Brenton's Septuagint · Under the Greeks
4 Maccabees 16
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1If, then, even a woman, and that an aged one, and the mother of seven children, to see her children's torments even unto , confessedly religious reasoning is master even of the passions. 2I have proved, then, that not only men have obtained the mastery of their passions, but also that a woman despised the greatest torments. 3And not so fierce were the lions round Daniel, nor the furnace of burning with most vehement , as that natural love of children burned within her, when she beheld her seven sons tortured. 4But with the reasoning of religion the mother quenched passions so great and powerful. 5For we must consider also this: that, had the woman been faint-hearted, as being their mother, she would have over them; and perhaps might have spoken thus: 6Ah! wretched I, and many times miserable; who having born seven sons, have become the mother of none. 7O seven useless childbirths, and seven profitless periods of labour, and fruitless givings of suck, and miserable nursings at the breast. 8Vainly, for your sakes, O sons, have I many pangs, and the more difficult anxieties of rearing. 9Alas, of my children, some of you unmarried, and some who have married to no profit, I shall not see your children, nor be felicitated as a grandmother. 10Ah, that I who had many and fair children, should be a lone full of sorrows! 11Nor, should I , shall I have a son to bury me. But with such a as this the and mother bewailed none of them. 12Nor did she divert any of them from , nor grieve for them as for . 13But as one with an adamantine , and as one bringing forth again her full number of sons to immortality, she rather with supplications exhorted them to in behalf of religion. 14O woman, soldier of for religion, thou, aged and a female, hast conquered through even a tyrant; and though but weak, hast been found more powerful in deeds and words. 15For when thou wast seized along with thy children, thou stoodest looking upon in torments, and saidst to thy sons in the , 16O sons, noble is the contest; to which you being called as a for the nation, strive zealously for the laws of your country. 17For it were disgraceful that this old man should pains for the sake of , and that you who are younger should be afraid of the tortures. 18Remember that through ye obtained existence, and have enjoyed it. 19And on this account ye ought to bear every affliction because of . 20For whom also was forward to our progenitor, and shuddered not at the sight of his own paternal hand descending down with upon him. 21And Daniel was cast unto the lions; and , and , and , were slung out into a furnace of ; yet they through . 22You, then, having the same towards , be not troubled. 23For it is unreasonable that they who know religion should not stand up against troubles. 24With these arguments, the mother of seven, exhorting each of her sons, over-persuaded them from transgressing the of . 25And they saw this, too, that they who for , live to ; as , and , and , and all the patriarchs.
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.