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From: 2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31
Martyrdom of the Seven Brothers and Their Mother
[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.”
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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. Mk12:18—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).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.