From: 2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31
Martyrdom of the Seven Brothers and Their Mother
[1] It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were
arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with
whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine’s flesh.
[20] The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable
memory. Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she
bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. [21] She
encouraged each of them in the language of their fathers. Filled with
a noble spirit, she~fired her woman’s reasoning with a man’s courage,
and said to them, [22] "I do not know how you came into being in my
womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in
order the elements within each of you. [23] Therefore the Creator of
the world, who shaped the beginning man and devised the origin of all
things, will in his mercy give Iife and breath back to you again,
since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.”
[24] Antiochus felt that he was being treated with contempt, and he
was suspicious of her reproachful tone. The youngest brother being
still alive, Antiochus not only appealed to him in words, but promised
with oaths that he would make him rich and enviable if he would turn
from the ways of his fathers, and that he would take him for his
friend and entrust him with public affairs.
[25] Since the young man would not listen to him at all, the king
called the mother to him and urged her to advise the youth to save
himself. [26] After much urging on his part, she undertook to persuade
her son. [27] But, leaning close to him, she spoke in their native
tongue as follows, deriding the cruel tyrant: “My son, have pity on
me. I carried you nine months in my womb, and nursed you for three
years, and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your
life, and have taken care of you.’ [28] I beseech you, my child, to
look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them,
and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed.
Thus also mankind comes into being. [29] Do not fear this butcher, but
prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God’s mercy I
may get you back again with your brothers.”
[30] While she was still speaking, the young man said, ‘What are you
waiting for? I will not obey the king’s command, but I obey the
command of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses. [31]
But you, who have contrived all souls ol evil against the Hebrews,
will certainly not escape the hands of God."
Commentary:
7:1-42. This is one of the most famous and popular passages in the
history of the Maccabees--so much so that traditionally (but
improperly) these brothers are usually referred to as “the Maccabees”.
The sacred writer does not tell us the boys’ names, or where it all
happened; and he brings in the presence of the king to heighten the
dramatic effect. The bravery of these young men, it would seem, was
inspired by the good example given by Eleazar (cf. 6:28). The mother’s
intervention divides the scene into two parts--first the martyrdom of
the six older brothers (vv. 2-19), and then that of the youngest and
the mother herself (vv. 20-41).
In the first part the conviction that the just will rise and evildoers
will be punished builds up as the story goes on. Each of the replies
given by the six brothers contains some aspect of that truth. The
first says that just men prefer to die rather than sin (v. 2) because
God will reward them (v. 6); the second, that God will raise them to a
new life (v. 9); the third, that they will rise with their bodies
remade (v. 11); the fourth, that for evildoers there will be no
“resurrection to life” (v. 14); the fifth, that there will be
punishment for evildoers (v. 17); and the sixth, that when just people
suffer it is because they are being punished for their own sins (v. 18).
In the second part, both the mother and the youngest brother affirm
what the others have said: but the boy adds something new when he says
that death accepted by the righteous works as atonement for the whole
people (vv. 37-38).
The resurrection of the dead, which “God revealed to his people
progressively” ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 992), is a
teaching that is grounded first on Moses’ words about God having
compassion on his servants (v. 6; cf. Deut 32:36), and the idea that
if they die prematurely they will receive consolation in the next
life. This is the point being made by the first brother, and it
implies that God “faithfully maintains his covenant with Abraham and
his posterity” (ibid.). As the mother sees it (vv. 27—28), belief in
the resurrection comes from “faith in God as creator of the whole man,
body and soul” (ibid., 992). Our Lord Jesus Christ ratifies this
teaching and links it to faith in himself (cf. in 5:24—25; 11:25); and
he also purifies the Pharisees’ notion of the resurrection, which was
an interpretation based only on material terms (cf. Mk
12:18—27; 1 Cor 15:35—53).
In what the mother says (v. 28) we can also see belief in the creation
of the world out of nothing “as a truth full of promise and hope”
("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 297). On the basis of this
passage and some New Testament passages, such as John 1:3 and Hebrews
11:3, the Church has formulated its doctrine of creation: “We believe
that God needs no pre-existent thing or any help in order to create
(cf. Vatican I: DS 3022), nor is creation any sort of necessary
emanation from the divine substance (cf. Vatican I: DS 3023-3024).
God creates freely ‘out of nothing’ (DS 800; 3025). If God had drawn
the world from pre-existent matter, what would be so extraordinary in
that? A human artisan makes from a given material whatever he wants,
while God shows his power by starting from nothing to make all he
wants” ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 296).
The assertion that the death of martyrs has expiatory value (vv.
37-38) prepares us to grasp the redemptive meaning of Christ’s death;
but we should remember that Christ, by his death, not only deflected
the punishment that all men deserve on account of sin, but also,
through his grace, makes sinful men righteous in God’s sight (cf. Rom 3:21-26).
Many Fathers of the Church, notably St Gregory Nazianzen ("Orationes",
15, 22), St Ambrose ("De Jacob Et Vitae Beata", 2, 10, 44-57), St
Augustine ("In Epistolain loannis", 8, 7), and St Cyprian ("Ad
Fortunatus", 11) heaped praise on these seven brothers and their
mother. St John Chrysostom invites us to imitate them whenever
temptation strikes: “All the moderation that they show in the midst of
dangers we, too, should imitate by the patience and temperance with
which we deal with irrational concupiscence, anger, greed for possessions,
bodily passions, vainglory and suchlike. For if we manage to control
their flame, as (the Maccabees) did the flame of the fire, we will be
able to be near them and have a share in their confidence and freedom
of spirit” ("Homiliae in Maccabaeos", 1,3).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.