1   Shortly afterwards King Antiochus sent an elderly Athenian to force the Jews to abandon their ancestral customs and no longer regulate their lives according to the laws of God. 2   He was also commissioned to pollute the temple at Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus, and to dedicate the sanctuary on Mount Gerizim to Zeus God of Hospitality, following the practice of the local inhabitants.

3    4   This evil hit them hard and was a severe trial. The Gentiles filled the temple with licentious revelry: they took their pleasure with prostitutes and had intercourse with women in the sacred precincts. 5   They also brought forbidden things inside, and heaped the altar with impure offerings prohibited by the law. 6   It was forbidden either to observe the sabbath or to keep the traditional festivals, or to admit to being a Jew at all. 7   On the monthly celebration of the king's birthday, the Jews were driven by brute force to eat the entrails of the sacrificial victims; and on the feast of Dionysus they were forced to wear ivy-wreaths and join the procession in his honour. 8   At the instigation of the inhabitants of Ptolemais ^note an order was published in the neighbouring Greek cities to the effect that they should adopt the same

Syrian oppression of the Jews 9   policy of compelling the Jews to eat the entrails and should kill those who refused to change over to Greek ways.

10   Their miserable fate was there for all to see. For instance, two women were brought to trial for having had their children circumcised. They were paraded through the city, with their babies hanging at their breasts, and then flung down from the fortifications. 11   Other Jews had assembled in caves near Jerusalem to keep the sabbath in secret; they were denounced to Philip and were burnt alive, since they scrupled to defend themselves out of regard for the holiness of the day.

12   Now I beg my readers not to be disheartened by these calamities, but to reflect that such penalties were inflicted for the discipline of our race and not for its destruction. 13   It is a sign of great kindness that acts of impiety should not be let alone for long but meet their due recompense at once. 14   The Lord did not see fit to deal with us as he does with the other nations: with them he patiently holds his hand until they have reached the full extent of their sins, 15   but upon us he inflicted retribution before our sins reached their height. 16   So he never withdraws his mercy from us; though he disciplines his people by calamity, he never deserts them. 17   Let it be enough for me to have recalled this truth; after this short digression, I must continue with my story.

18   There was Eleazar, one of the leading teachers of the law, a man of great age and distinguished bearing. He was being forced to open his mouth and eat pork, 19   but preferring an honourable death to an unclean life, he spat it out and voluntarily submitted to the flogging, 20   as indeed men should act who have the courage to refuse to eat forbidden food even for love of life. 21   For old acquaintance' sake, the officials in charge of this sacrilegious feast had a word with Eleazar in private; they urged him to bring meat which he was permitted to eat and had himself prepared, and only pretend to be eating the sacrificial meat as the king had ordered. 22   In that way he would escape death and take advantage of the clemency which their long-standing friendship merited. 23   But Eleazar made an honourable decision, one worthy of his years and the authority of old age, worthy of the grey hairs he had attained to and wore with such distinction, worthy of his perfect conduct from childhood up, but above all, worthy of the holy and God-given law. So he answered at once: ‘Send me quickly to my grave. 24   If I went through with this pretence at my time of life, many

Syrian oppression of the Jews of the young might believe that at the age of ninety Eleazar had turned apostate. 25   If I practised deceit for the sake of a brief moment of life, I should lead them astray and bring stain and pollution on my old age. 26   I might for the present avoid man's punishment, but, alive or dead, I shall never escape from the hand of the Almighty. 27   So if I now die bravely, I shall show that I have deserved my long life and leave the young a fine example, 28   to teach them how to die a good death, gladly and nobly, for our revered and holy laws.’

When he had finished speaking, he was immediately dragged away to be flogged. 29   Those who a little while before had shown him friendship now became his enemies because, in their view, what he had said was madness. 30   When he was almost dead from the blows, Eleazar sighed deeply and said: ‘To the Lord belongs all holy knowledge. He knows what terrible agony I endure in my body from this flogging, though I could have escaped death; yet he knows also that in my soul I suffer gladly, because I stand in awe of him.’

31   So he died; and by his death he left a heroic example and a glorious memory, not only for the young but also for the great body of the nation.

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