“... This leads us to the comparison between the martyr mother and Noah's ark itself. [...] Thus, the author of 4 Maccabees dares to point out the correspondence between the mother enduring the sight of her seven sons being tortured to death, which is figuratively understood as an overwhelming "flood of emotions," and Noah's ark withstanding the stormy waters of the deluge. [...] The interest of 4 Maccabees in those characters is almost self-explanatory: Abraham and Isaac as well as Daniel and the men in the fiery furnace serve as paradigms of the willingness to sacrifice one's own life or that of one's children in obedience to the divine will. This may be inferred from the stories in Gen 22 and the Book of Daniel themselves. By contrast, the reference to the ark of Noah seems rather odd. Granted that the comparison with the mother of the young martyrs confirms the overall proposition of 4 Maccabees and perhaps even illustrates the assertion that she is stronger than men by comparing her to the ark as an object, there still remain several questions. How does the author arrive at this comparison? Apparently, the perception of the ark and the deluge as expressed in this passage can hardly be derived from the well known story of the Flood and its righteous survivor as reported in the Book of Genesis. If so, where could it come from? Is there any evidence of a similar perception of the Flood story in ancient literature, be it Jewish or early Christian or even Greco-Roman? Or should this passage rather be considered an innovation by the author of 4 Maccabees himself? ...”