Guide
What Is the Fourth Book of Maccabees?
Late 1st Century
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The fourth book of Maccabees (4 Maccabees) was composed in Greek, likely in the late first century CE. It expands on the story of the martyrdom of a woman and her seven sons in 2 Maccabees, developing it into a homily or philosophical discourse extolling the supremacy of reason over emotion. Fourth Maccabees appears in some versions of the Septuagint but is not included in the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox canons. While it appears in the Apocrypha of some Bibles, 4 Maccabees is usually classified as Pseudepigrapha.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
Mastering the Emotions
4 Maccabees 2:15–24
It is evident that reason rules even the more violent emotions: lust for power, vainglory, boasting, arrogance, and malice. For the temperate mind repels all these malicious emotions, just as it…
Primary Source
The Martyrdom of the Eldest Son
4 Maccabees 9:10–25
When they had said these things, the tyrant was not only indignant, as at those who are disobedient, but also infuriated, as at those who are ungrateful. Then at his command the guards brought…
Primary Source
Immortality Is the Reward for Martyrdom
4 Maccabees 17:11–16
Truly the contest in which they were engaged was divine, for on that day virtue gave the awards and tested them for their endurance. The prize was immortality in endless life. Eleazar was the…
Related Guide
What Are the Pseudepigrapha?
ca. 200 BCE–200 CE