Monday, September 26, 2011

The Maccabee - Origins of the Word 'Maccabee'

'Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, 'and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?'

- Jeremiah 23:29

The word Maccabee means Hammer in the Hebrew Language.

Origins of the Word 'Maccabee'

(Hoi Makkabaioi in Greek, Machabei in Latin, most probably from Aramaic word Maqqaba ="hammer")

The name Machabee (Maccabee) was originally the surname of Judas, the third son of Mathathias, but was later extended to all the descendants of Mathathias, and even to all who took part in the rebellion. It is also given to the martyrs mentioned in II Maccabees 7, 18:8. Of the various explanations of the word the one given above is the most probable. Machabee would accordingly mean "hammerer" or "hammer-like", and would have been given to Judas because of his valour in combating the enemies of Israel.

- The Catholic Encyclopedia (1910)

Origins of the word Maccabee

----------------------

As just mentioned above, the word 'Maccabee' most likely originated with the third son of the initial Maccabee rebel leader and Temple priest known as Mattathias the Hasmonen. The most convincing legends and ancient sources clearly indicate that young Judas, the son of Mattathias, who was also considered a Hasmonean, became nicknamed Maccabee or Maccabaeus due to his superior military skills and personal combat ferocity. It seems quite probable that those Jews who fought beside him quickly noticed the way he would, quite literally, hammer the enemy into submission and eventual retreat.

It could also be possible that, because of the extensive collection of Pagan Greek statues and idolatrous shrines that had sprouted up throughout Judea and the surrounding area, Judas may have also been dubbed the 'Hammer' due to his propensity to smash any idol or statue which he encountered into as many pieces as possible. It is most likely that he would order any troops under his command to do the same. Not only that, the Books of the Maccabees clearly state that Judas and his fellow Maccabees immediately put a stop to the abominable Pagan sacrifices of swine and forcibly circumcised all the males residing in Judea in accordance to the ancient Laws of God.

Either way, Judas, the son of Mattathias the Hasmonean, quickly became the scourge of the Greek Empire and, in time, a world-renowned Jewish hero and military genius commonly known to everyone as Judas Maccabaeus, the Hammer of the LORD.

May the LORD God bless you in the name of St. Judas Maccabaeus.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Maccabee - Towards a Circumcised Christian Future

'Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, 'and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?'

- Jeremiah 23:29

A man can never become a convert unless he has been circumcised.

- Babylonian Talmud, Yebamoth 46b

The Circumcised Future of Christianity

No son of a man may be forcibly circumcised.

- Yebamoth 48a

The coming age of Christian circumcision is meant to please neither Jews nor Muslims, but to please God and Jesus and to finally become a physical, as well as spiritual, member of the House of Abraham. All Christians are composed of a mind, a body and a soul. While God creates all souls circumcised from the start, it is now time for all Christians to circumcise their proud minds and to finally obey the Old Testament law by circumcising their male children from now on and unto eternity. This would allow all Christian Gentiles to share in the Covenant of Abraham and reap its many benefits and rewards. As the final, eternal law given to Abraham by the LORD God clearly states:

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

- Genesis 17:10

Christian Gentiles should never forget that their Pagan ancestors once considered the Jews to be a ‘barbaric’ tribe with ‘barbaric’ customs, most especially male circumcision. These same ancestors also practiced many different forms of sexual perversion including pedophilia and child prostitution. Here are just a few well-reasoned arguments using the Gospels as a reference as to why Christianity should now practice male circumcision, just like Jews and Muslims:

Theory --- The Actual Gospels --- Conclusion

I. In spite of later compromises, Jesus wanted all of his male followers to be circumcised, including Gentiles. --- 'For I say unto you, until Heaven and earth pass away, not one word or one letter will pass from the law, until everything has been fulfilled.' - Matthew 5:18 and Luke 16:17 --- Heaven and earth have not passed away, therefore circumcision is still required for all male Hebrews

II. Jesus never wanted to change the old law, but to have all men learn and obey them. --- 'Think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come to destroy them, but to fulfill them.' - Matthew 5:17 --- According to the law and prophets, all Christian males must fulfill them by being circumcised.

III. Circumcision is a law which all male Christians should teach and obey to the reach the highest seats in Heaven. --- 'Whoever breaks the least of the commandments, and teaches others to do so, will be the least in Heaven, but whoever obeys and teaches others to obey all of the law will be greatest in Heaven.' - Matthew 5:19 --- Even if circumcision is the least of the commandments, all male Christians should still obey and teach it.

IV. Christians must be as righteous as the most righteous of circumcised Jews to enter Heaven. --- 'Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' - Matthew 5:17-20 --- No Christian, no matter how righteous, can enter Heaven until they are circumcised.

By Christian tradition, the Gospels have always been considered the final authority when it comes to deciding the laws and customs of Christianity. For many centuries now, it has not been illegal for Christians to circumcise their male children. In fact, there is ample historical evidence that, even before Christianity, at least some Gentile believers in the God of Israel would have their male children circumcised. They were known as God-fearers, and were a growing part of the pre-Christian Jewish community found throughout the Greco-Roman Empire.

For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision.

- Titus 1:10

It is well known that, during the early centuries of Christianity, numerous Jewish-Christian families continued circumcising their male children while numerous Gentile Christians would also practice circumcision. It was only later that the Book of Acts, where circumcision was declared unnecessary, mainly through Paul’s influence, was included as an official part of the New Testament. All things being equal, the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospels carry for more weight and are more authoritative than the Book of Acts.

In short, the decisions reached by Peter, Paul, and others were in direct contradiction to the words of Christ and should not be considered the last, and final, standards of Christian tradition. The decision to allow the Gentiles to remain uncircumcised may well have been a hasty, perhaps even a temporary, measure in order to gain more Gentile adherents who would otherwise have been turned away because of their refusal to circumcise themselves. Tragically, Christianity became a completely uncircumcised religious faith over the course of about 300 or so years.

They covered…the mark of their circumcision and abandoned the holy covenant; they allied themselves with the Gentiles and sold themselves to wrongdoing.

- I Maccabees 1:15

The Gospels carries far more authority than any other books of the New Testament. It is obvious that Jesus wanted all the old laws to continue as a basic part of his new religious movement. That is partly why the early Church fathers retained all of the Jewish Bible and called it the Old Testament. The Gospels message is quite clear, ‘Jesus came to fulfill the law.' One of the oldest and most important of those laws is that of circumcision.

With that in mind, it is now time for all Christians throughout to world to renew the covenant of Abraham by circumcising all their male children and to eventually make it a standard Christian practice. Unlike Judaism, Christians may utilize modern medical techniques to circumcise their foreskins. The Age of Maccabee Christianity has only just begun. Be not afraid of preaching the importance of male circumcision to all other Christians and even non-believers. From the beginning, circumcision was meant to be a Christian tradition. The Gospels have spoken and let no man claim that either Peter or Paul should take precedence over the words and commandments of Jesus Christ Himself.

Keep in mind that the Jewish Maccabees are seen as Saints by both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches. Because of this, a future circumcised Christianity would not be a new tradition, but perhaps one of the oldest traditions of the Church, such as the early Church of Jerusalem led by St James. They practiced male circumcision as a integral part of their Christian faith. Given the ancient history of the Church, it would be more than appropriate to renew the tradition of circumcision among many, and perhaps all Christians, throughout the world. The future of Christianity is Hebrew, not Greek, as the following Biblical passages clearly show:

In those days there appeared in Israel men who were breakers of the law, and they seduced many people…They covered over the mark of their circumcision and abandoned the holy covenant; they allied themselves with the Gentiles and sold themselves into wrongdoing.

- I Maccabees 1:11-15

Women who had their babies circumcised were put to death, in keeping with the decree, with the babies hung from their necks; their families also and those who had circumcised them were killed.

- I Maccabees 1:60-61

The King sent messengers with letter to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, ordering them to follow customs foreign to the land…to leave their sons uncircumcised, and to let themselves be defiled with every kind of impurity and abomination.

