Eleazar, one of the foremost teachers of the Law, a man
already advanced in years and of most noble appearance,
had his mouth forced open, to make him eat a piece of
pork. But he, resolving to die with honour rather than to
live disgraced, walked of his own accord to the torture of
the wheel, having spat the stuff out, as befits those with
the courage to reject what is not lawful to taste, rather
than live. The people supervising the ritual meal,
forbidden by the Law, because of the length of time for
which they had known him, took him aside and privately
urged him to have meat brought of a kind he could
properly use, prepared by himself, and only pretend to
eat the portions of sacrificial meat as prescribed by the
king; this action would enable him to escape death, by
availing himself of an act of kindness prompted by their
long friendship. But having taken a noble decision
worthy of his years and the dignity of his great age and
the well-earned distinction of his grey hairs, worthy too
of his impeccable conduct from boyhood, and above all
of the holy legislation established by God himself, he
answered accordingly, telling them to send him at once
to Hades. "Pretence," he said, "does not befit our time
of life; many young people would suppose that Eleazar
at the age of ninety had conformed to the foreigners'
way of life and, because I had played this part for the
sake of a paltry brief spell of life, might themselves be
led astray on my account; I should only bring
defilement and disgrace on my old age. Even though
for the moment I avoid execution by man, I can never,
living or dead, elude the grasp of the Almighty.
Therefore if I am man enough to quit this life here and
now, I shall prove myself worthy of my old age, and I
shall have left the young a noble example of how to
make a good death, eagerly and generously, for the
venerable and holy laws." So saying, he walked
straight to the wheel, while those who were escorting
him, recently so well disposed towards him, turned
against him after this declaration, which they regarded
as sheer madness. He for his part, just before he died
under the blows, gave a sigh and said, "The Lord
whose knowledge is holy sees clearly that, though I
might have escaped death, from awe of him I gladly
endure these agonies of body under the lash, and
that in my soul I am glad to suffer." This was how he
died, leaving his death as an example of nobility and
a record of virtue not only for the young but for the
greater part of the nation.
2 Maccabees 6:18-31 New Jerusalem Bible
It also happened that seven brothers were arrested with
their mother. The king tried to force them to taste some
pork, which the Law forbids, by torturing them with whips
and scourges. One of them, acting as spokesman for the
others, said, "What are you trying to find out from us? We
are prepared to die rather than break the laws of our
ancestors." The king, in a fury, ordered pans and
cauldrons to be heated over a fire. As soon as these were
red-hot, he commanded that their spokesman should have
his tongue cut out, his head scalped and his extremities
cut off, while the other brothers and his mother looked on.
When he had been rendered completely helpless, the
king gave orders for him to be brought, still breathing, to
the fire and fried alive in a pan. As the smoke from the
pan drifted about, his mother and the rest encouraged
one another to die nobly, with such words as these, "The
Lord God is watching and certainly feels sorry for us, as
Moses declared in his song, which clearly states that `he
will take pity on his servants." When the first had left the
world in this way, they brought the second forward to be
tortured. After stripping the skin from his head, hair and
all, they asked him, "Will you eat some pork, before your
body is tortured limb by limb?" Replying in his ancestral
tongue, he said, "No!" So he too was put to the torture in
his turn. With his last breath he exclaimed, "Cruel brute,
you may discharge us from this present life, but the King
of the world will raise us up, since we die for his laws, to
live again for ever." After him, they tortured the third, who
on being asked for his tongue promptly thrust it out and
boldly held out his hands, courageously saying, "Heaven
gave me these limbs; for the sake of his laws I have no
concern for them; from him I hope to receive them again."
The king and his attendants were astounded at the young
man's courage and his utter indifference to suffering.
When this one was dead they subjected the fourth to the
same torments and tortures. When he neared his end he
cried, "Ours is the better choice, to meet death at men's
hands, yet relying on God's promise that we shall be
raised up by him; whereas for you there can be no
resurrection to new life." Next they brought forward the
fifth and began torturing him. But he looked at the king
and said, "You have power over human beings, mortal
as you are, and can act as you please. But do not think
that our race has been deserted by God. Only wait, and
you will see in your turn how his mighty power will
torment you and your descendants." After him, they led
out the sixth, and his dying words were these, "Do not
delude yourself: we are suffering like this through our
own fault, having sinned against our own God; hence,
appalling things have befallen us, but do not think you
yourself will go unpunished for attempting to make war
on God." But the mother was especially admirable and
worthy of honourable remembrance, for she watched
the death of seven sons in the course of a single day,
and bravely endured it because of her hopes in the Lord.
Indeed she encouraged each of them in their ancestral
tongue; filled with noble conviction, she reinforced her
womanly argument with manly courage, saying to them,
"I do not know how you appeared in my womb; it was
not I who endowed you with breath and life, I had not
the shaping of your every part. And hence, the Creator
of the world, who made everyone and ordained the
origin of all things, will in his mercy give you back
breath and life, since for the sake of his laws you have
no concern for yourselves." Antiochus thought he was
being ridiculed, suspecting insult in the tone of her
voice; and as the youngest was still alive he appealed
to him not with mere words but with promises on oath
to make him both rich and happy if he would abandon
the traditions of his ancestors; he would make him his
Friend and entrust him with public office. The young
man took no notice at all, and so the king then
appealed to the mother, urging her to advise the youth
to save his life. After a great deal of urging on his part
she agreed to try persuasion on her son. Bending over
him, she fooled the cruel tyrant with these words,
uttered in their ancestral tongue, "My son, have pity on
me; I carried you nine months in my womb and suckled
you three years, fed you and reared you to the age you
are now, and provided for you. I implore you, my child,
look at the earth and sky and everything in them, and
consider how God made them out of what did not exist,
and that human beings come into being in the same
way. Do not fear this executioner, but prove yourself
worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that I may
receive you back with them in the day of mercy." She
had hardly finished, when the young man said, "What
are you all waiting for? I will not comply with the king's
ordinance; I obey the ordinance of the Law given to
our ancestors through Moses. As for you, who have
contrived every kind of evil against the Hebrews, you
will certainly not escape the hands of God. We are
suffering for our own sins; and if, to punish and
discipline us, our living Lord is briefly angry with us,
he will be reconciled with us in due course. But you,
unholy wretch and wickedest of villains, what cause
have you for pride, nourishing vain hopes and raising
your hand against his servants?, for you have not yet
escaped the judgement of God the almighty, the all-
seeing. Our brothers, having endured brief pain, for
the sake of ever-flowing life have died for the
covenant of God, while you, by God's judgement, will
have to pay the just penalty for your arrogance. I too,
like my brothers, surrender my body and life for the
laws of my ancestors, begging God quickly to take pity
on our nation, and by trials and afflictions to bring you
to confess that he alone is God, so that with my
brothers and myself there may be an end to the wrath
of the Almighty, rightly let loose on our whole nation."
The king fell into a rage and treated this one more
cruelly than the others, for he was himself smarting
from the young man's scorn. And so the last brother
met his end undefiled and with perfect trust in the
Lord. The mother was the last to die, after her sons.
But let this be sufficient account of the ritual meals
and monstrous tortures.
2 Maccabees 7:1-42 New Jerusalem Bible
