Texts in Conversation
In 2 Maccabees, the third of seven brothers holds out his tongue and hands and says he hopes to get them back from God. 4 Maccabees retells his death with his hands and feet torn from their sockets, but leaves out any hope of getting them back.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Maccabees 7:11
Deuterocanon
9 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." 10 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, 11 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." 12 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.
4 Maccabees 10:5
Pseudepigrapha
1 When he too had endured a glorious death, the third was led in, and many repeatedly urged him to save himself by tasting the meat. 2 But he shouted, "Do you not know that the same father begot me as well as those who died, and the same mother bore me, and that I was brought up on the same teachings? 3 I do not renounce the noble kinship that binds me to my brothers." 5 Enraged by the man's boldness, they disjointed his hands and feet with their instruments, dismembering him by prying his limbs from their sockets, 6 and breaking his fingers and arms and legs and elbows. 7 Since they were not able in any way to break his spirit, they abandoned the instruments and scalped him with their fingernails in a Scythian fashion. 8 They immediately brought him to the wheel, and while his vertebrae were being dislocated by this, he saw his own flesh torn all around and drops of blood flowing from his entrails. 9 When he was about to die, he said, 10 "We, most abominable tyrant, are suffering because of our godly training and virtue, 11 but you, because of your impiety and bloodthirstiness, will undergo unceasing torments." 12 When he too had died in a manner worthy of his brothers, they dragged in the fourth, saying,
Search:
Notes and References
“... Comparing these two accounts of the final destiny of the righteous and the wicked, it becomes clear that the main emphasis of the author of 4 Maccabees seems to be the reward in store for the righteous (see the Introduction and Philosophical Remark section). Similarly, it should also be noted that the mother’s two speeches in 2 Maccabees 7 also focuses on the reward in store for the righteous. The most significant change relevant for this study is the systematic modification made to the dialogues, turning the martyrdom account in 2 Maccabees from a bodily resurrection text into an account which has no need for a resurrection since the soul of the righteous and the wicked receives its deserved destiny upon death. Hugh Anderson observes: “His [the author’s] espousal of the Greek doctrine of the immortality of the soul is clear-cut and striking; he consistently omits the passages in his primary source, 2 Maccabees, that testify unreservedly to the Jewish belief in the resurrection of the body (7:9, 11, 14, 22f.).” ...”
Sigvartsen, Jan A.
The Afterlife Views and the Use of the Tanakh in Support of the Resurrection Concept in the Literature of Second Temple Period Judaism: The Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha
(pp. 353-354) Andrews University, 2016
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.