May 20 4 Maccabees 15-18

15O reason of the children, tyrant over the emotions! O religion, more desirable to the mother than her children! 2Two courses were open to this mother, that of religion, and that of preserving her seven sons for a time, as the tyrant had promised. 3She loved religion more, the religion that preserves them for eternal life according to God’s promise.* 4In what manner might I express the emotions of parents who love their children? We impress upon the character of a small child a wondrous likeness both of mind and of form. Especially is this true of mothers, who because of their birth pangs have a deeper sympathy towards their offspring than do the fathers. 5Considering that mothers are the weaker sex and give birth to many, they are more devoted to their children.* 6The mother of the seven boys, more than any other mother, loved her children. In seven pregnancies she had implanted in herself tender love towards them, 7and because of the many pains she suffered with each of them she had sympathy for them; 8yet because of the fear of God she disdained the temporary safety of her children. 9Not only so, but also because of the nobility of her sons and their ready obedience to the law, she felt a greater tenderness towards them. 10For they were righteous and self-controlled and brave and magnanimous, and loved their brothers and their mother, so that they obeyed her even to death in keeping the ordinances.
11 Nevertheless, though so many factors influenced the mother to suffer with them out of love for her children, in the case of none of them were the various tortures strong enough to pervert her reason. 12But each child separately and all of them together the mother urged on to death for religion’s sake. 13O sacred nature and affection of parental love, yearning of parents towards offspring, nurture and indomitable suffering by mothers! 14This mother, who saw them tortured and burned one by one, because of religion did not change her attitude. 15She watched the flesh of her children being consumed by fire, their toes and fingers scattered* on the ground, and the flesh of the head to the chin exposed like masks.
16 O mother, tried now by more bitter pains than even the birth pangs you suffered for them! 17O woman, who alone gave birth to such complete devotion! 18When the firstborn breathed his last, it did not turn you aside, nor when the second in torments looked at you piteously nor when the third expired; 19nor did you weep when you looked at the eyes of each one in his tortures gazing boldly at the same agonies, and saw in their nostrils the signs of the approach of death. 20When you saw the flesh of children burned upon the flesh of other children, severed hands upon hands, scalped heads upon heads, and corpses fallen on other corpses, and when you saw the place filled with many spectators of the torturings, you did not shed tears. 21Neither the melodies of sirens nor the songs of swans attract the attention of their hearers as did the voices of the children in torture calling to their mother. 22How great and how many torments the mother then suffered as her sons were tortured on the wheel and with the hot irons! 23But devout reason, giving her heart a man’s courage in the very midst of her emotions, strengthened her to disregard, for the time, her parental love.
24 Although she witnessed the destruction of seven children and the ingenious and various rackings, this noble mother disregarded all these* because of faith in God. 25For as in the council chamber of her own soul she saw mighty advocates—nature, family, parental love, and the rackings of her children— 26this mother held two ballots, one bearing death and the other deliverance for her children. 27She did not approve the deliverance that would preserve the seven sons for a short time, 28but as the daughter of God-fearing Abraham she remembered his fortitude.
29 O mother of the nation, vindicator of the law and champion of religion, who carried away the prize of the contest in your heart! 30O more noble than males in steadfastness, and more courageous than men in endurance! 31Just as Noah’s ark, carrying the world in the universal flood, stoutly endured the waves, 32so you, O guardian of the law, overwhelmed from every side by the flood of your emotions and the violent winds, the torture of your sons, endured nobly and withstood the wintry storms that assail religion.
16If, then, a woman, advanced in years and mother of seven sons, endured seeing her children tortured to death, it must be admitted that devout reason is sovereign over the emotions. 2Thus I have demonstrated not only that men have ruled over the emotions, but also that a woman has despised the fiercest tortures. 3The lions surrounding Daniel were not so savage, nor was the raging fiery furnace of Mishael so intensely hot, as was her innate parental love, inflamed as she saw her seven sons tortured in such varied ways. 4But the mother quenched so many and such great emotions by devout reason.
