Brenton's Septuagint · Under the Greeks
4 Maccabees 3
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is.
1The argument is exceedingly ridiculous: for reasoning does not appear to bear sway over its own affections, but over those of the body, 2in such a way as that any one of you may not be able to root out , but reasoning will enable you to avoid being enslaved to it. 3One may not be able to root out from the , but it is possible to withstand . 4Any one of you may not be able to eradicate malice, but reasoning has force to work with you to prevent your yielding to malice. 5For reasoning is not an eradicator, but an antagonist of the passions. 6And this may be more clearly comprehended from the thirst of King . 7For after had been attacking the the whole day, he with the soldiers of his nation slew many of them; 8then when evening came, sweating and very weary, he came to the royal tent, about which the entire host of our ancestors was encamped. 9Now all the rest of them were at supper; 10but the king, being very much athirst, although he had numerous springs, could not by their means quench his thirst; 11but a certain irrational for the water in camp grew stronger and fiercer upon him, and consumed him with languish. 12Wherefore his body-guards being troubled at this of the king, two valiant young soldiers, reverencing the of the king, put on their panoplies, and taking a pitcher, got over the ramparts of the : 13and unperceived by the guardians of the , they went throughout the whole camp of in quest. 14And having boldly discovered the fountain, they filled out of it the draught for the king. 15But he, though parched up with thirst, reasoned that a draught reputed of equal value to , would be terribly dangerous to his . 16Wherefore, setting up reasoning in opposition to his , he poured out the draught to . 17For the temperate has to conquer the pressure of the passions, and to quench the fires of excitement, 18and to wrestle down the pains of the body, however excessive; and, through the excellency of reasoning, to abominate all the assaults of the passions. 19But the occasion now invites us to give an illustration of temperate reasoning from history. 20For at a time when our fathers were in possession of undisturbed peace through to , and were prosperous, so that , the king of , both assigned them money for divine , and accepted their form of government, 21then certain persons, bringing in new things contrary to the general unanimity, in various ways fell into calamities.
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.