- I Maccabees 1:44-48


May the LORD God bless you in the name of St. Judas Maccabaeus.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

The Maccabee - A Reggae Song called 'Maccabee Version'

'Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, 'and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?'

- Jeremiah 23:29

in 1807, A little more than 200 years ago, the Abolition of the Slave Trade became a law in Great Britain. This marked 'the beginning of the end of the virulent capturing and transporting of African people to be the slaves of the white plantation owners in North and South America and the Caribbean.' What remains little known is the the fact that a mere '6% of the slaves exported from Africa ended up in the United States.' Far more of them ended up in the West Indies, also called the Caribbean. It is claimed that the treatment of the slaves who ended up there was 'much more harsh and abusive than in the United States.'

For whatever reason, the descendants of these slaves, who are now free, had a habit of identifying, and indeed, preferring what is called the Maccabee Bible, over the King James Bible, which usually did not include the Book of the Maccabees I and II. The Maccabee Bible did include these two books. Here is the history of the situation in the Caribbean when it comes to Christianity and the reading of the Bible:

In 1827 the British and Foreign Bible Society decided never to print or circulate copies of the King James Version containing the Apocrypha. The reason was that among the books of the Apocrypha are the four books of the Maccabees. The Maccabees detail the glorious exploits of Judas Maccabaeus, a Jewish guerrilla leader, descended from a well-known priest, Mattathias....The slaves of the West Indies came to identify as deeply with Judas Maccabaeus of the books of the Maccabees in the Apocrypha as they did with Moses of the Exodus.

- Reggae reveals Church involvement in slavery, by Paul A Tidemann

Reverence for the Maccabees, whose two books must have been studied by at some black slaves centuries ago, lingers on today in the form of a Reggae song written by Max Romeo. Reggae is a form of music performed by what are known as Rastafarians, a Christian sect which 'began in the 1930s and declares that Ethiopia's late Emperor, Haile Selassie, was divine and a savior, that Ethiopia is Eden, and that Blacks will eventually be repatriated to Africa.' Their music is, in many ways, directly descended from the original folk music that the original black slaves brought with them to Jamaica from Africa. The lyrics to this song, written in 1976, read as follows:

Yu gave I King James Version;

King James was a White Man.

Yu built I dang'rous weapon

To kill I all de Black Man.

Yu sold de land God gave I

And taught I to be covetous.

What other wicked deeds

Have yu got in mind?

Tell me, what are yu gonna do

To stop dese daily crimes?

Bring back Maccabee Version

Dat God gave to Black Man.

Give back King James Version

Dat belongs to de White Man.

Black Man get up, stan' up

Fin' yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

Black Man get up, stan' up

Fin' yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

Yu suffer I and yu rob I;

Yu starve I, den yu kill I.

But what are yu gonna do

Now dat yu sword have turned against yu?

Black Man get up, stan' up

Fin' yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

Black Man get up, stan' up

Fin' yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

Bring back Maccabee Version

Dat God gave to Black man.

Give back King James Version

Dat belongs to de White Man.

Black Man get up, stan' up

Fin yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

Black Man get up, stan' up

Fin' yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

- Maccabee Version, by Max Romeo

The most puzzling aspect of these lyrics is when the singer claims that God gave 'Maccabee Version' of the Bible to the black man in Jamaica. Why does he sing this? One possibility is that the black slaves who knew about these two Books of the Maccabees must have identified with their description of a rebellion against the Greek occupiers and oppressors of the Jews. Thus, when the white Christian missionaries began to evangelize the black Jamaican slaves and their descendants with Bibles that did not include the Books of the Maccabees, this may have made them suspicious as to why this had been done. One sources has the following explanation:

The decision of the British mission society to prohibit the printing of these books in Bibles meant that in one way or another knowledge of them became part of the folk wisdom of the Black people and when these actual writings became known they were seen as uniquely "Black." The reggae by Max Romeo, coming out of the strong Black-consciousness of Jamaican Rastafarianism, manifests such a theme.

- Reggae reveals Church involvement in slavery, by Paul A Tidemann

In short, the early cultural memories of the Books of the Maccabees, along with the rebellion that they describe, lived on long after they had been excluded from the Bibles typically used by the black Jamaicans. From slavery to freedom, the Caribbean blacks must have identified Bibles that excluded the Maccabees as being tools of continuing white oppression. Two centuries after black slavery was abolished in Jamaica, the 'Maccabee Version' became simply another Reggae song from 1976.

May the LORD GOd bless you in the name of St. Judas Maccabaeus.


The Maccabee - American Male Circumcision, a Judeo-Christian Conspiracy

'Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, 'and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?'

- Jeremiah 23:29

A possible modern conspiracy never mentioned, but worth noting, is that of male circumcision. For whatever reason, the United States is one of the only nations besides Israel and Muslim countries that circumcise their male children. This is a fairly recent phenomenon, most of it occurring after World War II. The practice is virtually unknown in Europe and Asia. Calling it standard medical procedure or claiming it is done for purposes of hygiene doesn’t really explain why Japan and Sweden, with comparable medical expertise, do not practice it. One historian may provide some clues to the puzzle:

All this is of significance because it is concerned with the fact that there is an age-old Western tradition, much battered and destroyed in recent generations, that has sent up new, living shoots of vigorous growth since 1945.

- Tragedy & Hope, by Carroll Quigley, p.1232

Also intriguing is the fact that the future king of Great Britain, Prince Charles, is circumcised in a nation where literally no one else is, besides for Jewish and Muslim citizens. I believe that this conspiracy, if it actually is one, should prosper. As Jesus once stated about the old laws, which included mandatory circumcision for males, ‘Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.’ (Matthew 5:17) Hopefully, this process will continue and become a permanent Christian tradition that will branch out into other countries until all the nations on earth routinely circumcise their male children. However, the question of how it became a standard American medical practice and who was behind it remains unanswered. Nevertheless, future generations should take heed of the warning that

Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.

- Acts 15:1

The present American situation of Christian Gentiles circumcising their male children may not last unfortunately. One never knows when the political fringe will organize and begin calling for a ban on circumcision. What happens when, and if, circumcision is declared illegal and considered a criminal offense? Will anyone resist and will anybody care? It is not a good sign that some Jewish mothers of today are making it a point to leave their own sons uncircumcised.

History tells us that, almost two centuries before Christianity, this exact same phenomenon began to occur among the Hellenized Jews. At one point, the Greek rulers of Israel, along with their mainly homosexual, tyrannical Jewish allies, boldly made circumcision a crime punishable by death in order to destroy Judaism. Any Jewish mothers caught with circumcised male infants had their own babies tied around their necks and were then thrown down from a wall to their deaths. It should not be surprising that, among these same Greeks, and later the Romans, the practice of pedophilia (pederasty) was very common, socially accepted, and perfectly legal. State-sponsored and tax-funded temples dedicated to Venus, the so-called goddess of love, included little boys and little girls being forcibly used as temple prostitutes and sex slaves. In contrast, Jewish law condemned pedophilia and made it a capital offense. The Babylonian Talmud states quite clearly:

Pederasty is punished by [death].

- Nezikin III, Sanhedrin 54a

Though it may have taken centuries, the Christian religion eventually imposed a Jewish code of sexual morality upon the entire Roman Empire, and all its citizens, that made child prostitution, along with pedophilia, a heinous crime. Many other perverted practices were also prohibited including rape, incest, bestiality, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexuality, sodomy, fellatio, prostitution, pornography and masturbation. Regardless of St. Paul’s reluctant tolerance, this Christian code of moral law should now include circumcision as a common, perhaps even required, practice among all Christians world-wide. Pedophilia should be a crime, not circumcision.

The Master said: Every precept which was given to the sons of Noah and repeated at Sinai was meant for both Noachides and Israelites

- Sanhedrin 59a

May the LORD God bless you in the name of St. Judas Maccabaeus.

The Maccabee - A History of Purgatory

'Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, 'and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?'

