Brenton's Septuagint · Under the Greeks
4 Maccabees 10
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1Now this one, having this praiseworthy , the third was brought along, and exhorted by many to taste and his life. 2But he cried out and said, Know ye not, that of those who are , begat me also; and that the same mother me; and that I was brought up in the same tenets? 3I abjure not the noble relationship of my brethren. 5But they, highly incensed at his boldness of speech, dislocated his hands and feet with racking engines, and wrenching them from their sockets, dismembered him. 6And they dragged round his fingers, and his arms, and his legs, and his ankles. 7And not being able by any means to strangle him, they tore off his skin, together with the extreme tips of his fingers, flayed him, and then haled him to the wheel; 8around which his vertebral joints were loosened, and he saw his own torn to shreds, and streams of flowing from his entrails. 9And when about to , he said, 10We, O tyrant, suffer this for the sake of Divine education and virtue. 11But thou, for thy impiety and -shedding, shalt indissoluble torments. 12And thus having worthily of his brethren, they dragged forward the fourth, saying, 13Do not thou share the madness of thy brethren: but give regard to the king, and thyself. 14But he said to them, You have not a so scorching as to make me play the coward. 15By the of my brethren, and the punishment of the tyrant, and the life of the pious, I will not repudiate the noble brotherhood. 16Invent, O tyrant, tortures; that you may learn, even through them, that I am the brother of those tormented before. 17When he had said this, the bloodthirsty, and murderous, and unhallowed ordered his to be cut out. 18But he said, Even if you take away the organ of speech, yet hears the silent. 19Behold, my is extended, cut it off; for not for that shalt thou extirpate our reasoning. 20Gladly do we lose our limbs in behalf of . 21But shall speedily find you, since you , the instrument of divine melody.
Sir Lancelot Brenton's 1851 English translation of the Greek Old Testament, public domain. Used here for books received in Orthodox canons that the other editions do not carry. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under the Greeks, 332 BC to 63 BC ›
Alexander's conquest and the kingdoms of his successors. Greek language and custom press in everywhere, and the crisis under Antiochus IV provokes the Maccabean revolt.
- The successors
- Alexander dies at thirty-two and his generals carve up the empire. Judea sits on the border between the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria, and is fought over by both for a century and a half, which is the ordinary condition of the corridor.
- Hellenism
- Not just conquest but a culture: the gymnasium, the theatre, Greek names, Greek dress, Greek as the language of anyone with ambitions. Some Jews embraced it, some resisted it, and the argument between them is the real subject of the Maccabean books. In Alexandria the Hebrew scriptures are translated into Greek, producing the Septuagint, which is the Bible most New Testament writers quote.
- The crisis
- Antiochus IV bans the practice of Judaism, plunders the temple, and sets up a pagan altar in it in 167 BC. The revolt under the Maccabees wins, the temple is rededicated in 164 BC, which is the origin of Hanukkah, and Judea has about eighty years of independence under the Hasmoneans before Rome arrives.
- Further afield
- Rome fights Carthage three times and ends up master of the Mediterranean. Euclid writes the Elements and Archimedes does his work at Syracuse. In China the Qin unify the country in 221 BC and the Han follow, opening what becomes the Silk Road.