In Machabaeorum laudem

Oration 15. On the Maccabees. 1. What of the Maccabees? For this is the present festival, honored by not many, because their contest was after Christ; but worthy of honor by all, because their endurance was for the ancestral traditions. And those who bore witness before the sufferings of Christ, what would they have done when persecuted after Christ, imitating his death for us? For those who, without such an example, were so great in virtue, would they not have been seen as more noble, contending with the example? And at the same time, this is a mystical and secret teaching, and very persuasive to me at least and to all who love God: that none of those perfected before the coming of Christ attained this without faith in Christ. For the Word was proclaimed openly later in its own times, but was known even earlier to those pure in mind, as is clear from many who were honored before that time. 2. Therefore, they are not to be overlooked because they were before the cross, but are to be praised because they were in accord with the cross, and worthy of honor from words; not that they might receive addition or glory (for what glory does the deed itself not possess?), but that those who praise them may be glorified, and those who hear may emulate the virtue, roused by memory as by a goad to similar deeds.

Who these men are, and whence they come, and from what sort of training and education they set out, so as to advance to such a height of virtue and glory that they are honored with these annual processions and festivals, and that a greater glory concerning them than what is seen is stored up in the souls of all—the book concerning them will make clear to those who are lovers of learning and of labor, a book which philosophizes about reason being master of the passions, and lord of the inclination in both directions, I mean virtue and vice. For it has used not a few other testimonies, and indeed also the contests of these men; but for me it will suffice to say this much. 3. Here is Eleazar, the firstfruits of those who suffered before Christ, just as Stephen is of those after Christ, a man who was a priest and an elder, gray in hair, gray in wisdom; who earlier both sacrificed on behalf of the people and prayed, and now offers himself as the most perfect sacrifice to God, a purification for the whole people, a favorable prelude of contest, and an exhortation both speaking and silent; and he also offers the seven youths, the accomplishments of his own training, a living, holy sacrifice well-pleasing to God, more splendid and more pure than any legal ritual. For the deeds of the children are to be reckoned to the father, which is most lawful and most just.

Noble and great-souled youths were there, noble offshoots of a noble mother, ambitious champions of truth, higher than the times of Antiochus, genuine disciples of the law of Moses, precise guardians of ancestral customs, a number praised among the Hebrews, honored by the mystery of the seventh-day rest, breathing as one, looking to one thing, knowing one path of life—death for God—no less brothers in soul than in body, vying with each other for death (O wonder!), snatching up tortures as if they were treasures, risking their lives for the law that was their teacher, not so much fearing the tortures applied as seeking those still remaining; fearing only this one thing, that the tyrant might give up punishing, and some of them might go away uncrowned, and be separated from their brothers unwillingly, and win the evil victory of having risked suffering nothing. IV. A mother was there, youthful and noble, both loving her children and loving God, her maternal heart torn contrary to nature. For she did not pity her children when they suffered, but agonized lest they not suffer; nor did she long for those who had departed more than she prayed for those left behind to be added; and these were of greater account to her than those who had passed on. For the struggle of the former was uncertain, the end of the latter secure; and she commended the one group already to God, while she took thought how God might receive the others. O courage of soul in a woman's body! O marvelous devotion and greatness of soul! O that sacrifice of Abraham—if it is not too bold to say—and even greater!

For one man brings forward one child eagerly, even if it is his only son, and that from a promise, and the one to whom the promise was made; and what is more, he becomes not only the first of his family but also the first and root of such sacrifices. But she consecrated a whole multitude of children to God, surpassing both mothers and priests, with victims eager for slaughter, with rational whole burnt offerings, with sacrifices hastening. She bared her breasts, reminded them of her nurture, held forth her gray hair, and put forward her old age as a supplication; not seeking safety, but hastening to suffer, and considering delay a danger, not death. She was not bent, nor softened, nor made less bold; not by the stretching of joints, nor by wheels thrust forward, nor by racks, nor by catapults, nor by the points of iron claws, nor by swords being sharpened, nor by boiling cauldrons, nor by fire being kindled, nor by a threatening tyrant, nor by a crowd, nor by an urgent bodyguard, nor by the sight of her children, nor by limbs being torn apart, nor by flesh being carded, nor by streams of blood flowing, nor by youth being consumed, nor by present horrors, nor by expected evils. And what is heaviest for others in such things, the prolongation of danger, was for her the lightest; for she took delight in the spectacle. And indeed she somehow caused a delay in the sufferings, not only by the variety of tortures applied, of all of which, as not one of them, they made no account; but also by the many forms of the persecutor's words, insulting, threatening, coaxing. For what did he not set in motion to obtain what he hoped for?

