Books Jesus Read

Chapter 6: The Spirit of the Martyrs – 2 Maccabees

143

however, and finding the Jews at rest, he directed his troops to parade about the city while displaying their weapons. Anyone who came out to see the display was killed, and the troops invaded the city, killing many. On that day, Judas Maccabeus, together with a few others, escaped to the wilderness to live in the mountains as wild animals do, eating whatever grew wild that they might avoid defilement. 9 The Martyrdom of Eleazar (2 Maccabees 6:18–31) The persecution in Jerusalem grew steadily worse. Every Jew had to show loyalty to the king by forsaking the prohibition against eating anything unclean, such as pork. Eleazar the elder, a scribe who was highly esteemed in the holy city, was dragged into the public square by the king’s agents, and force-fed the unclean food, which he immediately spewed from his mouth. His friends had even gotten permission for him to substitute his own kosher meat: he could save his life by pretending to comply with the king’s order, but he had refused. “Such a pretense would be unworthy of us,” he replied, “for what if the young people see me trading my faith for a foreign religion? Even if I do not die at the hands of these mortals, shall I escape the All Powerful One? No indeed! So, let them carry me off to Hades.” 10 Then the king’s agents strapped Eleazar to a torture rack and began to beat him with rods. Just before he died, he 9 Compare this description of the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt to the first chapter of 1 Maccabees. 10 Hades – the Greek translation for Hebrew Sheol , the underworld where the dead await final judgment.