is a mere boy.
11.20–21 The last words of the sixth brother are filled with images of an athletic contest in which he and his brothers are victorious because religious knowledge…is invincible. See note on 6.10.
4 MACCABEES 12
The Torture of the Seventh Brother
1When he too, thrown into the caldron, 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 practice religion? 12Because of this, justice has laid up for you intense and eternal fire and tortures, and these throughout all timea 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 exampleb of my brothers, 17and I call on the God of our ancestors to be merciful to our nation;c 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.d
next chapter
* * *
a Gk throughout the whole age
b Other ancient authorities read the witness
c Other ancient authorities read my race
d Gk and so gave up; other ancient authorities read gave up his spirit or his soul
12.1–19 The dramatic character of the torture of the seventh and youngest brother is enhanced by the tyrant’s apparent compassion for him and for his mother (vv. 2, 6), by the mother’s exhortation to her son (v. 7), and by the son’s asking to speak (v. 8). For a moment the catastrophe seems avoidable.
12.7 The mother exhorts her son in Hebrew, which emphasizes the sacred nature of the exhortation and also allows for dramatic tension in the minds of the hearers about what she is saying. The promise that the words of this speech will be given later seems to be fulfilled in 18.6–19.
12.8 Friends, a title for the king’s courtiers.
12.11–18 The youngest brother’s speech sums up a number of the themes found in the other speeches but emphasizes especially the injustice and savagery of the tyrant and the punishment awaiting him for all eternity.
12.13 Who have feelings…as you, a Stoic commonplace about the unity of all human beings, also found in Wis 7.1–6.
12.14 For a similar lamentation by the wicked for their persecution of the pious, see Wis 5.1–13.
12.17 To be merciful to our nation, perhaps an allusion to the notion that the martyrdoms were an atonement for the nation (see note on 6.27–29).
12.19 See 17.1. Both Stoicism and Judaism allowed for suicide in some circumstances. See Josephus’s description of the suicide of the remaining Jewish defenders at Masada in War 7.320–401.
4 MACCABEES 13
Reason’s Sovereignty in the Seven
1Since, 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 brothersa 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 seven-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 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,b 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,c 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 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.
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 strengthened their goodwill toward 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.
next chapter
* * *
a Gk they
b Or souls
c Other ancient authorities read suffer
13.1–14.10 After the graphic and emotionally charged description of the deaths of the seven brothers, the author returns to the theme that reason is sovereign over the emotions and then goes on to praise the brothers’ courage, piety, and endurance for the sake of religion. See 1.1–3.18; 6.31–35.
13.1–5 A close parallel to 6.31–35 in both content and its position immediately after a description of martyrdom.
13.6 The metaphor of towers jutting out over harbors is similar to the nautical imagery in 7.1–3, esp. 7.5.
13.7 Seven-towered right reason. See Prov 9.1 (the seven pillars of wisdom).
13.8–18 The imagery of the chorus is again used (see note on 8.4). The author breaks up the chorus into short phrases uttered by individual members; some Greek tragedies do the same (see Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1346–71).
13.9 See Dan 3, the story of the three youths in the fiery furnace who also endured great trials for the sake of religion.
13.12 Remember whence you came. See Isa 51.1–2. The father…slain. See Gen 22.1–19. The binding of Isaac is alluded to also in 7.14; 14.20; 15.28; 16.20; 17.6; 18.11. See also Wis 10.5; Heb 11.17–19.
13.13 All of them together. After speaking separately, the brothers unite, again as in a Greek chorus, for the climactic closing lines.
13.14–15 See Mt 10.28.
13.16 Armor. See Eph 6.11–14.
13.17 See 5.37.
13.19–14.1 Praise of the family ties, education, and affection that encouraged the brothers to endure their trials together. Such praises were rhetorical commonplaces, especially in funeral orations.
13.19 Divine and all-wise Providence, a Stoic concept also found in 9.24; 17.22. A close parallel to the view that brotherly affection is instilled through the mother and father is found in Xenophon, Cyropedia 8.7.14.
13.22, 24 Note the emphasis on the brothers’ education and training in Mosaic law, which nurtured both their companionship and their striving after virtue.
4 MACCABEES 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,a 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 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 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.
An Encomium on the Mother of the Seven
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 seven 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, 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 at the tops of mountains and the depths of chasms, in holes of trees, and on treetops, hatch the nestlings and ward off the intruder. 17If they are not able to keep the intruderb 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.
next chapter
* * *
a Or O minds
b Gk it
14.1 Mastered the emotions of brotherly love, a somewhat different viewpoint in which brotherly love is seen as an obstacle to be overcome, similar to the viewpoint in 2.9b–12, 19–20.
14.2–10 An apostrophe to reason followed by praise for the seven brothers.
14.2 More royal than kings. See 2.23.
14.5 Running the course, another athletic metaphor. See note on 6.10. Immortality, lit. “deathlessness.” See note on 9.22.
14.6 The seven brothers are moved by an immortal spirit of devotion (or piety). This goes beyond the ordinary Stoic notion that the members of the body are moved by the mind.
14.7 The importance of seven in connection with creation was emphasized by Philo in On the Creation of the World 89–128.
14.9 Even now, we…shudder as we hear, perhaps an indication that the speech was actually delivered, but more likely part of the rhetorical fiction of 4 Maccabees meant to draw the audience in. See also 1.10; 3.19.
14.11–17.6 The death of the mother, which is simply mentioned in 2 Macc 7.41, is transformed in 4 Maccabees into the climax of the oration. Writing in a highly rhetorical style, the author emphasizes the mother’s terrible torments in being forced to watch the torture and death of all her seven sons. Through her commitment to religion and the law, her reason overcomes the weakness of her gender and even her maternal affection.
14.11–12 The author’s assumption, a common one in the ancient world, was that reason is less dominant in women than in men. Consequently, if the mother could endure her agonies, it is not amazing that reason had full command over the seven sons in theirs. This theme also occurs in 15.5, 23, 30; 16.1–2, 14.
14.13–20 The power of parental love in human beings is compared to that in unreasoning animals (v. 14). The examples of birds (vv. 15–17) and bees (v. 19) demonstrate that the parental instinct to protect one’s young is extremely powerful. Yet sympathy for her children did not sway the mother’s mind (v. 20). This combination of natural history and sentimentality is not uncommon in writings of this period. See Plutarch, On the Love of Offspring 1–2.
14.20 Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his own son is the prime example of someone overcoming parental affection for the sake of religion. See note on 13.12.
4 MACCABEES 15
1O 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.a 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 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.b 6The mother of the seven boys, more than any other mother, loved her children. In seven 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. 12But each child separately and all of them together the mother urged on to death for religion’s sake. 13Osacred 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 being consumed by fire, their toes and fingers scatteredc 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 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.
24Although she witnessed the destruction of seven children and the ingenious and various rackings, this noble mother disregarded all thesed 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.