- Jeremiah 23:29

A History of Purgatory

The history of Purgatory is long and detailed. Contrary to the opinions of some misinformed scholars, many of them Protestants, Purgatory is a doctrine that is far older than Christianity. Indeed, it can rightly be said that the concept of Purgatory is more than 2,000 years old and finds it roots in Judaism, especially as described in the two Books of the Maccabees. Two sources note the following:

Roman Catholic belief in purgatory is based, among other reasons, on the previous Jewish practice of prayer for the dead, a practice that presupposes that the dead are thereby assisted between death and their entry into their final abode.

- Purgatory, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Offerings for the dead were known to ancient Jewish practice, and it has been speculated that Christianity may have taken its similar practice from its Jewish heritage.

- History of Purgatory, Wikipedia

The Catholic Church also tends to believe that Purgatory is a doctrine that was taught by Jesus Christ directly to his Apostles who handed it down to the earliest Church Fathers who continued on in this originally Jewish tradition. The theory of Purgatory, in other words, 'the idea of a kind of purgatory… is quite plainly found' throughout numerous different non-Christian cultures and religions and was 'an idea that is representative of a view widely dispersed in antiquity.' One source summarizes:

The Catholic tradition of purgatory has a history that dates back, before Jesus, to the worldwide practice of praying for and caring for the dead, and the practice of prayer for the dead with a view to their afterlife purification, found in Judaism, from which Christianity grew. The same practice appears in other traditions, such as the medieval Chinese Buddhist practice of making offerings on behalf of the dead, who are said to suffer numerous trials. Among other reasons, Catholic belief in purgatory is based on the practice of prayer for the dead.

- History of Purgatory, Wikipedia

When it comes to the earliest stages of the Christian religion, it can said that 'the notion of an interim state of souls after death developed only gradually, partly because it was of little interest as long as Christians looked for an imminent end of the world.' After that time period however:

Specific examples of belief in purification after death and of the communion of the living with the dead through prayer are found in many of the Church Fathers.

- History of Purgatory, Wikipedia

Thus, even though Purgatory cannot be found discussed in the New Testament, this is simply because it was either assumed, or left unspoken, by St. Paul and others who were more interested in the Resurrection and how that affected the living, rather than the dead. Even so, Purgatory was expounded upon by the earliest of Church Fathers. Here are just a few examples of the Church Fathers mentioning the notion of Purgatory:

The Early Church Fathers and Purgatory

- The Church Father Irenaeus (130-202 AD) mentioned a place 'where the souls of the dead remained until the universal judgment', a theory which 'contains the concept of... purgatory.'

- Both St. Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD) and his pupil, Origen of Alexandria (185-254 AD), believed in a 'purification after death; this view drew upon the notion that fire is a divine instrument from the Old Testament, and understood this in the context of New Testament teachings such as baptism by fire, from the Gospels, and a purificatory trial after death, from St. Paul.' Origen argued against the idea of 'soul sleep' until final judgement on Judgment Day. Instead he beleived that 'the souls of the elect immediately entered paradise unless not yet purified, in which case they passed into a state of punishment, a penal fire, which is to be conceived as a place of purification.' Many believe that, 'Clement of Alexandria, and his pupil Origen of Alexandria, derived their view from a combination of biblical teachings' who took numerous 'vague concepts of purifying and punishing fire' that predated Christianity.

- Another Church Father Tertullian (160-225 AD) also discused a 'purification after death. In Tertullian's understanding of the afterlife, the souls of martyrs entered directly into eternal blessedness, whereas the rest entered a generic realm of the dead.' In this particular theological doctrine 'the idea of a kind of purgatory… is quite plainly found.'

- Further elaborations concerning Purgatory include those written by 'St. Cyprian (258 AD), St. John Chrysostom (347-407 AD), and St. Augustine (354-430 AD), among others.'

Thus it can be clearly seen that the doctrine of Purgatory was discussed extensively by several different people between the years 130-430 A.D. This puts to rest the notion that the idea of Purgatory was 'invented' by the Church sometime during the Middle Ages more than one thousand years after Christianity began. By the early 5th century, St. Augustine discussed Purgatory extensively and even claimed that the pain of 'purgatorial fire' was 'more severe than anything a man can suffer in this life.' Later on, in the late 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great wrote about Purgatory which specifically shows a 'development in the understanding of the afterlife distinctive of the direction that Latin Christendom would take.' Pope Gregory wrote the following Biblical argument concerning Purgatory:

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.

- Dialogues, Pope Gregory the Great

In addition to those cited above, 'numerous other famous Christians have mentioned Purgatory in their writings.' This included Bede who had a supernatural 'vision of a beautiful Heaven and a lurid Hell with adjacent temporary abodes.' The same thing happened to St. Boniface. In the 7th century, the Irish abbot St. Fursa also had a vision concerning the afterlife where he was pursued by demons intent on punishing him for his sins. This made him conclude that 'just as the body burns through unlawful desire, so the soul will burn, as the lawful, due penalty for every sin.' Others who have discussed Purgatory include Haymo, Rabanus Maurus (780 - 856 AD), and Walafrid Strabo (808 - 849 AD).

The Catholic Church proceeded to establish All Souls' Day at the end of the 10th century which 'helped focus popular imagination on the fate of the departed, and fostered a sense of solidarity between the living and the dead.' Later 12th century developments in 'the elaboration of the theology of penance helped create a notion of purgatory as a place to complete penances unfinished in this life.' Around 1128, Ermelindo Portela Silva interpreted the words of Diego Gelmírez, then Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, to mean that there indeed was a Purgatory where those who are too sinful for Heaven go to after they die. Most historians acknowledge that the word Purgatory finally came into existence with the Latin term 'Purgatorium.' Medievalist Jacques Le Goff believes this occurred sometime betwenn 1170 and 1200. Around this same time, 'the conception of purgatory as a physical place, rather than merely as a state' also began to take hold upon Christian believers. One source notes the following:

Le Goff also considered Peter the Lombard (d. 1160), in expounding on the teachings of St. Augustine and Gregory the Great, to have contributed significantly to the birth of purgatory in the sense of a physical place.

- History of Purgatory, Wikipedia

Of course, it must be understood 'that the notion of purification after death, without the medieval notion of a physical place, [still] existed in antiquity.' It just became easier for Christianity and its followers to think of Purgatory as a place with a location, usually believed to be underground, below the earth, similar to a grave or the roots of a tree. Because of this, the 12th century became known for its many stories concerning the actual location of Purgatory. Keep in mind that this was in spite of the fact that 'the idea of purgatory as a process of cleansing thus dated back to early Christianity.' The actual tales included descriptions 'about St. Patrick's Purgatory, a cavelike entrance to purgatory on a remote island in Ireland.' The most prominent of these was called 'The legend of St Patrick's Purgatory' (Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii) which was originally written by Hugh of Saltry, also known as Henry of Sawtry. Other stories similar to this included the Visio Tnugdali.

Another Purgatory legend spoke of an 'entrance to Purgatory in places such as a cave on the volcanic Mount Etna in Sicily.' This was a distinct era when 'the idea of purgatory as a physical place became widespread on a popular level, and was defended also by some theologians.' All these tales about the location of Purgatory were 'part of a huge, repetitive contemporary genre of literature of which the most familiar today is Dante's.' In his work called 'Purgatorio', Dante imagined Purgatory as the 'second kingdom' of the afterlife which was located upon 'a seven-story mountain situated' at the exact opposite end of the world from the actual city of Jerusalem, just like like the North and South poles.

Here is a detailed historical summary of Purgatory from the years 780 to 2011:

A Brief Timeline of Purgatory

780-856: Rabanus Maurus expounds upon Purgatory.

808-849: Walafrid Strabo writes extensively about Purgatory.

1160-1180: The word Purgatory, or in Latin Purgatorium, first appears as a noun.

1170-1200: The conception of purgatory as a physical place occurs, what Jacques Le Goff terms 'the birth of Purgatory.'

1206: A peasant named Thurkhill in England claims 'that Saint Julian took him on a tour of Purgatory.'

1220: Caesarius of Heisterbach, a Cistercian monk makes the claim that 'purgatory could be in several places at once.'

