Introduction to 4 Maccabees
On Subject Matter
The book of 4 Maccabees is renowned for its storyline of the supposedly factual account of the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons, preceded first by the tortuous slaying of the aged priest, Eleazar. The deaths of these nine Jews are recounted for the purpose of demonstrating that reason is sovereign over the passions. The author is a philosopher and is intent upon calling his readers to reign sovereign over their emotions and not give in to the sensual appeals of the Hellenistic corruption occurring all around them. The standard for reason is the Law. Based upon his writing in this work, the author would be classified by today's terminology as a dichotomist. He sees man as consisting of body and soul. He makes no distinction between soul and spirit and the entire work says nothing about the need for regeneration, but appears to be a call for the mind to seek (by means of willpower) to subdue and/or transform the passions of the inner person.
The chart below (Figure 1A) is an attempt to graphically portray the thinking of the author as he presents his argument (primarily in chapter 2). As the chart reveals, the mind holds the apex of position. The ovals near the bottom of the chart reflect the dual aspect of man's nature. Between this dual aspect of man's nature and his mind, is the seat of passions. It is almost as if the passions exist outside of the man as a force to be controlled, though, indeed, they do not. These passions appeal to the baser part of man's being, but the author is explicit in saying that these passions must be subjugated to the intellect and in this way will keep these impulses in check. For example, a passion involving pleasure potentially yields joy (at least temporally). Negatively, a passion involving fear potentially yields pain.
In his own words, he says,
1:22 Before pleasure comes desire, and after pleasure comes joy.
1:23 Before pain comes fear and after pain comes sorrow.
The body has its own unique passions as does the soul (cf. the bullet points of the lower part of the chart). All of these cannot be left unchecked. It is the mind which holds these in check and the mind finds its standard from the Law. The author likens reason to a gardener who prunes, waters, and generally domesticates the wild undergrowth seeking to sprout uncontrollably (cf. 1:29). For example, Torah forbids certain foods, but the body craves it. It is reason that holds mastery over these appetites and thereby enables the individual to abstain.
The above contours will enable the reader of 4 Maccabees to more readily follow the discourse and narrative segments of the book. This also prepares the way to better appreciate the literary divisions of the work. The divisions are fairly simple. There are two main segments followed by a prologue. The macro-structure of the book can be outlined as follows:
- 1:1-12 Prologue
- 1:13-3:18 The Supremacy of Reason
- 3:19-18:24 The Martyrdom Storyline
On Background
The author of 4 Maccabees assumes the reader shares a knowledge of Jewish history especially as it is recorded in 1 and 2 Maccabees. For instance, when the author begins recounting the story of the martyrdom of Eleazar, he is assuming that the reader is familiar with the apocryphal background of 2 Maccabees 6:18-31. Likewise, when he recounts the story of the martyrdom of the mother and the seven sons, he is greatly amplifying 2 Maccabees chapter 7. For convenience sake, these two passages are excerpted here.
2 Maccabees 6:18-311
6:18-20
Eleazar, one of the scribes in high position, a man now advanced in age and of noble presence, was being forced to open his mouth to eat swine's flesh. / But he, welcoming death with honor rather than life with pollution, went up to the the rack of his own accord, spitting out the flesh, / as men ought to do who have the courage to refuse things that it is not right to taste, even for the natural love of life.
6:21-22
Those who were in charge of that unlawful sacrifice took the man aside, because of their long acquaintance with him, and privately urged him to bring meat of his own providing, proper for him to use, and pretend that he was eating the flesh of the sacrificial meal which had been commanded by the king, / so that by doing this he might be saved from death, and be treated kindly on account of his old friendship with them.
6:23
But making a high resolve, worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and the gray hairs which he had reached with distinction and his excellent life even from childhood, and moreover according to the holy God-given law, he declared himself quickly, telling them to send him to Hades.
6:24-28
"Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life," he said, "lest many of the young should suppose that Eleazar in his ninetieth year has gone over to an alien religion, / and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they should be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old age. / For even if for the present I should avoid the punishment of men, yet whether I live or die I shall not escape the hands of the Almighty. / Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age / and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws." When he had said this, he went at once to the rack.
