Chapter Seven

The martyr’s death of seven brothers together with their mother (2 Macc 7:1-42).

2 Maccabees 7:1–2. It also happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and, under torture with whips and cords, were compelled by the king to eat unlawful pork. One of them, speaking on behalf of all, said: what do you wish to ask or learn from us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers. “Speaking on behalf of all, said:...” Here, accordingly, the king’s scourging of the martyrs is presented as though it were putting a question to them: how great is their resolve to stand firm for the laws of their fathers?

2 Maccabees 7:3–6. Then the king, enraged, commanded that pans and cauldrons be heated. When they were heated, he immediately commanded that the tongue of the one who had spoken on behalf of all be cut out, and that his skin be torn off and his limbs be cut off before the eyes of his remaining brothers and mother. When he was deprived of all his limbs but still breathing, the king commanded them to bring him to the fire and fry him on the pan; and as a strong vapor spread from the pan, they together with their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying: the Lord God sees this, and truly he will have compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song as a testimony before all the people: “and he will have compassion on his servants. “And he will have compassion on his servants...” — Deut 32:36 (cf. Ps: “and for his servants he will be entreated”). For those being deprived of their temporal life, this mercy of God should be expressed in the fact that God, who kills and gives life, who strikes and heals (Deut 32:39), will also raise up these innocent sufferers to a new and unending life. This faith was grounded especially on Dan XII:1–2, 13; Isa XXVI:19; Ezek 37:1-6.

2 Maccabees 7:7. When the first had died, they led the second forward to be mocked, and tore off the skin of his head with the hair, and asked him whether he would eat before his body was tortured limb by limb. “They asked whether he would eat...” — that is, pork, forbidden by the law (cf. v. 1).

2 Maccabees 7:8–14. He answered in the language of his fathers: no. Therefore he also received his torture in the same manner as the first. When he was at his last breath he said: you, torturer, destroy us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up, who die for his laws, to everlasting life. After him, the third was brought forward for mockery and when commanded to put out his tongue, he did so at once, and fearlessly stretched out his hands as well, and said nobly: from heaven I received these, and for his laws I do not value them, and from him I hope to receive them back again. The king himself and those with him were astonished at the spirit of the young man, that he considered his sufferings as nothing. When this one too had died, they tormented and mutilated the fourth in the same way. Being near to death, he spoke thus: it is better for those dying at human hands to cherish the hope in God that he will raise them up again; as for you, there will be no resurrection to life. “As for you, there will be no resurrection to life.” It appears, therefore, that resurrection is here limited to the righteous alone, while sinners and pagans are excluded from it. This explains why the dying martyrs threaten the torturer only with punishments in temporal life (vv. 17, 19, 31, 34 ff.). — The fulfillment of these threats against Antiochus is shown in chapter IX, and against his children in 1 Macc 7:4.

2 Maccabees 7:15–18. Then the fifth was brought forward and they began to torture him. He, looking at the king, said: you have authority over people and, being yourself subject to corruption, you do what you will; but do not think that our nation has been forsaken by God. Wait, and you will see his great power, how he will torment you and your offspring. After him the sixth was brought, and, being at the point of death, he said: do not deceive yourself in vain, for we suffer this for our own sakes, having sinned before our God, therefore what has happened is worthy of wonder. “We suffer this for our own sakes...” — “We” here means not I and my brothers, but we — the Jews as a people. — “For our own sakes” is defined more precisely by what follows: “having sinned before our God...” — Greek: αμαρτάνοντες είς τόν εαυτών θεόν; Slavonic: “sinning toward our God...” The present participle — αμαρτάνοντες — “sinning” — here denotes human sinfulness in general, as something in him constant and continuously ongoing.

2 Maccabees 7:19. But do not think that you will escape punishment, you who dared to fight against God. 2 Maccabees 7:20–27. But most deserving of admiration and worthy of glorious memory was the mother, who, seeing her seven sons perish within a single day, bore it with good courage, in her hope in the Lord. Filled with noble feelings and strengthening her womanly reasoning with a manly spirit, she encouraged each of them in the language of their fathers and said to them: I do not know how you appeared in my womb; it was not I who gave you breath and life; it was not I who fashioned the nature of each one. Therefore the Creator of the world, who fashioned human nature and who ordered the origin of all things, will in his mercy give back to you again both breath and life, since you now have no regard for yourselves for the sake of his laws. Antiochus, thinking that he was being despised and suspecting this speech of being an insult to himself, began to urge the youngest, who alone remained, not only with words but also with sworn assurances, that he would make him rich and happy if he would abandon the laws of his fathers, and that he would make him a friend and would entrust him with offices of honor. But as the young man paid no attention, the king called the mother and urged her to advise the son to save himself. After many urgings on his part, she agreed to persuade her son. Bending down to him and mocking the cruel torturer, she spoke to him in the language of their fathers thus: my son, have pity on me, who carried you nine months in the womb, suckled you for three years, nourished and raised you and brought you up to this age. “Suckled you for three years...” — such prolonged nursing of infants apparently was not rare among ancient and contemporary women of the East (cf. Gen 21:8 and Exod 2:9 ff.).

2 Maccabees 7:28. I implore you, my child, look up at the heaven and the earth and see all that is in them, and understand that God made them out of nothing, and that the human race also came into being in this way. “Out of nothing...” — εξ ούκ όντων. Some manuscripts here also have ουκ εξ όντων, which still more strongly emphasizes the thought of creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo), in contrast to the doctrine of creation from primordial (pre-existing) matter — άμορφος ύλη (Philo’s τά μή όντα).

2 Maccabees 7:29. Do not be afraid of this murderer, but prove yourself worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that by the mercy of God I may receive you back together with your brothers. “By the mercy of God...” — εν τω ελέει; Slavonic: “in mercy...” — that is, “in the days of God’s mercy,” when the Lord will restore us by his mercy — a hint at the Messianic age and the resurrection of the dead (Dan XII:2, 13).

2 Maccabees 7:30–39. While she was still speaking, the young man said: what are you waiting for? I do not obey the command of the king, but I obey the command of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses. But you, who have devised every manner of evil against the Hebrews, will not escape the hands of God. We are suffering for our own sins. And if our living Lord has been angry with us for a little while, for the purpose of chastening and correcting us, he will again be reconciled with his servants; but you, ungodly and most vile of all people, do not be elated without cause, inflated with false hopes, for you have not yet escaped the judgment of Almighty God, who sees all. Our brothers, having endured a brief suffering, have now received everlasting life under God’s covenant, but you, by the judgment of God, will receive just punishment for your arrogance. I, as my brothers have done, surrender both soul and body for the laws of our fathers, calling upon God to show mercy quickly to our nation, and that through torments and plagues you may confess that he alone is God, and that in me and in my brothers the wrath of the Almighty may cease, which has justly fallen upon all our people. Then the king, enraged, treated him even more cruelly than the others, being vexed at the contempt shown him. “Being vexed at the contempt shown him...” — κρώς φέρων τω μυκτηρισμω; Slavonic more precisely: “bitterly bearing the contempt...” The full thought is better rendered thus: “the king treated him even more cruelly than the others, bearing most bitterly the contempt shown him...” Such “contempt” was to the king most especially the martyr’s wish that the king too might confess the Almighty God — the actual fulfillment of which is shown in IX:12–17.

2 Maccabees 7:40–42. So this one too ended his life in purity, placing all his trust in the Lord. Last of all, after her sons, the mother also died. Let what has been said about idol sacrifices and about extraordinary sufferings be enough.