1254: The First Council of Lyon declared that 'souls...can be cleansed after death and can be helped by the suffrages of the Church...[in] a place of purgation...calling it purgatory according to the traditions and authority of the Holy Fathers.'

1438-1445: The Council of Florence issues a formal declaration concerning Purgatory.

1530: Martin Luther stops believing in Purgatory.

1545-63: The Council of Trent declares belief in Purgatory to be an official Christian doctrine.

1585: The Roman Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church agree at the Union of Brest that 'We shall not debate about Purgatory, but we entrust ourselves to the teaching of the Holy Church.'

1603: Shakespeare publishes 'Hamlet' which features a ghost of Hamlet's dead father from Purgatory.

1865: John Henry Newman publishes 'The Dream of Gerontius' which discusses Purgatory in depth.

1999: Pope John Paul II states that 'the term Purgatory does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence.'

2005: The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes 'Purgatory is the state of those who die in God’s friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven.'

2011: Pope Benedict XVI discusses Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), and her visions of Purgatory stating 'that in her time the purification of souls (Purgatory) was pictured as a location in space.'

May the LORD God bless you in the name of St. Judas Maccabeus.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Maccabee Metaphysics - The Holy Spirit, Purgatory, and the Holy Ghost

'Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, 'and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?'

- Jeremiah 23:29


The doctrine of Purgatory, still an essential aspect of Roman Catholic Christianity as well as Orthodox Judaism, continues to be one of the most common sense Judeo-Christian traditions ever known. For almost two thousand years, the Catholic Church has believed that, just as Hell is meant for the very wicked and evil, Heaven is for the Saints and Martyrs of the world, individuals so righteous and perfect they most certainly merit immediate admittance into Paradise. Likewise, the Church has also taught that, because the vast majority of people are a complex mixture of goodness and evil, most Christian (and Jewish) believers will be going to Purgatory when they die, to a dark ghost world traditionally located below the earth, before they are allowed to move onward to the Kingdom of Heaven. This teaching is in accordance with what the Bible states about the LORD God. It reads as follows:

Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments unto a thousand generations.

- Deuteronomy 7:9

The best way to understand Purgatory is to use the analogy of a tree. For just as a tree has numerous branches, some of which reach high up in the sky (Heaven), it also has roots that reach deep down into the earth (Purgatory). Science has shown that both roots and branches are necessary for the life of the tree. The branches (Heaven) are necessary to absorb the life-giving light of the sun, just as the roots (Purgatory) are essential for the collection of water. Without the branches (Heaven) the tree would be unable to sustain itself and grow, while without roots (Purgatory), the wind would be able to blow the tree over, causing it to perish.

The souls of the deceased may be likened to drops of water who fall down like rain (death) which are first taken up by the roots (Purgatory) and then finally make their way upwards to the branches (Heaven) which hang high above the earth. A tree (Afterlife) requires both roots (Purgatory) and branches (Heaven) in order to thrive and prosper.

Considering the fairly recent loss of Christian faith among the intellectual elites of both Europe and North America, it should be obvious that the tree of traditional Christianity has become somewhat sickly and may, in fact, be in real danger of perhaps dying. Indeed, the direst threat to the Christian religion happens to be coming, not from Jews or Muslims, but from sceptics, scoffers, and other apostates who are increasing in numbers and show an ever-increasing hostility to all things religious, especially Christianity. Many of them come from Protestant ancestry whose forefathers rejected Purgatory centuries ago. Is there a connection between the Protestant denial of Purgatory and the growing threats to Christian faith throughout the world? Yes there is, as two different sources clearly indicate:

The transformative event...which made it possible to repudiate tradition...in early-modern English and European culture-an event successfully obliterated from modern memory by early, deliberate acts of forgetting and by the decision of Renaissance politicians and gentry to rewrite history-was the abolition of Purgatory.

- Hamlet and the Ghost of Purgatory: Forgetting the Dead, by Anthony Low, Culture Wars Magazine

Modernism seem[s] inversely parasitic on religion, and Christians object to it because it seems to deny the continuing vitality of their religion. Christianity still thrives, but at the margins, where it has been put by political leaders and cultural arbiters....In this essay I shall argue that crucial, irreversible steps in that direction were taken by the Chantries Act and Royal Injunctions of 1547 and by the Church of England’s declaration, in the Edwardian Prayerbook of 1549, that Purgatory did not exist and consequently that Christians should not mourn or pray for their dead.

- Hamlet and the Ghost of Purgatory: Forgetting the Dead, by Anthony Low, Culture Wars Magazine

Tragically, many forms of Protestant Christianity continues to deny the existence of Purgatory. This is in total disregard for the ancient evidence that the religious doctrine of Purgatory was existent before the advent of Christianity and has its roots in pre-Christian Judaism, Purgatory was not the invention of the Catholic Church, but was merely the continuation of pre-existing Jewish theology. One source notes the following:

The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and Adoration, as well of Images as of Relics, and also Invocation of Saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.

- The Book of Common Prayer, Article 22, Church of England

One should also remember that, at first, Martin Luther freekt accepted the doctrine of Purgatory only to change his mind later on, mainly due to political reasons. In addition, the great Christian thinker C.S. Lewis is on record stating that he too believed in Purgatory, even though he was an English Protestant by birth and upbringing. Thus, it seems quite a shame that the vast majority of Protestant Christians have remained in denial in Purgatory for nearly the past 500 years. In truth, it was not meant to be this way as one source noters aptly:

Theo Brown suggests that when the Anglican Church promulgated its repudiation of "The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory" in the first Book of Common Prayer (1549), the bishops did not intend to dispose of Purgatory altogether, but only to correct well-known abuses.

- Hamlet and the Ghost of Purgatory: Forgetting the Dead, by Anthony Low, Culture Wars Magazine

Given the current violence, immorality, and aitheism of today's society, it seems more than obvious that the Holy Spirit of the modern era is not good at all, but evil, and may well be a vampire, a demon, or some other form of evil spirit in disguise. For the this reason, it is time for the world, and for the English language, to return to the tradition of referring to the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost, which emphasize its links to the age-old realm of Purgatory.

After the English Reformers dispensed with Purgatory, however, it was no longer clear to anyone where ghosts came from. Educated people were inclined to doubt their existence, or to think that they were demons in disguise. There was, nevertheless, a great popular outburst of superstitious ghost lore among the common people beginning at mid-century. Theo Brown amply documents this outbreak and associates it with the sudden abolition of Purgatory.

- Hamlet and the Ghost of Purgatory: Forgetting the Dead, by Anthony Low, Culture Wars Magazine

Protestant Today ---> Protestant Tomorrow

Heaven or Hell ---> Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell

The Holy Spirit ---> The Holy Ghost

Throughout the world, belief in ghosts, namely the immaterial spirits of the dead, has been been a standard aspect of numerous different cultures, including those who were not distinctly Judeo-Christian. For the Catholic Church, both before and after the Protestant Reformation, the constant occurence of ghost sightings by the common people signified a sure sign in the continued existence of Purgatory. Put simply, ghosts were believed to come from Purgatory, the Underworld of Christianity. Two different sources state the following:

Before the Reformation, it was common belief among everyone from theologians to peasants that if ghosts appeared to the living they came from Purgatory, not from Heaven or Hell.

- Hamlet and the Ghost of Purgatory: Forgetting the Dead, by Anthony Low, Culture Wars Magazine

Purgatory would become the prison in which ghosts were normally incarcerated, though they might be allowed to escape now and then to briefly haunt those of the living whose zeal in their behalf was insufficient.

- Birth of Purgatory, by Jacques Le Goff

It is to be hoped that the continued Protestant denial in Purgatory will soon come to an end. This act could well cause a resurgence in the Christian faith throughout the world, as more agnostics and other waverers finally accept the common sense Christian doctrine of Purgatory, which means salvation for the many, rather than the few. It's time for Protestantism to admit they made a grave mistake and are now back to share in the eternity which is the Catholic Christian faith.

