4 Maccabees, Chapter 6

¹When Eleazar had in this manner answered the exhortations of the tyrant, the spearbearers came up, and rudely haled Eleazar to the instruments of torture. ²And first, they stripped the old man, adorned as he was with the comeliness of piety. ³Then tying back his arms and hands, they disdainfully used him with stripes; ⁴a herald opposite crying out, Obey the commands of the king. ⁵But Eleazar, the high-minded and truly noble, as one tortured in a dream, regarded it not at all. ⁶But raising his eyes on high to heaven, the old man's flesh was stripped off by the scourges, and his blood streamed down, and his sides were pierced through. ⁷And falling upon the ground, from his body having no power to support the pains, he yet kept his reasoning upright and unbending. ⁸Then one of the harsh spearbearers leaped upon his belly as he was falling, to force him upright.

⁹But he endured the pains, and despised the cruelty, and persevered through the indignities; ¹⁰and like a noble athlete, the old man, when struck, vanquished his torturers. ¹¹His countenance sweating, and he panting for breath, he was admired by the very torturers for his courage. ¹²Wherefore, partly in pity for his old age, ¹³partly from the sympathy of acquaintance, and partly in admiration of his endurance, some of the attendants of the king said, ¹⁴Why do you unreasonably destroy yourself, O Eleazar, with these miseries? ¹⁵We will bring you some meat cooked by yourself, and do you save yourself by pretending that you have eaten swine's flesh. ¹⁶And Eleazar, as though the advice more painfully tortured him, cried out,

¹⁷Let not us who are children of Abraham be so evil advised as by giving way to make use of an unbecoming pretence; ¹⁸for it were irrational, if having lived up to old age in all truth, and having scrupulously guarded our character for it, we should now turn back, ¹⁹and ourselves should become a pattern of impiety to the young, as being an example of pollution eating. ²⁰It would be disgraceful if we should live on some short time, and that scorned by all men for cowardice, ²¹and be condemned by the tyrant for unmanliness, by not contending to the death for our divine law. ²²Wherefore do you, O children of Abraham, die nobly for your religion. ²³Ye spearbearers of the tyrant, why do ye linger? ²⁴Beholding him so high-minded against misery, and not changing at their pity, they led him to the fire:

²⁵then with their wickedly-contrived instruments they burnt him on the fire, and poured stinking fluids down into his nostrils. ²⁶And he being at length burnt down to the bones, and about to expire, raised his eyes God-ward, and said, ²⁷Thou knowest, O God, that when I might have been saved, I am slain for the sake of the law by tortures of fire. ²⁸Be merciful to thy people, and be satisfied with the punishment of me on their account. ²⁹Let my blood be a purification for them, and take my life in recompense for theirs. ³⁰Thus speaking, the holy man departed, noble in his torments, and even to the agonies of death resisted in his reasoning for the sake of the law. ³¹Confessedly, therefore, religious reasoning is master of the passions. ³²For had the passions been superior to reasoning, I would have given them the witness of this mastery.

³³But now, since reasoning conquered the passions, we befittingly award it the authority of first place. ³⁴And it is but fair that we should allow, that the power belongs to reasoning, since it masters external miseries. ³⁵Ridiculous would it be were it not so; and I prove that reasoning has not only mastered pains, but that it is also superior to the pleasures, and withstands them.