4 Maccabees 6 — GMV
6
Verse 1
When Eleazar had in this manner answered the exhortations of the tyrant, the spearbearers came up, and rudely haled Eleazar to the instruments of torture.
Verse 2
And first, they stripped the old man, adorned as he was with the comeliness of piety.
Verse 3
Then tying back his arms and hands, they disdainfully used him with stripes;
Verse 4
a herald opposite crying out, Obey the commands of the king.
Verse 5
But Eleazar, the high-minded and truly noble, as one tortured in a dream, regarded it not at all.
Verse 6
But raising his eyes on high to heaven, the old man’s flesh was stripped off by the scourges, and his blood streamed down, and his sides were pierced through.
Verse 7
And falling upon the ground, from his body having no power to support the pains, he yet kept his reasoning upright and unbending.
Verse 8
Then one of the harsh spearbearers leaped upon his belly as he was falling, to force him upright.
Verse 9
But he endured the pains, and despised the cruelty, and persevered through the indignities;
Verse 10
and like a noble athlete, the old man, when struck, vanquished his torturers.
Verse 11
His countenance sweating, and he panting for breath, he was admired by the very torturers for his courage.
Verse 12
Wherefore, partly in pity for his old age,
Verse 13
partly from the sympathy of acquaintance, and partly in admiration of his endurance, some of the attendants of the king said,
Verse 14
Why do you unreasonably destroy yourself, O Eleazar, with these miseries?
Verse 15
We will bring you some meat cooked by yourself, and do you save yourself by pretending that you have eaten swine’s flesh.
Verse 16
And Eleazar, as though the advice more painfully tortured him, cried out,
Verse 17
Let not us who are children of Abraham be so evil advised as by giving way to make use of an unbecoming pretense;
Verse 18
for it were irrational, if having lived up to old age in all truth, and having scrupulously guarded our character for it, we should now turn back,
Verse 19
and ourselves should become a pattern of impiety to the young, as being an example of pollution eating.
Verse 20
It would be disgraceful if we should live on some short time, and that scorned by all men for cowardice,
Verse 21
and be condemned by the tyrant for unmanliness, by not contending to the death for our divine law.
Verse 22
Wherefore do you, O children of Abraham, die nobly for your religion.
Verse 23
Ye spearbearers of the tyrant, why do ye linger?
Verse 24
Beholding him so high-minded against misery, and not changing at their pity, they led him to the fire:
Verse 25
then with their wickedly contrived instruments they burned him on the fire, and poured stinking fluids down into his nostrils.
Verse 26
And he being at length burned down to the bones, and about to expire, raised his eyes toward God, and said,
Verse 27
Thou knowest, O God, that when I might have been saved, I am slain for the sake of the law by tortures of fire.
Verse 28
Be merciful to thy people, and be satisfied with the punishment of me on their account.
Verse 29
Let my blood be a purification for them, and take my life in recompense for theirs.
Verse 30
Thus speaking, the holy man departed, noble in his torments, and even to the agonies of death resisted in his reasoning for the sake of the law.
Verse 31
Confessedly, therefore, religious reasoning is master of the passions.
Verse 32
For had the passions been superior to reasoning, I would have given them the witness of this mastery.
Verse 33
But now, since reasoning conquered the passions, we befittingly award it the authority of first place.
Verse 34
And it is but fair that we should allow, that the power belongs to reasoning, since it masters external miseries.
Verse 35
Ridiculous would it be were it not so; and I prove that reasoning has not only mastered pains, but that it is also superior to the pleasures, and withstands them.