4 Maccabees, Hebrews 11, Acts 22, Revelation 12.
“But why the Maccabees?” asked St. Gregory Nazianzen in an Oration given during a celebration of the martyrs (Oration 15). He went on to answer an assumption in his own day that martyrs can only be called such if they die for Christ, and so the Maccabees who came to a tragic end in the infamous reign of Antiochus Epiphanes IV (175 BC to 164 BC) could not be numbered with that holy host. He begged to differ, saying that the Maccabean martyrs held fast even without the clear Christian assurance that we have. Then he added:
This is a somewhat mystic and arcane thing to say, but at the same time very persuasive, at least for me and for all those who love God: none of those consummated (i.e. those who died for the true God) before the coming of Christ attained their end without faith in Christ (Oration 15. 1).
They were, if you like, Christians unawares, or pre-Christians and in the case of the Maccabees who died for their faith, Christian martyrs unawares. And so, of course, in the Orthodox tradition we speak about the “righteous” of the Old Testament Church, many of whom suffered for the truth, as we are instructed in the long list of faithful in Hebrews 11.
What is interesting about St. Gregory’s celebration of the priest Eleazar, the seven brothers, and their mother (whom we call Solomonia) is that he doesn’t refer to 2 Maccabees, the canonical book which tells their story. This book we have already considered, especially noting the prophetic character of the righteous Solomonia in her discussion of the creation out of nothing, and the coming resurrection, articulated by her even before the time of St. Paul. We saw from the beauty of that book why it is clearly numbered among the Readable books by all Orthodox. However, St. Gregory refers explicitly to another account, 4 Maccabees, written probably in the first century, and not included in the early Septuagint. This book was recognized as part of the Readable collection only by the Georgian Orthodox church, though it is also found in the Appendix to the Greek Bible. But it was beloved by the early Church, and much of its language made an impact upon the acounts of Christian martyrs, many of which took 4 Maccabees as a kind of pattern. It is absolutely clear that St. Gregory cites this book, from his description of it:
These things [about the Maccabean martyrs] will be revealed to the studious and diligent by the book about them, which advances the theory that reason is the absolute master of passions and has the power to incline us in both directions, virtue or vice” (Oration 15.2).
This theme of reason guarding the passions is sounded forth in the first verse of the book, and throughout it: “devout reason is sovereign over the emotions” (4 Maccabees 1:1).
So, though in terms of Holy Tradition, we are at the very margin of the Old Testament canon with 4 Maccabees, the influence of this book on Holy Tradition cannot be underestimated. If we listen to St. Gregory’s advice, this influence should continue to our day, for the book is profitable in instructing us to be steadfast during adversity: “The story of the Maccabees must be held in the same esteem as that of Daniel and the three Hebrew Youths, and of all the Christian martyrs. It provides models for priests, mothers and children, who should imitate the heroes of the story” (Oration 15: 3-4). In it we may not find the deep theology of 2 Maccabees, but we will find beautiful prose (originally written in Greek), careful thought, convincing rhetoric, profound and colorful examples of faith, and strong encouragement to so order our lives that we are not ruled by our passions.
The book comprises 18 chapters, which I urge my listeners or readers to study on their own carefully. In the first, the author explains his purpose: to put forth the supremacy of godly reason (using the Maccabean martyrs as examples). He also speaks of the kinship of reason with wisdom, how godly reason is nurtured by the Law, and the complex situation of human beings who experience the passions associated with pleasure and pain. In the second chapter, we are given examples from Scripture and general life: young Joseph overcame sexual desire by his reason; the glutton and drunk overcome their passions by living in accordance with the Law, as do the one who loves money or the would-be adulterer; Moses overcame his anger, and Jacob stifled his urge for revenge by allowing reason to rule. It is not, however, that the passions are evil in themselves, for God both planted these emotions in human beings, and gave them reason and the Law to help each person “rule a kingdom that is temperate, just, good, and courageous” (2:23).