And indeed, the responses of the children to the tyrant possess such wisdom and nobility together that all the noble deeds of others gathered into one are small compared to their endurance; and their endurance is small compared to their intelligence in speech; and it belongs to the same persons alone both to suffer thus and to philosophize in their responses to the threats of the persecutor and the terrors set before them, which the noble children and the even nobler mother did not yield to any; and she, placing herself above all, and mingling passion with affection, gives herself as a beautiful burial shroud to her children, following after those who went before; and how is this? By willingly advancing into the dangers; and with what kind of funeral orations? For the words of the children to the tyrant are beautiful, and the most beautiful of beautiful things—how could they not be?—with which they arrayed themselves and with which they struck the tyrant; but even more beautiful are the words of the mother, both earlier as exhortations and later as funeral orations. What then are the words of the children? For it is good to recall these also for you, so that you may have a pattern, both of athletic contest and of martyrial speech in such times. Different children had different words, as each was armed by the words of the persecutor, or the order of the dangers, or the ambition of the soul; but to encompass them in outline, they were as follows: "To us, Antiochus, and to all who stand around, there is one king, God, from whom we came and to whom we will return. There is one lawgiver, Moses, whom we will not betray nor insult—no, by the dangers the man underwent for virtue, and the many...

miracles, not even if another Antiochus threatens you more harshly. There is one safety: the keeping of the commandment, and that the law by which we are walled not be broken. There is one glory: to despise all glory in such circumstances. There is one wealth: the things hoped for; and nothing is fearful except to fear something before God. With these reasonings we are drawn up in battle order, and thus we are armed. It is to such young men that my speech is addressed. Sweet indeed is this world, and the ancestral soil, and friends, and relatives, and contemporaries, and this temple—the great and renowned name—and ancestral festivals, and mysteries, and all things by which we seem to differ from others. But these are not sweeter than God, nor than the dangers for the sake of the good; do not think so. For we have another world, far higher and more enduring than the visible one; another fatherland, the heavenly Jerusalem, which no Antiochus will besiege, nor will he expect to capture, for it is strong and impregnable. Kinship is inspiration and those born through virtue. Friends are the prophets and patriarchs, from whom we also have the pattern of piety. Contemporaries are those who today share the danger with us and are of the same age in endurance. As for a temple, the heaven is more magnificent; as for a festival, it is the choral dance of angels; and there is one great and greatest mystery, hidden from the many: God, toward whom even the mysteries here look. "Stop, then, promising us small things, things worth nothing. For we will not be honored by dishonorable things, nor will we gain what is harmful; we will not trade so wretchedly.

Stop threatening, or we will threaten in return, exposing your weakness, and besides that, our own instruments of punishment: we too have fire, with which we punish the persecutors. Do you think your contest is against nations and cities, and against the most cowardly of kings, some of whom will prevail, others perhaps be defeated? For them the danger is not even over such great matters. You are arrayed against the law of God, against divinely engraved tablets, against ancestral customs honored by both word and time, against seven brothers bound together by one soul, who will brand you with seven trophies: to overcome them is no great thing, but to be defeated is utterly shameful. We are of the race and disciples of those whom a pillar of fire and cloud guided, for whom the sea parted, a river stood still, the sun was checked, bread rained down, and the stretching out of hands routed tens of thousands, striking them down through prayers; of those whom beasts could not overcome, fire did not touch, and kings departed, marveling at their nobility. Let us also mention something known to you: we are initiates of Eleazar, whose courage you have recognized. The father has fought first, the sons will fight after; the priest has departed, the victims will follow. You frighten us with many things, but we are prepared for more. What will you do to us, arrogant one, with your threats? What will we suffer? Nothing is stronger than those ready to suffer everything. O executioners, why do you delay? Why do you shrink back? Why do you wait for the gracious command? Where are the swords? Where are the bonds? I seek speed. Let the fire be kindled higher, the beasts more active, the racks more elaborate. Let everything be royal and more costly. I am the firstborn, consecrate me first; I am the last, let the order be changed.

