Texts in Conversation
4 Maccabees praises a mother who loses seven sons, saying she is greater than the moon and stars and standing with them in heaven. In Matthew, Jesus uses similar language to describe the faithful shining like the sun, following a similar tradition.
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4 Maccabees 17:5
Pseudepigrapha
1 Some of the guards said that when she also was about to be seized and put to death she threw herself into the flames so that no one might touch her body. 2 O mother, who with your seven sons nullified the violence of the tyrant, frustrated his evil designs, and showed the courage of your faith! 3 Nobly set like a roof on the pillars of your sons, you held firm and unswerving against the earthquake of the tortures. 4 Take courage, therefore, O holy-minded mother, maintaining firm an enduring hope in God. 5 The moon in heaven, with the stars, does not stand so august as you, who, after lighting the way of your star-like seven sons to piety, stand in honor before God and are firmly set in heaven with them. 6 For your children were true descendants of father Abraham.
Date: 50-100 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Matthew 13:43
New Testament
36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him saying, “Explain to us the parable of the darnel in the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world and the good seed are the people of the kingdom. The poisonous weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 As the poisonous weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers. 42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The one who has ears had better listen!
Date: 70-90 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Notes and References
"... [the Similitudes of Enoch] does not explicitly identify angels and stars, instead claims that the righteous are radiant in heaven; as will be evident from being radiant and angelic is directly linked to the transformation of Moses at Sinai where Moses' face is described as being "radiant" after his meeting with God; other passages that describe the righteous dead as 'radiant', 'shining' or 'wearing light': Daniel 12:3; 4 Maccabees 17:5; 1 Enoch 39:7, 104:2; 2 Enoch 42:5, 65:10, 66:7 (J); 1 Baruch 4:30, 5:1-2; 2 Baruch 51:3, 4 Ezra 7:97. The description of the righteous dead as part of 'choirs' in the heavens in 3 Baruch 10:5 is also an astral designation, for the stars are described as a 'choir' in Euripides Electra 467; Plato, Phaedr. 247a7, Tim. 40c3, Epin. 982e4; Maximus of Tyre 16, 6d; Sibylline Oracles 8,450; Philo, Vita Mos. 2.239; compare 1 Clement 20:3; Ignatius Ephesians 19.2; and in Ignatius Ephesians 4.2 and Romans 2.2 the Church is compared to a choir ..."
Ricklefs, Norman
An Angelic Community: The Significance of Beliefs about Angels in the First Four Centuries of Christianity
(p. 57) Macquarie University, 2002
* 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.
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