4 Maccabees 2

1And what is surprising if the desires of the soul are nullified in relation to participation in beauty?

2Accordingly, the self-controlled Joseph is praised, because by reason he mastered love of pleasure.

3For while he was still young and in the prime of life for sexual union, he nullified by reason the sting of the passions.

4And reason is seen to prevail not only over the frenzy that drives pleasure, but also over every desire.

5For the law says, then, “You shall not desire your neighbor’s wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

6And yet, when the law tells us not to desire, I could much more persuade you that reason is able to master desires, just as it also masters the passions that hinder righteousness.

7For how is a man who is by habit eating only one kind of food, and is a glutton and a drunkard, retrained, if it is not clear that reason is master of the passions?

8Therefore, even if someone is money-loving, by living under the law he compels his own way of life, lending to those in need without interest, and when the seventh year arrives, canceling the debt.

9And even if someone is stingy, he is restrained by the law through reason, neither gleaning the unharvested crops nor going over the vineyards again. And in other matters as well it is possible to recognize this: that reason is the master over the passions.

10For the law also prevails over affection toward parents, not betraying virtue on account of them;

11and he masters affection for his wife, reproving her because of lawlessness;

12and it masters love for children, punishing them for their wickedness; and it rules over attachment to friends, reproving them for their evil.

13And do not think it strange that reason can prevail even over hostility for the sake of the law,

14nor cutting down the cultivated plants of enemies, but preserving those of foes who have been destroyed, and raising up what has fallen.

15And reason is seen to prevail even over the more violent passions: love of power, empty glory, boastfulness, arrogance, and envy.

16For prudent reason drives away all these vicious passions, just as it also drives away anger; for it is master even over this.

17For although Moses was angered against Dathan and Abiron, he did nothing against them in anger, but with reason he restrained anger.

18For, as I said, prudent reason is able to triumph over the passions, and to redirect some of them, and even to nullify others.

19For why does our all-wise father Jacob blame those around Simeon and Levi for slaughtering the Shechemites en masse, not with reason, saying, “Cursed be their anger”?

20For if reason were not able to master the passions, he would not have spoken in this way.

21For when God constructed man, he implanted both his passions and his dispositions.

22And at that time he also enthroned the holy ruling mind over all things through the senses;

23And to him he gave a law, according to which, by conducting himself as a citizen, he would rule a kingdom that was self-controlled and just and good and courageous.

24How then, someone might say, if reason rules over the passions, does it not also rule over forgetfulness and ignorance?