“... The author, following the material in 2 Macc 6:12–23, provides Eleazar with a brief respite from his sufferings to allow another group of people to suggest a way out from the impasse in which Antiochus and Eleazar find themselves. He need not destroy himself “irrationally” (ἀλoγίστως, 6:14), for they have a way to satisfy all parties, so they think. [...] The exact nature of the ruse here is open to some debate. 2 Macc 6:21–22 is quite specific: Eleazar is invited to fetch some meat that he could eat lawfully (preparing it himself would guarantee to his own conscience at least that there was nothing defiling about it) there in the presence of the king and the onlookers, pretending that it was in fact the sacrificial pork. Here it is possible that the courtiers are offering some other cooked meat beside the pork, but the articles introducing ἡψημέvωv βρωμάτωv and ὑείωv suggest that this meat is the previously identified objectionable food, i.e., the pork. But, they suggest, Eleazar could go through the motions of putting it in his mouth, chewing it, and swallowing it, much as parents will do with baby food. Thus he would indeed “pretend to eat” the pork, not pretend that the meat he was eating was pork. ...”