This insistence on the passions as something created by God, but able to be ruled by godly reason, distances the book from the philosophy of Stoicism, so common in ancient times. In that way of thinking, even good passions are not given such dignity as being called the creation of God. Also unique to our story, and not shared by Stoicism, is the insistence on godly reason as informed by the Scriptures—specifically, the Torah. Reason is not a sufficient human faculty to gain the upper hand, but it must be reason nurtured by God’s word. We may think that this emphasis on the Law is merely a Jewish idea that has been set aside in Christ, but must remember St. Paul’s words that the Law is good, has the purpose of leading us to Christ, and continues to witness to God’s actions and will for His people and the world that He created. Also, we may take the premise of 4 Maccabees, and extend its love of the Torah to appreciate the nurturing and enhancing power of God’s entire Word to help us today in our battle with the passions.
In chapter 3, utter realism takes over, as the author admits that passions cannot be eradicated or uprooted, but can be ruled. The example is given of David’s thirst and his refusal to drink after his servants have risked their lives by bringing him water from a spring deep in enemy territory. (Though today, through the work of the Holy Spirit, even intemperate desires may be removed from our lives, we know that this is not always the case: still, we are called to be faithful, and not allow the passions to rule.) At this point the book moves into a historical narrative concerning the plight of the Jewish people after the initial peace of the early Seleucid period. This lesson runs through chapter 4, spanning decades as we hear first of King Seleucus Nicanor, then of Apollonius, the governor of the holy land who took correction from God, and finally of Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who wreaked havoc in Judea and Jerusalem, so that many Jewish people turned away from the Torah, for fear of persecution. Epiphanes’ atrocities, which we have seen already in 2 Maccabees, are here on display yet again, as we hear of young men violating the Torah in order to compete in the gymnasium, women and newly circumcised infants massacred, and pious Jews tortured for refusing to renounce their faith.
It is in chapter 5 that the author’s true love emerges—the example of those who remained faithful. Chapter 5 through 7 focus on the priest Eleazar, chapters 8 through 13 on the martyrdom of the seven brothers, and chapter 14 through the beginning of 17 on their mother. (And so reason is seen to be a possible sovereign among the very old, the young, and women). Chapter 17 sums up what we have learned from these martyrs, and chapter 18 presses the lesson home by comparing their sacrifice to the examples of Abel, Isaac, Phinehas, the Three in the fire, Daniel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel.
Something I find fascinating is that the author contrasts how the martyrs acted and spoke with what they might have thought or said had they not been ruled by godly reason. At 8:15, we hear hypothetical arguments (which will sound familiar to us) about why the young men should give into temptation, including the boys’ youth, the harshness of the punishment, the enticements to pleasure, the possibility that resisting is merely pride, and the presumption that it is God’s duty to forgive sin (14:22). All these things the young men might have thought, but they did not! At 16:5, Solomonia we hear how might have concentrated on her hard childbirths, the previous deaths of her sons, and how she now has no one to even bury her. These hypotheticals set the real narrative in spotlight, showing what more faint-hearted candidates for martyrdom might have thought, and so not carried through resolutely with the test.
So much is said about the virtue of Eleazar, the seven brothers, and Solomonia, that we cannot detail everything. We will take several major points from each section to show why it is that St. Gregory considered these stories so important for training in godly virtue. Eleazar stands as the martyr par excellence, as we might expect, is absolutely resolute, giving careful explanation to the oppressive King for his decisions, and declaring to him, “You may tyrannize the ungodly, but you shall not dominate my religious principles, either by words or through deeds” (5:38). Through Eleazar we see the actual outworking of reason and faithfulness, as well as the kind of firm rhetoric that is appropriate when countering seduction. The “pilot” Eleazar, we hear, “steered the ship of religion over the sea of the emotions, and though buffeted by the stormings of the tyrant and overwhelmed by the mighty waves of tortures, in no way did he turn the rudder of religion until he sailed into the haven of immortal victory” (7:1-2). The eldest brother follows suit, and has the presence of mind to challenge his tormenters even while on the rack, exclaiming that the King is “enemy of heavenly justice,” and calling on his borthers to “imitate me,” by fighting “the sacred and noble battle for religion” (9:15, 23-24). Even the youngest shows boldness, telling how he, with his body, praised God during his life, but that he allow his tongue to be mutilated. As he dies, he calls upon God to be merciful to the Jewish nation (12:16), taking his own death and that of his brothers as a kind of sacrifice on their behalf.