The abrupt and, to a large degree, forcible dismantling of Purgatory at mid-century, together with its deep psychic resonances among the common people, its elaborate cultural associations, and its extensive institutional supports, had drastic consequences for society and for the individuals who formed and were formed by society. Before the Reformation, few countries had a deeper investment (financial, cultural, and spiritual) in Purgatory and in commemoration of the dead than England. After the Reformation, few countries turned their backs more abruptly on Purgatory and, with it, on their own dead.

- Hamlet and the Ghost of Purgatory: Forgetting the Dead, by Anthony Low, Culture Wars Magazine

May the LORD God bless you in the name of St. Judas Maccabaeus.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Maccabee - A List of Future Hannukahs



'Is not my word like fire,' declares the LORD, 'and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?'

- Jeremiah 23:29



In the year 1016, about five years from now, the Christian Holiday of Christmas and the Jewish Holiday of Hanukkah will commence on the same day, December 25. This is a righteous coincidence considering the Judeo-Christian roots of the Maccabees. Many Christians don't know that Judaism celebrates two holidays which were established by the Maccabees more than two thousand years ago- namely Hanukkah and Nicanor Day. Similarly, many Jews don't understand or haven't been taught that the Maccabees have always been considered to be Christian Saints who reside in the Christian Kingdom of Heaven ruled by the Jewish Messiah Jesus Christ and His Jewish mother Mary.

Judas Maccabaeus originally established Hanukkah on the 25th of December in the year 164 B.C. Jesus Christ was truly born on the same day in the year 0 B.C. It is to be hoped that someday the Jewish/Christian divide can be finally healed and the various vicious circles of mutual antagonism squared and reconciled. Here are the future dates of Hannukah until the year 2020:

Hanukkah begins at sundown on the evening before the date shown.

- December 12, 2009

- December 2, 2010

- December 21, 2011

- December 9, 2012

- November 28, 2013

- December 17, 2014

- December 7, 2015

- December 25, 2016

- December 13, 2017

- December 3, 2018

- December 23, 2019

- December 11, 2020

May the LORD God bless you in the name of St. Judas Maccabaeus.

Ikons of St. Judas Maccabaeus

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Maccabee Scriptures - The Fourth Book of the Maccabees



IV Maccabees, Chapter 1

1 The subject that I am about to discuss is most philosophical, that is, whether devout reason is sovereign over the emotions. So it is right for me to advise you to pay earnest attention to philosophy. 2 For the subject is essential to everyone who is seeking knowledge, and in addition it includes the praise of the highest virtue-I mean, of course, rational judgment. 3 If, then, it is evident that reason rules over those emotions that hinder self-control, namely, gluttony and lust, 4 it is also clear that it masters the emotions that hinder one from justice, such as malice, and those that stand in the way of courage, namely anger, fear, and pain. 5 Some might perhaps ask, “If reason rules the emotions, why is it not sovereign over forgetfulness and ignorance?” Their attempt at argument is ridiculous! 6 For reason does not rule its own emotions, but those that are opposed to justice, courage, and self-control; and it is not for the purpose of destroying them, but so that one may not give way to them. 7 I could prove to you from many and various examples that reason is dominant over the emotions, 8 but I can demonstrate it best from the noble bravery of those who died for the sake of virtue, Eleazar and the seven brothers and their mother. 9 All of these, by despising sufferings that bring death, demonstrated that reason controls the emotions. 10 On this anniversary it is fitting for me to praise for their virtues those who, with their mother, died for the sake of nobility and goodness, but I would also call them blessed for the honor in which they are held. 11 All people, even their torturers, marveled at their courage and endurance, and they became the cause of the downfall of tyranny over their nation. By their endurance they conquered the tyrant, and thus their native land was purified through them. 12 I shall shortly have an opportunity to speak of this; but, as my custom is, I shall begin by stating my main principle, and then I shall turn to their story, giving glory to the all-wise God. 13 Our inquiry, accordingly, is whether reason is sovereign over the emotions. 14 We shall decide just what reason is and what emotion is, how many kinds of emotions there are, and whether reason rules over all these. 15 Now reason is the mind that with sound logic prefers the life of wisdom. 16 Wisdom, next, is the knowledge of divine and human matters and the causes of these. 17 This, in turn, is education in the law, by which we learn divine matters reverently and human affairs to our advantage. 18 Now the kinds of wisdom are rational judgment, justice, courage, and self-control. 19 Rational judgment is supreme over all of these, since by means of it reason rules over the emotions. 20 The two most comprehensive types of the emotions are pleasure and pain; and each of these is by nature concerned with both body and soul. 21 The emotions of both pleasure and pain have many consequences. 22 Thus desire precedes pleasure and delight follows it. 23 Fear precedes pain and sorrow comes after. 24 Anger, as a person will see by reflecting on this experience, is an emotion embracing pleasure and pain. 25 In pleasure there exists even a malevolent tendency, which is the most complex of all the emotions. 26 In the soul it is boastfulness, covetousness, thirst for honor, rivalry, and malice; 27 in the body, indiscriminate eating, gluttony, and solitary gormandizing. 28 Just as pleasure and pain are two plants growing from the body and the soul, so there are many offshoots of these plants, 29 each of which the master cultivator, reason, weeds and prunes and ties up and waters and thoroughly irrigates, and so tames the jungle of habits and emotions. 30 For reason is the guide of the virtues, but over the emotions it is sovereign. Observe now, first of all, that rational judgment is sovereign over the emotions by virtue of the restraining power of self-control. 31 Self-control, then, is dominance over the desires. 32 Some desires are mental, others are physical, and reason obviously rules over both. 33 Otherwise, how is it that when we are attracted to forbidden foods we abstain from the pleasure to be had from them? Is it not because reason is able to rule over appetites? I for one think so. 34 Therefore when we crave seafood and fowl and animals and all sorts of foods that are forbidden to us by the law, we abstain because of domination by reason. 35 For the emotions of the appetites are restrained, checked by the temperate mind, and all the impulses of the body are bridled by reason.

IV Maccabees, Chapter 2
1 And why is it amazing that the desires of the mind for the enjoyment of beauty are rendered powerless? 2 It is for this reason, certainly, that the temperate Joseph is praised, because by mental effort he overcame sexual desire. 3 For when he was young and in his prime for intercourse, by his reason he nullified the frenzy of the passions. 4 Not only is reason proved to rule over the frenzied urge of sexual desire, but also over every desire. 5 Thus the law says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or anything that is your neighbor’s.” 6 In 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. 7 Otherwise 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? 8 Thus, as soon as one adopts a way of life in accordance with the law, even though a lover of money, one is forced to act contrary to natural ways and to lend without interest to the needy and to cancel the debt when the seventh year arrives. 9 If one is greedy, one is ruled by the law through reason so that one neither gleans the harvest nor gathers the last grapes from the vineyard. In all other matters we can recognize that reason rules the emotions. 10 For the law prevails even over affection for parents, so that virtue is not abandoned for their sakes. 11 It is superior to love for one’s wife, so that one rebukes her when she breaks the law. 12 It takes precedence over love for children, so that one punishes them for misdeeds. 13 It is sovereign over the relationship of friends, so that one rebukes friends when they act wickedly. 14 Do 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 marauders and helps raise up what has fallen. 15 It is evident that reason rules even the more violent emotions: lust for power, vainglory, boasting, arrogance, and malice. 16 For the temperate mind repels all these malicious emotions, just as it repels anger-for it is sovereign over even this. 17 When Moses was angry with Dathan and Abiram, he did nothing against them in anger, but controlled his anger by reason. 18 For, as I have said, the temperate mind is able to get the better of the emotions, to correct some, and to render others powerless. 19 Why 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”? 20 For if reason could not control anger, he would not have spoken thus. 21 Now when God fashioned human beings, he planted in them emotions and inclinations, 22 but at the same time he enthroned the mind among the senses as a sacred governor over them all. 23 To the mind he gave the law; and one who lives subject to this will rule a kingdom that is temperate, just, good, and courageous. 24 How is it then, one might say, that if reason is master of the emotions, it does not control forgetfulness and ignorance?

