Polyglot Bible: 2 Macabees: 2 Macabees 7

This is a bilingual presentation of 2 Maccabees 7, a deuterocanonical text from the Jewish Apocrypha, displayed in parallel English translation and ancient Greek (Septuagint). It narrates the martyrdom of seven brothers and their mother under the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who attempts to force them to violate Jewish dietary law by eating pork, torturing and killing each son in succession when they refuse. Each brother delivers a defiant speech before dying, with the distinctive and theologically significant claim that God will resurrect the faithful to "everlasting life" — making this one of the earliest explicit statements of bodily resurrection in Jewish literature. The mother, far from mourning, exhorts each son to die faithfully, delivering a notable philosophical argument for creation ex nihilo as the basis for her confidence in resurrection. The youngest son's speech stands out for its nuanced theology: he acknowledges the brothers' suffering as deserved divine chastisement for Israel's sins, while warning Antiochus that he, unlike the martyrs, faces permanent divine punishment with no hope of resurrection. The passage is foundational for both Jewish and Christian theologies of martyrdom, resurrection, and the redemptive suffering of the faithful.

Polyglot Bible: 2 Macabees: 2 Macabees 7

Related pages View as graph →