Brenton's Septuagint · Under the Greeks
4 Maccabees 9
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1Why delayest thou, O tyrant? for we are readier to than to transgress the injunctions of our fathers. 2And we should be disgracing our fathers if we did not , and take knowledge for our guide. 3O tyrant, counsellor of law-breaking, do not, hating us as thou dost, us more than we ourselves. 4For we account your of us on the terms of unlawful escape to be worse than . 5And you think to scare us, by threatening us with by tortures, as though thou hadst learned nothing by the of . 6But if aged men of the have in the cause of religion after enduring torture, more rightly should we younger men , scorning your cruel tortures, which our aged instructor overcame. 7Make the attempt, then, O tyrant; and if thou puttest us to for our religion, think not that thou harmest us by torturing us. 8For we through this ill-treatment and shall bear off the rewards of virtue. 9But thou, for and despotic slaughter of us, shalt, from the Divine , torture by . 10When they had thus spoken, the tyrant was not only exasperated against them as being refractory, but enraged with them as being ungrateful. 11So that, at his bidding, the torturers brought forth the eldest of them, and tearing through his tunic, bound his hands and arms on each side with thongs. 12And when they had laboured hard without effect in scourging him, they hurled him upon the wheel. 13And the noble youth, extended upon this, became dislocated. 14And with every member disjointed, he exclaimed in expostulation, 15O most tyrant, and enemy of justice, and cruel-hearted, I am no , nor sacrilegious man, whom thou thus ill-usest; but a defender of the Divine law. 16And when the spearmen said, Consent to eat, that you may be released from your tortures,— 17he answered, Not so powerful, O ministers, is your wheel, as to stifle my reasoning; cut my limbs, and burn my , and twist my joints. 18For through all my torments I will convince you that the children of the are alone unconquered in behalf of virtue. 19While he was saying this, they heaped up fuel, and setting to it, strained him upon the wheel still more. 20And the wheel was defiled all over with , and the hot were quenched by the droppings of gore, and pieces of were scattered about the axles of the machine. 21And although the framework of his bones was now destroyed, the high-minded and Abrahamic youth did not groan. 22But, as though transformed by into immortality, he nobly the rackings, saying, 23Imitate me, O brethren, nor ever your station, nor abjure my brotherhood in courage: fight the and honourable fight of religion; 24by which means our and paternal Providence, becoming merciful to the nation, will punish the pestilent tyrant. 25And saying this, the revered youth abruptly closed his life. 26And when all admired his courageous , the spearmen brought forward him who was second in point of age, and having put on iron hands, bound him with pointed hooks to the catapelt. 27And when, on enquiring whether he would eat before he was tortured, they heard his noble sentiment, 28after they with the iron hands had violently dragged all from the neck to the chin, the panther-like tore off the very skin of his head: but he, bearing with firmness this misery, said, 29How sweet is every form of for the religion of our fathers! and he said to the tyrant, 30Thinkest thou not, most cruel of all tyrants, that thou art now tortured more than I, finding thy overweening conception of tyranny conquered by our in behalf of our religion? 31For I lighten my suffering by the pleasures which are connected with virtue. 32But thou art tortured with threatenings for impiety; and thou shalt not escape, most corrupt tyrant, the of Divine .
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.