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

IV Maccabees, Chapter 4
1 Now 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. 2 So 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.” 4 When 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. 5 On receiving authority to deal with this matter, he proceeded quickly to our country accompanied by the accursed Simon and a very strong military force. 6 He said that he had come with the king’s authority to seize the private funds in the treasury. 7 The 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. 8 But, uttering threats, Apollonius went on to the temple. 9 While the priests together with women and children were imploring God in the temple to shield the holy place that was being treated so contemptuously, 10 and 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. 11 Then Apollonius fell down half dead in the temple area that was open to all, stretched out his hands toward heaven, and with tears begged the Hebrews to pray for him and propitiate the wrath of the heavenly army. 12 For he said that he had committed a sin deserving of death, and that if he were spared he would praise the blessedness of the holy place before all people. 13 Moved by these words, the high priest Onias, although otherwise he had scruples about doing so, prayed for him so that King Seleucus would not suppose that Apollonius had been overcome by human treachery and not by divine justice. 14 So Apollonius, having been saved beyond all expectations, went away to report to the king what had happened to him. 15 When King Seleucus died, his son Antiochus Epiphanes succeeded to the throne, an arrogant and terrible man, 16 who removed Onias from the priesthood and appointed Onias’s brother Jason as high priest. 17 Jason agreed that if the office were conferred on him he would pay the king three thousand six hundred sixty talents annually. 18 So the king appointed him high priest and ruler of the nation. 19 Jason changed the nation’s way of life and altered its form of government in complete violation of the law, 20 so that not only was a gymnasium constructed at the very citadel of our native land, but also the temple service was abolished. 21 The divine justice was angered by these acts and caused Antiochus himself to make war on them. 22 For 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, 23 and after he had plundered them he issued a decree that if any of them were found observing the ancestral law they should die. 24 When, 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 25 -even to the extent 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- 26 when, I say, his decrees were despised by the people, he himself tried through torture to compel everyone in the nation to eat defiling foods and to renounce Judaism.

IV Maccabees, Chapter 5
1 The tyrant Antiochus, sitting in state with his counselors on a certain high place, and with his armed soldiers standing around him, 2 ordered the guards to seize each and every Hebrew and to compel them to eat pork and food sacrificed to idols. 3 If any were not willing to eat defiling food, they were to be broken on the wheel and killed. 4 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. 5 When Antiochus saw him he said, 6 “Before I begin to torture you, old man, I would advise you to save yourself by eating pork, 7 for 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. 8 When nature has granted it to us, why should you abhor eating the very excellent meat of this animal? 9 It is senseless not to enjoy delicious things that are not shameful, and wrong to spurn the gifts of nature. 10 It 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. 11 Will 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, 12 and have compassion on your old age by honoring my humane advice? 13 For consider this: if there is some power watching over this religion of yours, it will excuse you from any transgression that arises out of compulsion.” 14 When the tyrant urged him in this fashion to eat meat unlawfully, Eleazar asked to have a word. 15 When 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. 17 Therefore we consider that we should not transgress it in any respect. 18 Even 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. 19 Therefore do not suppose that it would be a petty sin if we were to eat defiling food; 20 to transgress the law in matters either small or great is of equal seriousness, 21 for in either case the law is equally despised. 22 You scoff at our philosophy as though living by it were irrational, 23 but 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; 24 it 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 living 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. 26 He 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. 27 It 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. 28 But you shall have no such occasion to laugh at me, 29 nor will I transgress the sacred oaths of my ancestors concerning the keeping of the law, 30 not even if you gouge out my eyes and burn my entrails. 31 I am not so old and cowardly as not to be young in reason on behalf of piety. 32 Therefore get your torture wheels ready and fan the fire more vehemently! 33 I do not so pity my old age as to break the ancestral law by my own act. 34 I will not play false to you, O law that trained me, nor will I renounce you, beloved self-control. 35 I will not put you to shame, philosophical reason, nor will I reject you, honored priesthood and knowledge of the law. 36 You, O king, shall not defile the honorable mouth of my old age, nor my long life lived lawfully. 37 My ancestors will receive me as pure, as one who does not fear your violence even to death. 38 You may tyrannize the ungodly, but you shall not dominate my religious principles, either by words or through deeds.”

IV Maccabees, Chapter 6
1 When 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. 2 First they stripped the old man, though he remained adorned with the gracefulness of his piety. 3 After they had tied his arms on each side they flogged him, 4 while a herald who faced him cried out, “Obey the king’s commands!” 5 But the courageous and noble man, like a true Eleazar, was unmoved, as though being tortured in a dream; 6 yet 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. 7 Although he fell to the ground because his body could not endure the agonies, he kept his reason upright and unswerving. 8 One of the cruel guards rushed at him and began to kick him in the side to make him get up again after he fell. 9 But he bore the pains and scorned the punishment and endured the tortures. 10 Like a noble athlete the old man, while being beaten, was victorious over his torturers; 11 in fact, with his face bathed in sweat, and gasping heavily for breath, he amazed even his torturers by his courageous spirit. 12 At that point, partly out of pity for his old age, 13 partly 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? 15 We will set before you some cooked meat; save yourself by pretending to eat pork.” 16 But Eleazar, as though more bitterly tormented by this counsel, cried out: 17 “Never may we, the children of Abraham, think so basely that out of cowardice we feign a role unbecoming to us! 18 For it would be irrational if having lived in accordance with truth up to old age and having maintained in accordance with law the reputation of such a life, we should now change our course 19 and ourselves become a pattern of impiety to the young by setting them an example in the eating of defiling food. 20 It would be shameful if we should survive for a little while and during that time be a laughingstock to all for our cowardice, 21 and be despised by the tyrant as unmanly by not contending even to death for our divine law. 22 Therefore, O children of Abraham, die nobly for your religion! 23 And you, guards of the tyrant, why do you delay?” 24 When 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. 25 There they burned him with maliciously contrived instruments, threw him down, and poured stinking liquids into his nostrils. 26 When 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. 28 Be merciful to your people, and let our punishment suffice for them. 29 Make my blood their purification, and take my life in exchange for theirs.” 30 After 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. 32 For if the emotions had prevailed over reason, we would have testified to their domination. 33 But now that reason has conquered the emotions, we properly attribute to it the power to govern. 34 It is right for us to acknowledge the dominance of reason when it masters even external agonies. It would be ridiculous to deny it. 35 I have proved not only that reason has mastered agonies, but also that it masters pleasures and in no respect yields to them.

IV Maccabees, Chapter 7
1 For like a most skillful pilot, the reason of our father Eleazar steered the ship of religion over the sea of the emotions, 2 and though buffeted by the stormings of the tyrant and overwhelmed by the mighty waves of tortures, 3 in no way did he turn the rudder of religion until he sailed into the haven of immortal victory. 4 No 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. 5 For in setting his mind firm like a jutting cliff, our father Eleazar broke the maddening waves of the emotions. 6 O 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. 7 O man in harmony with the law and philosopher of divine life! 8 Such should be those who are administrators of the law, shielding it with their own blood and noble sweat in sufferings even to death. 9 You, 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. 10 O aged man, more powerful than tortures; O elder, fiercer than fire; O supreme king over the passions, Eleazar! 11 For just as our father Aaron, armed with the censer, ran through the multitude of the people and conquered the fiery angel, 12 so the descendant of Aaron, Eleazar, though being consumed by the fire, remained unmoved in his reason. 13 Most 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 14 in spirit through reason; and by reason like that of Isaac he rendered the many-headed rack ineffective. 15 O man of blessed age and of venerable gray 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. 17 Some perhaps might say, “Not all have full command of their emotions, because not all have prudent reason.” 18 But as many as attend to religion with a whole heart, these alone are able to control the passions of the flesh, 19 since they believe that they, like our patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, do not die to God, but live to God. 20 No contradiction therefore arises when some persons appear to be dominated by their emotions because of the weakness of their reason. 21 What person who lives as a philosopher by the whole rule of philosophy, and trusts in God, 22 and knows that it is blessed to endure any suffering for the sake of virtue, would not be able to overcome the emotions through godliness? 23 For only the wise and courageous are masters of their emotions.

