The Martyrdom of Hannah and Her Seven Sons

b. Gittin 57b

220–600

About This Entry

The second book of Maccabees recounts a tale of a woman and her seven sons who were brought before King Antiochus IV during the period of religious persecutions in Judaea (ca. 167 BCE) (see “The Martyrdom of a Mother and Her Seven Sons”). All seven sons were killed for refusing to betray the laws of Judaism, and the mother died shortly thereafter. The rabbis retell the story in the context of the Hadrianic persecutions. They not only link the mother’s sacrifice of her children to Abraham’s binding of Isaac (Genesis 22) but also go so far as to portray her sacrifice as surpassing Abraham’s. Scholars have suggested that the text reveals an underlying polemic against Christianity, which understands the binding of Isaac as prefiguring the sacrifice of Jesus, the only son of God. The story had a long afterlife and migrated to medieval Ashkenazic circles. The tenth-century southern Italian chronicle Sefer Yosippon includes it as well.

As for Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter (Psalm 44:23). And R. Judah said: This [verse applies to the] woman and her seven sons [who died as martyrs for the sake of the sanctification of God’s name. The incident occurred as follows:] They brought [in] the first [of the woman’s sons] before the emperor [and] said to him, “Worship the idol.” He said to them, “[I cannot do so, as] it is written in the Torah: I am the Lord your God (Exodus 20:2).” They [immediately] took him out and killed him. They [then] brought [in] another [son] before the emperor [and] said to him, “Worship the idol.” He said to them, “[I cannot do so, as] it is written in the Torah: You shall have no other gods beside Me (Exodus 20:3).” [And so] they took him out and killed him. They [then] brought in [yet] another [son before the emperor and] said to him: “Worship the idol.” He said to them: “[I cannot do so, as] it is written in the Torah: He that sacrifices to any god, [save to the Lord only,] he shall be utterly destroyed (Exodus 22:19).” [And so] they took him out and killed him. They [then] brought [in] another [son and] said to him, “Worship the idol.” He said to them, “[I cannot do so, as] it is written in the Torah: You shall not bow down to any other god (Exodus 34:14).” [And so] they took him out and killed him. They [then] brought [in yet] another [son and] said to him, “Worship the idol.” He said to them, “[I cannot do so, as] it is written in the Torah: Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One (Deuteronomy 6:4).” [And so] they took him out and killed him. They [then] brought [in] another [son and] said to him, “Worship the idol.” He said to them, “[I cannot do so, as] it is written in the Torah: Know therefore this today, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is no other (Deuteronomy 4:39).” [And so] they took him out and killed him. They [then] brought [in yet] another [son, and] said to him, “Worship the idol.” He said to them, “[I cannot do so, as] it is written in the Torah: You have affirmed the Lord [this day to be your God . . .] and the Lord has affirmed you this day [to be a people for His own possession] (Deuteronomy 26:17–18).” We already took an oath to the Holy One that we will not exchange Him for a different god, and He too has taken an oath to us that He will not exchange us for another nation. [It was the youngest brother who had said this, and the emperor pitied him. Seeking a way to spare the boy’s life,] the emperor said to him, “I will throw down my seal before you; bend over and pick it up, so that [people] will say [that] he has accepted the king’s authority.” [The boy] said to him, “Woe to you, Caesar, woe to you, Caesar. [If you think that] for the sake of your honor [I should fulfill your command and do] this, [then] for the sake of the honor of the Holy One, all the more so [should I fulfill His command.” As] they were taking him out to be killed, his mother said to them, “Give him to me so that I may give him a small kiss.” She said to him, “My son, go and say to your father Abraham, ‘You bound one [son to the] altar, but I bound seven altars.’” She too [in the end] went up to the roof, fell, and died.

Translation adapted from the Noé Edition of the Koren Talmud Bavli.

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Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

From Koren Talmud Bavli, Noé Edition, trans. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2019). Accessed via the William Davidson digital edition, sefaria.org. Adapted with permission of Koren Publishers Ltd.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.