4 Maccabees 5

1So then, when the tyrant Antiochus had taken his seat with his council on a certain high place, and their fully armed troops were standing around on every side,

2He ordered the guards to drag away each one of the Hebrews and force them to taste pork and meat sacrificed to idols;

3But if any should be unwilling to eat defiling food, let them be broken on the wheel and put to death.

4But when many had been seized, one man, first from the flock, a Hebrew named Eleazar, a priest by birth, trained in the law in knowledge, advanced in age, and known to many around the tyrant because of his age, opened his mouth.

5And when Antiochus saw him, he said,

6Before I begin the tortures against you, old man, I would advise you of this, so that by tasting the pork you might save yourself. For I respect your age and your gray hair, though after having had it for so long a time, you do not seem to me to philosophize by practicing the religion of the Jews.

7For why do you loathe the eating of the flesh of this animal, though nature has graciously made it most excellent?

8For it is foolish not to enjoy the pleasant things that are without reproach, and unjust to turn away from the gifts of nature.

9But you seem to me to be acting even more foolishly,

10If, while vainly boasting about the truth, you still despise even me at the cost of your own punishment, will you not wake up from your foolish philosophy?

11and you will scatter the nonsense of your reasonings, and, taking up a mind worthy of your age, you will philosophize about the truth of what is beneficial,

12and by bowing down to my humane persuasion, you will have pity on your own old age.

13For consider this also: even if there is some overseeing power of this religion, it would pardon you for the lawlessness done under compulsion in all these things.

14When the tyrant was urging him in this way toward the lawless eating of flesh, Eleazar asked to speak.

15And having taken the right to speak, he began to address the assembly as follows:

16But we, Antiochus, being persuaded by a divine law, order our lives by it, and we consider no compulsion to be stronger than obedience to our law.

17Therefore, indeed, we consider it right in no way to break the law.

18And yet, even if our law were not truly divine, as you suppose, though we think it to be divine, even so you would have no right to nullify our honor in matters of piety.

19So do not suppose this to be a small sin, if we were to eat polluted food.

20For to break the law in small matters and in great matters is equivalent.

21For through either one, the law takes equal pride.

22But you mock our philosophy, as though we did not live in it with blessedness.

23For it teaches us self-control, so that we may master all pleasures and desires, and to practice courage, so that we may willingly endure every pain;

24And it trains in righteousness, so that one may be fair in all matters of conduct, and it teaches piety, so that one may worship only the God who truly exists with due majesty.

25Therefore we do not eat defiling food; for because we believe that the law has been established by God, we know that the Creator of the world, in giving the law, also sympathizes with our nature.

26He permitted us to eat the things suited to our souls, but he forbade us to eat flesh that is opposed to them.

27But tyrannically you are not only compelling us to break the law, but also to eat, so that you may further mock us with this most hateful defilement by food.

28But you will not laugh this laugh at me.

29nor will I disregard the sacred oaths of the fathers to keep the law,

30You will not even gouge out my eyes and melt my inward parts.

31I am not so old and manly that, for the sake of godliness, my reason should not be youthful.

32For this, prepare the wheels, and blow the fire even more fiercely.

33I will not pity my own old age so much that I would, by my own act, abolish the ancestral law.

34I will not deny you, O law-trained discipline, nor will I spare you, beloved self-control.

35Nor will I disgrace you, O philosophical reason, nor will I renounce you, honored priesthood and knowledge of the law.

36Nor will you defile my mouth, made venerable by old age, nor the years of a law-abiding life.

37My fathers will welcome me as a champion, since I did not fear your constraints, even unto death.

38For you may indeed tyrannize over the ungodly, but over my reasonings concerning godliness you will rule neither by words nor by deeds.