IV Maccabees, Chapter 8
1 For 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. 2 For 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. 4 When 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 favorable 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. 6 Just as I am able to punish those who disobey my orders, so I can be a benefactor to those who obey me. 7 Trust me, then, and you will have positions of authority in my government if you will renounce the ancestral tradition of your national life. 8 Enjoy your youth by adopting the Greek way of life and by changing your manner of living. 9 But if by disobedience you rouse my anger, you will compel me to destroy each and every one of you with dreadful punishments through tortures. 10 Therefore take pity on yourselves. Even I, your enemy, have compassion for your youth and handsome appearance. 11 Will 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. 13 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; 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. 16 Let 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, 18 why do we take pleasure in vain resolves and venture upon a disobedience that brings death? 19 O 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? 20 Let us take pity on our youth and have compassion on our mother’s age; 21 and let us seriously consider that if we disobey we are dead! 22 Also, divine justice will excuse us for fearing the king when we are under compulsion. 23 Why do we banish ourselves from this most pleasant life and deprive ourselves of this delightful world? 24 Let us not struggle against compulsion or take hollow pride in being put to the rack. 25 Not even the law itself would arbitrarily put us to death for fearing the instruments of torture. 26 Why 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. 28 For they were contemptuous of the emotions and sovereign over agonies, 29 so that as soon as the tyrant had ceased counseling them to eat defiling food, all with one voice together, as from one mind, said:

IV Maccabees, Chapter 9
1 “Why do you delay, O tyrant? For we are ready to die rather than transgress our ancestral commandments; 2 we are obviously putting our forebears to shame unless we should practice ready obedience to the law and to Moses our counselor. 3 Tyrant and counselor of lawlessness, in your hatred for us do not pity us more than we pity ourselves. 4 For we consider this pity of yours, which insures our safety through transgression of the law, to be more grievous than death itself. 5 You are trying to terrify us by threatening us with death by torture, as though a short time ago you learned nothing from Eleazar. 6 And 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. 7 Therefore, 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. 8 For we, through this severe suffering and endurance, shall have the prize of virtue and shall be with God, on whose account we suffer; 9 but you, because of your bloodthirstiness toward 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. 11 Then 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. 12 When they had worn themselves out beating him with scourges, without accomplishing anything, they placed him upon the wheel. 13 When the noble youth was stretched out around this, his limbs were dislocated, 14 and 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.” 16 And when the guards said, “Agree to eat so that you may be released from the tortures,” 17 he 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; 18 through all these tortures I will convince you that children of the Hebrews alone are invincible where virtue is concerned.” 19 While he was saying these things, they spread fire under him, and while fanning the flames they tightened the wheel further. 20 The 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. 21 Although the ligaments joining his bones were already severed, the courageous youth, worthy of Abraham, did not groan, 22 but 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. 24 Fight 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.” 25 When he had said this, the saintly youth broke the thread of life. 26 While 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. 27 Before torturing him, they inquired if he were willing to eat, and they heard his noble decision. 28 These 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!” 30 To 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? 31 I lighten my pain by the joys that come from virtue, 32 but you suffer torture by the threats that come from impiety. You will not escape, you most abominable tyrant, the judgments of the divine wrath.”

IV Maccabees, Chapter 10
1 When he too had endured a glorious death, the third was led in, and many repeatedly urged him to save himself by tasting the meat. 2 But 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? 3 I do not renounce the noble kinship that binds me to my brothers.” 5 Enraged by the man’s boldness, they disjointed his hands and feet with their instruments, dismembering him by prying his limbs from their sockets, 6 and breaking his fingers and arms and legs and elbows. 7 Since 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. 8 They 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. 9 When he was about to die, he said, 10 “We, most abominable tyrant, are suffering because of our godly training and virtue, 11 but 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.” 14 But he said to them, “You do not have a fire hot enough to make me play the coward. 15 No-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. 16 Contrive tortures, tyrant, so that you may learn from them that I am a brother to those who have just now been tortured.” 17 When he heard this, the bloodthirsty, murderous, and utterly abominable Antiochus gave orders to cut out his tongue. 18 But he said, “Even if you remove my organ of speech, God hears also those who are mute. 19 See, here is my tongue; cut it off, for in spite of this you will not make our reason speechless. 20 Gladly, for the sake of God, we let our bodily members be mutilated. 21 God will visit you swiftly, for you are cutting out a tongue that has been melodious with divine hymns.”

IV Maccabees, Chapter 11
1 When he too died, after being cruelly tortured, the fifth leaped up, saying, 2 “I will not refuse, tyrant, to be tortured for the sake of virtue. 3 I have come of my own accord, so that by murdering me you will incur punishment from the heavenly justice for even more crimes. 4 Hater of virtue, hater of humankind, for what act of ours are you destroying us in this way? 5 Is it because we revere the Creator of all things and live according to his virtuous law? 6 But these deeds deserve honors, not tortures.” 9 While he was saying these things, the guards bound him and dragged him to the catapult; 10 they 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. 11 In this condition, gasping for breath and in anguish of body, 12 he 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.” 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. 15 Since to this end we were born and bred, we ought likewise to die for the same principles. 16 So if you intend to torture me for not eating defiling foods, go on torturing!” 17 When he had said this, they led him to the wheel. 18 He was carefully stretched tight upon it, his back was broken, and he was roasted from underneath. 19 To his back they applied sharp spits that had been heated in the fire, and pierced his ribs so that his entrails were burned through. 20 While 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! 21 For religious knowledge, O tyrant, is invincible. 22 I also, equipped with nobility, will die with my brothers, 23 and I myself will bring a great avenger upon you, you inventor of tortures and enemy of those who are truly devout. 24 We six boys have paralyzed your tyranny. 25 Since 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? 26 Your fire is cold to us, and the catapults painless, and your violence powerless. 27 For 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.”

IV Maccabees, Chapter 12
1 When he too, thrown into the caldron, had died a blessed death, the seventh and youngest of all came forward. 2 Even 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. 4 You too, if you do not obey, will be miserably tortured and die before your time, 5 but if you yield to persuasion you will be my friend and a leader in the government of the kingdom.” 6 When 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. 7 But when his mother had exhorted him in the Hebrew language, as we shall tell a little later, 8 he said, “Let me loose, let me speak to the king and to all his friends that are with him.” 9 Extremely pleased by the boy’s declaration, they freed him at once. 10 Running to the nearest of the braziers, 11 he 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? 12 Because of this, justice has laid up for you intense and eternal fire and tortures, and these throughout all time will never let you go. 13 As 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? 14 Surely they by dying nobly fulfilled their service to God, but you will wail bitterly for having killed without cause the contestants for virtue.” 15 Then because he too was about to die, he said, 16 “I do not desert the excellent example of my brothers, 17 and I call on the God of our ancestors to be merciful to our nation; 18 but on you he will take vengeance both in this present life and when you are dead.” 19 After he had uttered these imprecations, he flung himself into the braziers and so ended his life.

IV Maccabees, Chapter 13
1 Since, then, the seven brothers despised sufferings even unto death, everyone must concede that devout reason is sovereign over the emotions. 2 For if they had been slaves to their emotions and had eaten defiling food, we would say that they had been conquered by these emotions. 3 But in fact it was not so. Instead, by reason, which is praised before God, they prevailed over their emotions. 4 The supremacy of the mind over these cannot be overlooked, for the brothers mastered both emotions and pains. 5 How then can one fail to confess the sovereignty of right reason over emotion in those who were not turned back by fiery agonies? 6 For just as towers jutting out over harbors hold back the threatening waves and make it calm for those who sail into the inner basin, 7 so the seven-towered right reason of the youths, by fortifying the harbor of religion, conquered the tempest of the emotions. 8 For 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. 10 Let us not be cowardly in the demonstration of our piety.” 11 While one said, “Courage, brother,” another said, “Bear up nobly,” 12 and 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.” 13 Each 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. 14 Let us not fear him who thinks he is killing us, 15 for great is the struggle of the soul and the danger of eternal torment lying before those who transgress the commandment of God. 16 Therefore let us put on the full armor of self-control, which is divine reason. 17 For if we so die, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us, and all the fathers will praise us.” 18 Those 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. 20 There 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. 21 When they were born after an equal time of gestation, they drank milk from the same fountains. From such embraces brotherly-loving souls are nourished; 22 and 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. 24 Since 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. 25 A common zeal for nobility strengthened their goodwill toward one another, and their concord, 26 because they could make their brotherly love more fervent with the aid of their religion. 27 But 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.