Let someone even from the middle ranks be among the first, so that we may be honored by equality of portion. But do you spare? Do you perhaps expect something even from the opposite side? Again and again we will say the same word: We will not eat defiling food, we will not yield. Sooner will you revere our ways than we yield to yours. The sum of the argument: either devise newer instruments of punishment, or know that the present ones are despised. 7. These things were said to the tyrant. But what they exhorted to one another, what they displayed, how beautiful and sacred, and more pleasant than any other sight or sound to the lovers of God! For my part, I myself am filled with pleasure in remembering, and I am with them in thought as they contend, and I take pride in the narrative. They embraced one another, they clasped one another, it was a festival, as for contests completed. "Let us go, brothers, to the dangers," they cried, "let us go, let us hasten, while the tyrant still boils against us, lest he grow soft and we lose our salvation. A feast is set before us; let us not be left behind. It is good to be brothers dwelling together, and feasting together, and standing shield to shield; but it is better to share danger for virtue. If it were possible, we would have contended even with our bodies for our ancestral ways; this too is a praiseworthy death. But since this is not the time, let us offer up our bodies themselves. For what? Even if I do not die now, shall I not die in any case? Shall I not pay the debt owed to birth? Let us turn necessity into ambition; let us contrive the dissolution; let us make the common our own; let us purchase life by death. Let none of us be a lover of life, nor cowardly. Let the tyrant despair of all others, having encountered us.

To the dangers he himself will assign the order, but we will assign an end to the persecuted. Let us not differ about this in the heat of our zeal. The first will be a path for the others, and the last a seal of the contest. Let this be fixed for all of us alike: to be crowned with our whole household, and that the persecutor take no portion from us, so that he may boast to all of one, inflamed with wickedness. Let us appear as brothers to one another, both in birth and in death; and let all, as one, take the risk, and each in place of all. Eleazar, receive; mother, follow; Jerusalem, bury your own dead magnificently, if anything is left for the tombs. Tell our story, and show it to those after, and to your lovers the pious polyandrion of the one womb. 8. So they, having both said and done these things, and having sharpened one another like the teeth of boars, in order of age and equality of zeal, persevered. Pleasure and wonder to their kinsmen; fear and astonishment to the persecutors, who, having marched against the whole nation, were so defeated by the unanimity of seven brothers contending for piety that they no longer had good hopes concerning the others. The noble mother, truly of that virtue of so many and such men, the great and magnanimous nursling of the law, was for a time mixed with joy and fear, and in the interval between two passions: joy, because of the courage and the things seen; fear, because of the future and the excess of the torments.

like a bird with chicks when a snake or some other predator creeps near, she fluttered around them, chirped, pleaded, and fought alongside them. What did she not say? What did she not do of the things that spur on to victory? She caught the drops of blood, received the torn fragments of limbs, venerated the relics. One she gathered, another she handed over, another she prepared. She cried out to all: "Well done, my children, well done, my brave ones, well done, you who are almost bodiless in bodies, well done, defenders of the Law, of my gray hair, and of the city that raised you, and of the virtue that leads you onward. A little longer, and we have conquered. The torturers are exhausted—this alone I fear. A little longer, and I shall be blessed among mothers, and you blessed among the young. But do you long for your mother? I will not abandon you—this I promise you; I am not so child-hating." 9. When she saw that they had been perfected, and had the certainty from the completion, raising her head very brightly, like some Olympic victor, with lofty spirit, and stretching out her hands, with a loud and clear voice she said: "I thank you, holy Father, and you, teacher of the Law, and you, our father and fellow champion of your children, Eleazar, that you have received the fruit of my labors, and that I have become a mother more sacred than all mothers. I have left nothing for the world; I have given everything to God—my treasure, my hopes for support in old age. How magnificently I have been honored! How surpassingly I have been tended in my old age! I have received my recompense, my children. I saw you contending for virtue; I beheld you all as victors crowned. How I see the torturers as benefactors!

I acknowledge, even to the tyrant, a small debt of gratitude for the order, that he reserved me for last among the dangers, so that after making a spectacle of my offspring first, and after I had contended with each of my children individually, I might then depart with complete safety, with perfect sacrifices. I will not tear my hair, I will not rend my garment, I will not lacerate my flesh with my nails, I will not raise a dirge, I will not summon fellow mourners, I will not shut myself in darkness so that even the air might mourn with me, I will not wait for comforters, I will not set out a mourning meal. For these are the ways of ignoble mothers, who are mothers only of flesh, whose children are lost without any noble tale. But for me, you have not died, dearest of children; you have borne fruit. You have not perished; you have passed on. You have not been withered; you have been solidified together. No beast seized you, no wave overwhelmed you, no robber destroyed you, no disease dissolved you, no war consumed you, nor anything else, small or great, of human ills. I would have mourned, and vehemently, if any of these had befallen you. I would have shown myself then by my tears, as now by not weeping, a lover of my children. Yet even these are small things. Truly I would have wept for you if you had been saved basely, if you had yielded to the tortures, if any of you had been overcome, as now the persecutors have been overcome. But now, there is good repute, joy, glory, dances, and radiance for those left behind. For I pour a libation over you. We shall be ranked with Phinehas, we shall be glorified with Hannah. Only, whereas he was one, you are so many zealots, slayers of fornication, not of bodies' fornication, but having stabbed the fornication of souls. And she had one God-given child, newborn at that; I have consecrated seven men, and these willingly, to God.

