Library/Old Testament pseudepigrapha
4 Maccabees
Reason can master the passions: exhibited in Eleazar and the seven brothers. Stoicism baptized in Torah. Some Greek Bibles printed it as an appendix.
- Status
- Pseudepigrapha
- Date
- 1st century CE
- Languages
- Greek
- Setting
- A philosophical oration on the martyrdoms of 2 Maccabees 6–7
What it contains
- Philosophical prologue
- Eleazar
- The mother and seven sons
Why it sits outside most canons
A speech, not a history; never quite scripture.
Themes
- Reason
- Martyrdom
- Law
- Passions
Passages
4 Maccabees 1:1
The subject I am about to discuss is most philosophical: whether devout reason is sovereign over the emotions.