7. Septuagint, 4 Maccabees, 1.23, 5.10, 5.12-5.13, 6.6, 6.14, 6.25, 8.5, 8.10, 8.13-8.16, 8.19, 9.12-9.14, 9.19-9.20, 10.5-10.8, 10.13, 10.17, 11.9-11.10, 11.18-11.19, 12.3, 13.19, 14.13, 16.5-16.11 Tagged with subjects: •fear, empathy and Found in books: Mermelstein (2021) 53, 54, 55, 56 | 1.23. Fear precedes pain and sorrow comes after. 5.10. It seems to me that you will do something even more senseless if, by holding a vain opinion concerning the truth, you continue to despise me to your own hurt. 5.12. and have compassion on your old age by honoring my humane advice? 5.13. For consider this, that if there is some power watching over this religion of yours, it will excuse you from any transgression that arises out of compulsion." 6.6. yet while the old man's eyes were raised to heaven, his flesh was being torn by scourges, his blood flowing, and his sides were being cut to pieces. 6.14. Eleazar, why are you so irrationally destroying yourself through these evil things? 6.25. There they burned him with maliciously contrived instruments, threw him down, and poured stinking liquids into his nostrils. 8.5. Young men, I admire each and every one of you in a kindly manner, and greatly respect the beauty and the number of such brothers. Not only do I advise you not to display the same madness as that of the old man who has just been tortured, but I also exhort you to yield to me and enjoy my friendship. 8.10. Therefore take pity on yourselves. Even I, your enemy, have compassion for your youth and handsome appearance. 8.13. And when the guards had placed before them wheels and joint-dislocators, rack and hooks and catapults and caldrons, braziers and thumbscrews and iron claws and wedges and bellows, the tyrant resumed speaking: 8.14. Be afraid, young fellows, and whatever justice you revere will be merciful to you when you transgress under compulsion. 8.15. But when they had heard the inducements and saw the dreadful devices, not only were they not afraid, but they also opposed the tyrant with their own philosophy, and by their right reasoning nullified his tyranny. 8.16. Let us consider, on the other hand, what arguments might have been used if some of them had been cowardly and unmanly. Would they not have been these? 8.19. O men and brothers, should we not fear the instruments of torture and consider the threats of torments, and give up this vain opinion and this arrogance that threatens to destroy us? 9.12. When they had worn themselves out beating him with scourges, without accomplishing anything, they placed him upon the wheel. 9.13. When the noble youth was stretched out around this, his limbs were dislocated, 9.14. and though broken in every member he denounced the tyrant, saying, 9.19. While he was saying these things, they spread fire under him, and while fanning the flames they tightened the wheel further. 9.20. The wheel was completely smeared with blood, and the heap of coals was being quenched by the drippings of gore, and pieces of flesh were falling off the axles of the machine. 10.5. Enraged by the man's boldness, they disjointed his hands and feet with their instruments, dismembering him by prying his limbs from their sockets, 10.6. and breaking his fingers and arms and legs and elbows. 10.7. Since they were not able in any way to break his spirit, they abandoned the instruments and scalped him with their fingernails in a Scythian fashion. 10.8. They immediately brought him to the wheel, and while his vertebrae were being dislocated upon it he saw his own flesh torn all around and drops of blood flowing from his entrails. 10.13. As for you, do not give way to the same insanity as your brothers, but obey the king and save yourself. 10.17. When he heard this, the bloodthirsty, murderous, and utterly abominable Antiochus gave orders to cut out his tongue. 11.9. While he was saying these things, the guards bound him and dragged him to the catapult; 11.10. they tied him to it on his knees, and fitting iron clamps on them, they twisted his back around the wedge on the wheel, so that he was completely curled back like a scorpion, and all his members were disjointed. 11.18. He was carefully stretched tight upon it, his back was broken, and he was roasted from underneath. 11.19. To his back they applied sharp spits that had been heated in the fire, and pierced his ribs so that his entrails were burned through. 12.3. You see the result of your brothers' stupidity, for they died in torments because of their disobedience. 13.19. You are not ignorant of the affection of brotherhood, which the divine and all-wise Providence has bequeathed through the fathers to their descendants and which was implanted in the mother's womb. 14.13. Observe how complex is a mother's love for her children, which draws everything toward an emotion felt in her inmost parts. 16.5. Consider this also. If this woman, though a mother, had been fainthearted, she would have mourned over them and perhaps spoken as follows: 16.6. O how wretched am I and many times unhappy! After bearing seven children, I am now the mother of none! 16.7. O seven childbirths all in vain, seven profitless pregcies, fruitless nurturings and wretched nursings! 16.8. In vain, my sons, I endured many birth-pangs for you, and the more grievous anxieties of your upbringing. 16.9. Alas for my children, some unmarried, others married and without offspring. I shall not see your children or have the happiness of being called grandmother. 16.10. Alas, I who had so many and beautiful children am a widow and alone, with many sorrows. 16.11. Nor when I die, shall I have any of my sons to bury me." |
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