The mother is most particularly engaging. The story depicts her in a way that may remind us of St. Paul, in his defence before the crowds in Jerusalem (Acts 22). In that New Testament story, Paul has likewise been mistreated, and arrested, is given permission to speak to the people by the tribune who is guarding him. There we hear that he speaks to his fellow Jews “in the Hebrew language” (Acts 22:20) just as Solomonia speaks to her youngest son (16:15), when permitted to do so by the king. The king, of course, cannot understand what she says, but her son can! Even we readers do not hear her speech, as we hear Paul’s. But the effect of her words upon her youngest son is wholly successful. The king had thought that she would plead that her son give in, but instead she strengthens his resolve. And sothe young men speaks not only of his own faithfulness, but contrasts it with the wickedness of the king, and the completely different forms of justice that await them both. Her speech, unheard by us readers, is in great contrast with the eloquent words of St. Paul in Acts regarding justice and mercy, which actually bring the crowd to a frenzy, so that the tribune decides that the apostle should be flogged.
Perhaps the writer of 4 Maccabees did not consider it seemly to put Solomonia on public display by disclosing her actual words. But he makes it absolutely clear that this mother, though with most women of her era found normally in a private space, has the wherewithal to thwart the monarch, to encourage her son, and even to go without fear to her own death. And so she is praised in these heart-felt lyrics:
O mother, tried now by more bitter pains than even the birth pangs you suffered for them! O woman, who alone gave birth to such complete devotion!… When you saw the flesh of children burned upon the flesh of other children…you did not shed tears. Neither the melodies of sirens nor the songs of swans attract the attention of their hearers as did the voices of the children in torture calling to their mother…. But devout reason, giving her heart a man’s courage in the very midst of her emotions, strengthened her disregard, for the time, of her parental affection ….O mother of the nation, vindicator of the Law and champion of religion…! O more noble than males in steadfastness, and more courageous than men in endurance! Just as Noah’s ark, carrying the world in the universal flood, stoutly endured the waves, so you, O guardian of the Law, overwhelmed from every side by the flood of your emotions and the violent winds, the torture of your sons, endured nobly and withstood the wintry storms that assail religion (15:16-32).
In this eloquent eulogy, perhaps we Christians glimpse a foreshadowing of the Theotokos whose heart would be pierced by a sword, and who is the Ark and the Guardian of the Church. Certainly the manner of her children’s “completely devoted” deaths was noted by martyrs such as St. Ignatius, and those who wrote the stories concerning mother Sophia with her three martyred daughters: the same description of the tortures, the same heated discussion of the martyrs with their oppressor, the same glory of their steadfastness is described. But it would seem that Solomonia (so-called for her wisdom like Solomon, and her deep nurturing of her children like Solomon’s wisdom books) points forward to that other mother, the Theotokos who became the mother of the beloved disciple and the mother of us all.
Just after Solomonia dies, we hear that she “nullifed the violence of the tyrant” and shines with her sons in the heavens, as “true descendants of father Abraham” (17:2-6). We also are given an enscribed epitaph:
Here lie buried an aged priest and an aged woman and seven sons,
Because of the violent tyrant who wished to destroy the Hebrew way of life.
They vindicated their nation, looking to God, and enduring torture,
Even to death. (17:10)
These nine martyrs of the old covenant serve as not only examples in their own right, but as pointers to the godly and life-giving deaths that were to come throughout the Christian age. It is, of course, only Jesus who gave a full sacrifice for His people, and who showed those who followed Him how to endure “even to death.” These followers, guided by their Anointed Captain, we hear about in John’s Revelation, where we also spy the poignant picture of a celestial mother persecuted by a monster:
They have conquered him [that is, Satan] by the blood of the Lamb
And the word of their testimony [or “martyrdom”],
For they did not cling to life even in the face of death…
And the dragon pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
(Rev 12:11-13)
Reason may be stronger than the passions when it is nurtured by God’s wisdom and written word. But it is not just human reason, however educated, that can give us this kind of courage. Rather, true faithfulness and steadfastness come from God’s own incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Spirit transform even the timid into courageous witnesses.
Edith M. Humphrey 