IV Maccabees, Chapter 14
1 Furthermore, 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! 3 O sacred and harmonious concord of the seven brothers on behalf of religion! 4 None of the seven youths proved coward or shrank from death, 5 but all of them, as though running the course toward immortality, hastened to death by torture. 6 Just 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. 7 O most holy seven, brothers in harmony! For just as the seven days of creation move in choral dance around religion, 8 so these youths, forming a chorus, encircled the sevenfold fear of tortures and dissolved it. 9 Even 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. 10 What 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, 12 for 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 toward an emotion felt in her inmost parts. 14 Even unreasoning animals, as well as human beings, have a sympathy and parental love for their offspring. 15 For example, among birds, the ones that are tame protect their young by building on the housetops, 16 and the others, by building in precipitous chasms and in holes and tops of trees, hatch the nestlings and ward off the intruder. 17 If 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. 18 And why is it necessary to demonstrate sympathy for children by the example of unreasoning animals, 19 since 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? 20 But sympathy for her children did not sway the mother of the young men; she was of the same mind as Abraham.

IV Maccabees, Chapter 15
1 O reason of the children, tyrant over the emotions! O religion, more desirable to the mother than her children! 2 Two courses were open to this mother, that of religion, and that of preserving her seven sons for a time, as the tyrant had promised. 3 She loved religion more, the religion that preserves them for eternal life according to God’s promise. 4 In 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. 5 Considering that mothers are the weaker sex and give birth to many, they are more devoted to their children. 6 The 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, 7 and because of the many pains she suffered with each of them she had sympathy for them; 8 yet because of the fear of God she disdained the temporary safety of her children. 9 Not 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. 10 For 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. 12 But each child separately and all of them together the mother urged on to death for religion’s sake. 13 O sacred nature and affection of parental love, yearning of parents toward offspring, nurture and indomitable suffering by mothers! 14 This mother, who saw them tortured and burned one by one, because of religion did not change her attitude. 15 She 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! 17 O woman, who alone gave birth to such complete devotion! 18 When 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; 19 nor 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. 20 When 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. 21 Neither 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. 22 How great and how many torments the mother then suffered as her sons were tortured on the wheel and with the hot irons! 23 But 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. 25 For as in the council chamber of her own soul she saw mighty advocates-nature, family, parental love, and the rackings of her children- 26 this mother held two ballots, one bearing death and the other deliverance for her children. 27 She did not approve the deliverance that would preserve the seven sons for a short time, 28 but 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! 30 O more noble than males in steadfastness, and more courageous than men in endurance! 31 Just as Noah’s ark, carrying the world in the universal flood, stoutly endured the waves, 32 so 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.

IV Maccabees, Chaper 16
1 If, 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. 2 Thus I have demonstrated not only that men have ruled over the emotions, but also that a woman has despised the fiercest tortures. 3 The 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. 4 But the mother quenched so many and such great emotions by devout reason. 5 Consider 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 seven children, I am now the mother of none! 7 O seven childbirths all in vain, seven profitless pregnancies, fruitless nurturings and wretched nursings! 8 In vain, my sons, I endured many birth pangs for you, and the more grievous anxieties of your upbringing. 9 Alas for my children, some unmarried, others married and without offspring. I shall not see your children or have the happiness of being called grandmother. 10 Alas, I who had so many and beautiful children am a widow and alone, with many sorrows. 11 And when I die, I shall have none of my sons to bury me.” 12 Yet that holy 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. 13 On the contrary, 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. 14 O 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. 15 For 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. 17 For 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. 18 Remember that it is through God that you have had a share in the world and have enjoyed life, 19 and therefore you ought to endure any suffering for the sake of God. 20 For 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 knife and descending upon him, he did not cower. 21 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. 22 You too must have the same faith in God and not be grieved. 23 It is unreasonable for people who have religious knowledge not to withstand pain.” 24 By these words the mother of the seven encouraged and persuaded each of her sons to die rather than violate God’s commandment. 25 They knew also that those who die for the sake of God live to God, as do Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs.

IV Maccabees, Chapter 17
1 Some 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. 2 O mother, who with your seven sons nullified the violence of the tyrant, frustrated his evil designs, and showed the courage of your faith! 3 Nobly set like a roof on the pillars of your sons, you held firm and unswerving against the earthquake of the tortures. 4 Take courage, therefore, O holy-minded mother, maintaining firm an enduring hope in God. 5 The moon in heaven, with the stars, does not stand so august as you, who, after lighting the way of your star-like seven sons to piety, stand in honor before God and are firmly set in heaven with them. 6 For your children were true descendants of father Abraham. 7 If it were possible for us to paint the history of your religion as an artist might, would not those who first beheld it have shuddered as they saw the mother of the seven children enduring their varied tortures to death for the sake of religion? 8 Indeed it would be proper to inscribe on 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 seven sons, because of the violence of the tyrant who wished to destroy the way of life of the Hebrews. 10 They vindicated their nation, looking to God and enduring torture even to death.” 11 Truly the contest in which they were engaged was divine, 12 for on that day virtue gave the awards and tested them for their endurance. The prize was immortality in endless life. 13 Eleazar was the first contestant, the mother of the seven sons entered the competition, and the brothers contended. 14 The tyrant was the antagonist, and the world and the human race were the spectators. 15 Reverence for God was victor and gave the crown to its own athletes. 16 Who did not admire the athletes of the divine legislation? Who were not amazed? 17 The tyrant himself and all his council marveled at their endurance, 18 because of which they now stand before the divine throne and live the life of eternal blessedness. 19 For Moses says, “All who are consecrated are under your hands.” 20 These, 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, 21 the tyrant was punished, and the homeland purified-they having become, as it were, a ransom for the sin of our nation. 22 And through the blood of those devout ones and their death as an atoning sacrifice, divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been mistreated. 23 For 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, 24 and this made them brave and courageous for infantry battle and siege, and he ravaged and conquered all his enemies.

IV Maccabees, Chapter 18
1 O Israelite children, offspring of the seed of Abraham, obey this law and exercise piety in every way, 2 knowing that devout reason is master of all emotions, not only of sufferings from within, but also of those from without. 3 Therefore those who gave over their bodies in suffering for the sake of religion were not only admired by mortals, but also were deemed worthy to share in a divine inheritance. 4 Because of them the nation gained peace, and by reviving observance of the law in the homeland they ravaged the enemy. 5 The 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. 6 The mother of seven 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. 8 No seducer corrupted me on a desert plain, nor did the destroyer, the deceitful serpent, defile the purity of my virginity.
9 In 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. 10 While he was still with you, he taught you the law and the prophets. 11 He read to you about Abel slain by Cain, and Isaac who was offered as a burnt offering, and about Joseph in prison. 12 He told you of the zeal of Phinehas, and he taught you about Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael in the fire. 13 He praised Daniel in the den of the lions and blessed him. 14 He reminded you of the scripture of Isaiah, which says, “Even though you go through the fire, the flame shall not consume you.’ 15 He sang to you songs of the psalmist David, who said, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.’ 16 He recounted to you Solomon’s proverb, “There is a tree of life for those who do his will.’ 17 He confirmed the query of Ezekiel, “Shall these dry bones live?’ 18 For 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.’ ” 20 O 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 seven sons of the daughter of Abraham to the catapult and back again to more tortures, 21 pierced the pupils of their eyes and cut out their tongues, and put them to death with various tortures. 22 For these crimes divine justice pursued and will pursue the accursed tyrant. 23 But 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, 24 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.