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In 2 Maccabees, seven brothers and their mother are tortured for refusing to eat forbidden food, saying they are ready to die rather than disobey the Torah. In the Testament of Moses, Taxo and his seven sons make the same vow.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Maccabees 7:2
Deuterocanon
1 It came to pass that seven brothers and their mother were at the king’s command taken and shamefully handled with scourges and cords, to compel them to taste of the abominable swine’s flesh. 2 One of them made himself the spokesman and said, “What would you ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.” 3 The king fell into a rage, and commanded that pans and caldrons be heated. 4 When these were immediately heated, he gave orders to cut out the tongue of him who had been their spokesman, and to scalp him, and to cut off his extremities, with the rest of his brothers and his mother looking on. 5 And when he was utterly maimed, the king gave orders to bring him to the fire, being yet alive, and to fry him in the pan. And as the smoke from the pan spread far, they and their mother also exhorted one another to die nobly, saying this:
Testament of Moses 9:6
Assumption of Moses
Pseudepigrapha, Testaments
Now, therefore, my sons, hear me: for observe and know that neither did the fathers nor their forefathers tempt God, so as to transgress His commands. And you know that this is our strength, and thus we will do. Let us fast for the space of three days and on the fourth let us go into a cave which is in the field, and let us die rather than transgress the commands of the Lord of Lords, the God of our fathers. For if we do this and die, our blood shall be avenged before the Lord.
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Notes and References
“... The Testament of Moses probably was known to both our authors. Both agree with it in regarding the persecution as punishment for the sins of the Hellenizers. Jason shares the idea that the divine vengeance is roused by wholesale martyrdom. The story of the martyrdom of the woman and her seven sons (II 7) may well be an effort to make the disappointing prophesy of Test Moses ix 7 - x 1 prove true after all. ...”
Goldstein, Jonathan A.
I Maccabees: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
(p. 40) Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1976
* 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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