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.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Maccabees 7:11
Deuterocanon
9 When he was at the last gasp, he said, “You, miscreant, release us out of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us who have died for his laws up to an everlasting renewal of life.” 10 After him, the third was made a victim of their mocking. When he was required, he quickly put out his tongue, and stretched out his hands courageously, 11 and nobly said, “I got these from heaven. For his laws’ sake I treat these with contempt. From him, I hope to receive these back again.” 12 As a result, the king himself and those who were with him were astonished at the young man’s soul, for he regarded the pains as nothing.
4 Maccabees 10:5
Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry
1 Now this one endured this praiseworthy death. The third was brought along, and exhorted by many to taste and save his life. 2 But he cried out and said, “Don’t you know that the father of those who are dead is my father also, and that the same mother bore me, and that I was brought up in the same way? 3 I don’t renounce the noble relationship of my kindred. 5 But they, highly incensed at his boldness of speech, dislocated his hands and feet with racking engines, and wrenching them from their sockets, dismembered him. 6 They dragged around his fingers, his arms, his legs, and his ankles. 7 Not being able by any means to strangle him, they tore off his skin, together with the extreme tips of his fingers, 8 and then dragged him to the wheel, around which his vertebral joints were loosened, and he saw his own flesh torn to shreds, and streams of blood flowing from his entrails. 9 When about to die, he said, 10 “We, O accursed tyrant, suffer this for the sake of Divine education and virtue. 11 But you, for your impiety and blood shedding, will endure unceasing torments.” 12 Thus having died worthily of his kindred, they dragged forward the fourth, saying,
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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.
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