“... The story of the martyrdoms, during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, of an elderly Jewish scribe (γραμματεύς—2 Macc 6:18) or priest and lawyer (ἱερεύς, νομικός—4 Macc 5:4) named Eleazar and of seven brothers and their mother is told in 2 Macc 6:18–7:42, and in a considerably expanded version, in 4 Macc 5–18. Antiochus and his officials are determined to make the Jews “forsake their ancestral laws” (2 Macc 6:1), to force them “to renounce Judaism by tasting defiling foods” (4 Macc 4:26), to compel them “to taste pork and food sacrificed to idols” (4 Macc 5:2), and thereby to signal their willingness “to change over to Greek customs” (2 Macc 6:9). Antiochus orders that the most barbarous forms of torture should be inflicted upon the eight males, beginning with Eleazar, in his attempt to make them yield. When they do not, but instead they defy him boldly, he has them put to death. According to the 4 Maccabees version, the mother of the seven brothers is the last one of the group still alive, and she throws herself into the fire “so that no one might touch her body” (4 Macc 17:1). [...] 2 Macc 7:41 reports simply that “[l]ast of all, the mother died, after her sons,” without offering any details as to the circumstances of her death. ...”