Brenton's Septuagint · Under the Greeks
4 Maccabees 14
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1And more than this, they even urged them on to this ill-treatment; so that they not only despised pains themselves, but they even got the better of their affections of brotherly love. 2O reasonings more royal than a king, and freer than freemen! 3Sacred and harmonious concert of the seven brethren as concerning piety! 4None of the seven youths turned cowardly, or shrank back from . 5But all of them, as though running the road to immortality, hastened on to through tortures. 6For as hands and feet are moved sympathetically with the directions of the , so those youths agreed unto for religion's sake, as through the immortal of religion. 7O seven of harmonious brethren! for as the seven days of creation, about religion, 8so the youths, circling around the number seven, annulled the fear of torments. 9We now shudder at the recital of the affliction of those young men; but they not only beheld, and not only heard the immediate execution of the threat, but undergoing it, persevered; and that through the pains of . 10And what could be more painful? for the of , being sharp and quick, speedily dissolved their bodies. 11And think it not wonderful that reasoning bore those men in their torments, when even a woman's despised more manifold pains. 12For the mother of those seven youths the rackings of each of her children. 13And consider how comprehensive is the love of , which draws every one to sympathy of affection, 14where irrational animals possess a similar sympathy and love for their with men. 15The tame birds frequenting the roofs of our houses, defend their fledglings. 16Others build their nests, and hatch their young, in the tops of mountains and in the precipices of valleys, and the holes and tops of trees, and keep off the intruder. 17And if not able to do this, they fly circling round them in agony of affection, calling out in their own note, and their in whatever manner they are able. 18But why should we point attention to the sympathy toward children shewn by irrational animals? 19The very bees, at the season of honey-making, attack all who approach; and pierce with their sting, as with a , those who draw near their hive, and repel them even unto . 20But sympathy with her children did not turn aside the mother of the young men, who had a kindred with that of .
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.