6:29-31
And those who a little before had acted toward him with good will now changed to ill will, because the words he had uttered were in their opinion sheer madness. / When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned aloud and said: "It is clear to the Lord in his holy knowledge that, though I might have been saved from death, I am enduring terrible sufferings in my body under this beating, but in my soul I am glad to suffer these things because I fear him." / So in this way he died, leaving in his death an example of nobility and a memorial of courage, not only to the young but to the great body of his nation.
2 Maccabees 72
7:1-2
It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh. / One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers."
7:3-6
The king fell into a rage, and gave orders that pans and caldrons be heated. / These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. / When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying, / "The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song which bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, `And he will have compassion on his servants.'"
7:7-9
After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. They tore off the skin of his head with the hair, and asked him, "Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb by limb?" / He replied in the language of his fathers, and said to them, "No." Therefore he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done. / And when he was at his last breath, he said, "You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws."3
7:10-14
After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands, / and said nobly, "I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again." / As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man's spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing. / When he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way. / And when he was near death, he said, "One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!"
7:15-17
Next they brought forward the fifth and maltreated him. / But he looked at the king, and said, "Because you have authority among men, mortal though you are, you do what you please. But do not think that God has forsaken our people. / Keep on, and see how his mighty power will torture you and your descendants!"
7:18-19
After him they brought forward the sixth. And when he was about to die, he said, "Do not deceive yourself in vain. For we are suffering these things on our own account, because of our sins against our own God. Therefore astounding things have happened. / But do not think that you will go unpunished for having tried to fight against God!"
7:20-23
The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. / She encouraged each of them in the language of their fathers. Filled with a noble spirit, she fired her woman's reasoning with a man's courage, and said to them, / "I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. / Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws."
7:24-25
Antiochus felt that he was being treated with contempt, and he was suspicious of her reproachful tone. The youngest brother being still alive, Antiochus not only appealed to him in words, but promised with oaths that he would make him rich and enviable if he would turn from the ways of his fathers, and that he would take him for his friend and entrust him with public affairs. / Since the young man would not listen to him at all, the king called the mother to him and urged her to advise the youth to save himself.
7:26-29
After much urging on his part, she undertook to persuade her son. / But, leaning close to him, she spoke in their native tongue as follows, deriding the cruel tyrant: "My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in my womb, and nursed you for three years, and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your life, and have taken care of you. / I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also mankind comes into being. / Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God's mercy I may get you back again with your brothers."
7:30-33
While she was still speaking, the young man said, "What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king's command, but I obey the command of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses. / But you, who have contrived all sorts of evil against the Hebrews, will certainly not escape the hands of God. / For we are suffering because of our own sins. / And if our living Lord is angry for a little while, to rebuke and discipline us, he will again be reconciled with his own servants.
7:34-38
But you, unholy wretch, you most defiled of all men, do not be elated in vain and puffed up by uncertain hopes, when you raise your hand against the children of heaven. / You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty, all-seeing God. / For our brothers after enduring a brief suffering have drunk of everflowing life under God's covenant; but you, by the judgment of God, will receive just punishment for your arrogance. / I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the laws of our fathers, appealing to God to show mercy soon to our nation and by afflictions and plagues to make you confess that he alone is God, / and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty which has justly fallen on our whole nation."
7:39-41
The king fell into a rage, and handled him worse than the others, being exasperated at his scorn. / So he died in his integrity, putting his whole trust in the Lord. / Last of all, the mother died, after her sons.
Notes
1The translation is taken from Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger, eds., "The Second Book of Maccabees," in The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha (New York: Oxfor University Press, 1977): 274-75.
2Ibid., p. 275-77.
3It will be noted in the above excerpts that the various references to the resurrection of the body are not picked up and echoed in 4 Maccabees. This leads many authors to question whether the author believed in a physical resurrection of the body. Helyer challenges such a conclusion (Cf. Larry R. Helyer, Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002]: 406). He recounts a similar argument from silence regarding the Qumran community. Prior to the recent discoveries, scholars had concluded that the Qumran community did not believe in the resurrection because no discoveries had been made of explicit reference to such. These conclusions have changed since the Judean Desert discoveries. Helyer further notes that Paul does not always reference the resurrection of the bodies in his biblical correspondence, though it is unquestionable that he embraced that doctrine.
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