Let the priestess also complete my funeral oration, not with lamentation, but with praise for a holy end. You shone brighter than snow, you were curdled whiter than milk, your company was more precious than sapphire stone, both born and given to God. What more? Add me also, O tyrant, to my children, if there is any favor even from enemies, so that your contest may be more august. Would that I had passed through all the tortures, to mingle my own ichor with theirs, and my aged flesh with their flesh. I love even the instruments of punishment for the sake of my children. But if not that, at least let dust mingle with dust, and one tomb receive us. Do not begrudge an equal death to those equal in virtue. Rejoice, O mothers; rejoice, O children. Thus rear those who come from you; thus be reared. We have given you a noble example; contend. 10. So she spoke, and added herself to her children. In what manner? Running to the pyre as to a bridal chamber (for that was her sentence), and not even waiting for those who led her, so that no unclean body might touch her pure and noble body. Thus Eleazar enjoyed his priesthood, initiated and initiating into heavenly things, and sanctifying Israel not by external sprinklings but by his own blood, making his death the final mystery. Thus the youths, not enslaved to pleasures but mastering their passions, purifying their bodies and transferring themselves to the passionless life. Thus the mother enjoyed her many children; thus she adorned herself while they lived, and rested with them when they departed.

Those whom she bore to the world she presented to God, counting her own birth-pangs by their contests, and making the sequence of her childbearing known through their deaths. For from the first of her children to the last, the deeds of martyrdom were displayed, and as in the rising of waves, one after another showed forth virtue, each being more eager to suffer, whetted by the dangers of the one who had preceded, so that the tyrant loved that she was mother of no more; for otherwise he would have departed shamed and defeated. And then he first learned that he was not all-powerful with arms, when he attacked unarmed children, armed only with piety, and more eager to suffer everything than he was prepared to inflict. This is safer and more magnificent than the sacrifice of Jephthah. For it did not make the offering compulsory, as there, through the heat of a vow and the desire for a desperate victory, but it was a voluntary sacred rite, having as its reward only the things hoped for. This is not less honorable than the contests of Daniel, who was given as food to lions and overcame the beasts by the stretching out of his hands. This is not second to the youths in Assyria, whom an angel cooled in the fire, because they did not dissolve their ancestral law nor accept profane and unholy food. This is not inferior in ambition to the later sacrifices for Christ. For those, as I said at the beginning of the discourse, followed the blood of Christ, and God was the guide of such contests, having made so great and so marvelous a contribution for us; but for these, the examples of virtue were neither many nor of such a kind.

All Judea marvelled at their endurance, and as though itself crowned, rejoiced and rose up. For this was a contest, and the greatest of contests that had ever beset the city, whether the law should be overthrown on that day or glorified; and the whole race of the Hebrews stood then on a razor's edge, the outcome depending on their struggle. And even Antiochus was awed, so changed from threat to wonder. For even enemies know how to admire the virtue of men, when, their anger having ceased, the deed is judged on its own merits. So he departed without success, praising much his father Seleucus for his honour toward the nation and his magnanimity toward the temple, and blaming much Simon who had brought him in, as the cause both of the cruelty and of the disgrace. 12. Let us imitate them—both priests, and mothers, and children: the priests, for the honour of Eleazar, the spiritual father, who showed forth the best in both word and deed; the mothers, of the noble mother, truly appearing loving of their children, and presenting to Christ those born from them, that marriage might be sanctified through such a sacrifice; the children, reverencing the holy youths, and spending their youth not in shameful passions but in struggles against the passions, and bravely manning themselves against the daily Antiochus, who wars with every limb and persecutes in various ways. For I desire to have athletes at every time and in every manner, and every race and every age, both when openly warred upon and when secretly plotted against.

and to be aided by the ancient narratives, and also to be aided by the new, and from every side, like bees, to gather the most useful things into the craftsmanship and sweetness of a single honeycomb, so that through both the Old and the New, God may be glorified among us—He who is glorified in the Son and the Spirit, and who knows His own, and is known by His own, who is confessed and confesses, who is glorified and glorifies, in Christ Himself, to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.