5 Consider this also: If this woman, though a mother, had been faint-hearted, she would have mourned over them and perhaps spoken as follows: 6‘O how wretched am I and many times unhappy! After bearing seven children, I am now the mother of none! 7O seven childbirths all in vain, seven profitless pregnancies, fruitless nurturings and wretched nursings! 8In vain, my sons, I endured many birth pangs for you, and the more grievous anxieties of your upbringing. 9Alas for my children, some unmarried, others married and without offspring.* I shall not see your children or have the happiness of being called grandmother. 10Alas, I who had so many and beautiful children am a widow and alone, with many sorrows.* 11And 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. 13On 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. 14O mother, soldier of God in the cause of religion, elder and woman! By steadfastness you have conquered even a tyrant, and in word and deed you have proved more powerful than a man. 15For when you and your sons were arrested together, you stood and watched Eleazar being tortured, and said to your sons in the Hebrew language, 16‘My sons, noble is the contest to which you are called to bear witness for the nation. Fight zealously for our ancestral law. 17For it would be shameful if, while an aged man endures such agonies for the sake of religion, you young men were to be terrified by tortures. 18Remember that it is through God that you have had a share in the world and have enjoyed life, 19and therefore you ought to endure any suffering for the sake of God. 20For his sake also our father Abraham was zealous to sacrifice his son Isaac, the ancestor of our nation; and when Isaac saw his father’s hand wielding a knife* and descending upon him, he did not cower. 21Daniel the righteous was thrown to the lions, and Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael were hurled into the fiery furnace and endured it for the sake of God. 22You too must have the same faith in God and not be grieved. 23It is unreasonable for people who have religious knowledge not to withstand pain.’
24 By these words the mother of the seven encouraged and persuaded each of her sons to die rather than violate God’s commandment. 25They knew also that those who die for the sake of God live to God, as do Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs.
17Some 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! 3Nobly set like a roof on the pillars of your sons, you held firm and unswerving against the earthquake of the tortures. 4Take courage, therefore, O holy-minded mother, maintaining firm an enduring hope in God. 5The moon in heaven, with the stars, does not stand so august as you, who, after lighting the way of your star-like seven sons to piety, stand in honour before God and are firmly set in heaven with them. 6For your children were true descendants of father Abraham.*
The Effect of the Martyrdoms7 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? 8Indeed 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. 10They vindicated their nation, looking to God and enduring torture even to death.’
11 Truly the contest in which they were engaged was divine, 12for on that day virtue gave the awards and tested them for their endurance. The prize was immortality in endless life. 13Eleazar was the first contestant, the mother of the seven sons entered the competition, and the brothers contended. 14The tyrant was the antagonist, and the world and the human race were the spectators. 15Reverence for God was victor and gave the crown to its own athletes. 16Who did not admire the athletes of the divine* legislation? Who were not amazed?
17 The tyrant himself and all his council marvelled at their* endurance, 18because of which they now stand before the divine throne and live the life of eternal blessedness. 19For Moses says, ‘All who are consecrated are under your hands.’ 20These, then, who have been consecrated for the sake of God,* are honoured, not only with this honour, but also by the fact that because of them our enemies did not rule over our nation, 21the tyrant was punished, and the homeland purified—they having become, as it were, a ransom for the sin of our nation. 22And through the blood of those devout ones and their death as an 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, 24and this made them brave and courageous for infantry battle and siege, and he ravaged and conquered all his enemies.
18O Israelite children, offspring of the seed of Abraham, obey this law and exercise piety in every way, 2knowing that devout reason is master of all emotions, not only of sufferings from within, but also of those from without.
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. 4Because of them the nation gained peace, and by reviving observance of the law in the homeland they ravaged the enemy. 5The tyrant Antiochus was both punished on earth and is being chastised after his death. Since in no way whatever was he able to compel the Israelites to become pagans and to abandon their ancestral customs, he left Jerusalem and marched against the Persians.
The Mother’s Address to Her Children6 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.* 8No seducer corrupted me on a desert plain, nor did the destroyer, the deceitful serpent, defile the purity of my virginity. 9In the time of my maturity I remained with my husband, and when these sons had grown up their father died. A happy man was he, who lived out his life with good children, and did not have the grief of bereavement. 10While he was still with you, he taught you the law and the prophets. 11He read to you about Abel slain by Cain, and Isaac who was offered as a burnt-offering, and about Joseph in prison. 12He told you of the zeal of Phinehas, and he taught you about Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael in the fire. 13He praised Daniel in the den of the lions and blessed him. 14He reminded you of the scripture of Isaiah, which says, “Even though you go through the fire, the flame shall not consume you.” 15He sang to you songs of the psalmist David, who said, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” 16He recounted to you Solomon’s proverb, “There is a tree of life for those who do his will.” 17He confirmed the query of Ezekiel, “Shall these dry bones live?” 18For he did not forget to teach you the song that Moses taught, which says, 19“I kill and I make alive: this is your life and the length of your days.” ’
20 O bitter was that day—and yet not bitter—when that bitter tyrant of the Greeks quenched fire with fire in his cruel cauldrons, and in his burning rage brought those seven sons of the daughter of Abraham to the catapult and back again to more* tortures, 21pierced the pupils of their eyes and cut out their tongues, and put them to death with various tortures. 22For these crimes divine justice pursued and will pursue the accursed tyrant. 23But the sons of Abraham with their victorious mother are gathered together into the chorus of the fathers, and have received pure and immortal* souls from God, 24to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.