2 Maccabees — Chapter 7

Contigit autem septem fratres

It came to pass also that seven brethren together with their mother were apprehended, and compelled by the king to eat swine's flesh in violation of God's law. The narrative of the seven Maccabean brothers and their mother is the theological and literary climax of the whole book. All the Church Fathers celebrate this martyrdom with extraordinary praise; these martyrs are commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the first of August. The seven brothers are types of the Christian martyrs who resist the tyrant Antichrist. Lapide assembles the tributes of St. Gregory Nazianzen (Oration 22), St. Ambrose (De Jacob II, xii), St. Augustine (Serm. 109–110), St. Cyprian (Ep. VI), St. Chrysostom (Hom. De Nativit. Machab.), Prudentius (Hymn De Romano Mart.), Gaudentius of Brescia, St. Leo, St. Ephrem, Victorinus Afer, St. Prosper, St. Bernard (Ep. 98), and Theophilus of Alexandria.

Unus autem ex eis qui

But one of them, who was the eldest, said thus: What wouldst thou ask, or learn of us? The first brother's defiance is immediately confident: he answers the tyrant's question directly, without fear. Lapide notes the courage required to speak first — not only to face one's own death, but to do so publicly and without hesitation, setting an example for his brothers.

Tunc rex in iracundiam

Then the king being angry commanded frying pans and brazen caldrons to be made hot. The instruments of torture — frying pans and heated cauldrons — are designed for maximum pain and terror. Antiochus's tactics were calibrated to break the will of victims: public humiliation, then the most frightening instruments, then the prolonged spectacle of suffering, intended to make the younger brothers recant when they saw their elders die.

Et quem prius arripi jussit

And him that had been the leader being instantly seized, they cut off his tongue, and having scalped him, they cut off also the extremities of his hands and feet, the rest of his brethren and his mother beholding. The tongue was cut out first because it was the instrument by which the brother defied the king; the hands and feet because they are the principal instruments of bodily action. Yet the brother endured all in silence. The power of God's grace is demonstrated precisely here: the human body, incapable of such endurance by nature, is sustained by supernatural strength.

Adhuc autem eo spirante

While he was yet breathing, and the fire was applied to him, the rest together with their mother exhorted one another to die manfully. Lapide emphasises the mother's role: present throughout all her sons' deaths, she does not faint or plead but exhorts them to die bravely. This reversal of the natural maternal instinct — a mother rejoicing in her children's deaths — is the sign of supernatural grace operating powerfully. St. Ambrose (De Jacob II, xii): \"Not thus does the moon shine among the stars as this mother shines among her sons; and as she led them to martyrdom to enlighten them, she gleamed, and as she lay embraced among her victorious sons she gleamed. O truly a mother stronger than adamant, sweeter than honey, more fragrant than a flower!\"

Dominus Deus aspicit

The Lord God looketh upon us, and in truth hath comfort in us: as Moses declared in the profession of the canticle: And in his servants he shall take comfort. The dying martyr cites Scripture as the grounds of his hope. God sees and will be comforted in (i.e., will vindicate) his servants. Lapide explains: this is the faith of martyrdom — not merely hope of personal resurrection, but the conviction that God's honour demands the vindication of those who died for him.

Mutua autem increpationis

In like manner the second suffered the torments of the first. Lapide notes the structural pattern of the narrative: each brother's martyrdom recapitulates the essential elements of the first, with the additions of each brother's specific words. This pattern serves both literary and theological purposes: literary, in creating cumulative drama; theological, in demonstrating that grace is given anew to each soul that freely chooses to suffer for God.

Proximus autem ille

After him the third was made a mocking-stock, and when he was required, he quickly put forth his tongue and courageously stretched out his hands. The third brother's act of voluntarily stretching out his hands for mutilation — without waiting to be seized — is a supreme act of free will. Lapide: here the will entirely transcends the fear of suffering; the martyr anticipates and embraces the pain, showing that his suffering is wholly voluntary and therefore maximally meritorious.

Et constantem animum

And stood undaunted and said: These I had from heaven, but for the laws of God I now despise them, and from him I hope to receive them again. The third brother's declaration is the first explicit statement of the resurrection of the body in this narrative. Lapide gives it extensive treatment: the resurrection of the body was taught by the Mosaic law at least implicitly and more explicitly by the later prophets; the Maccabean martyrs understood it clearly enough to give up their bodies in the hope of recovering them glorified.

Et hic similiter tractatus

After him the fourth was also tormented. The pattern continues; with the fourth brother, the theme of divine retribution is introduced: \"thou shalt have no resurrection unto life.\" This is a curse, not a promise — Antiochus will rise, but only to be judged, not to life.

Expectandus enim Deo

For as to thee, thou shalt have no resurrection unto life. Lapide gives extensive treatment to this verse. All the dead will rise, but the wicked to judgment and damnation, not to life. The promise to the martyrs is a resurrection to glory; the threat against Antiochus is a resurrection to shame (Daniel 12:2). The resurrection of the body is affirmed not merely as Jewish belief but as a truth of natural reason as well — since the soul naturally tends toward the body as its proper form.

Aestues autem ne temere

Be not deceived without cause: for we suffer these things for ourselves, having sinned against our God; therefore wonderful things have befallen us. The sixth brother's speech introduces the theme of penitence: the Jews suffered because they had sinned, and the suffering is a just punishment accepted voluntarily. Lapide draws the moral: voluntary acceptance of the punishments God sends for our sins is itself a form of martyrdom and means of expiation — the attitude of Job, the Psalms, and the prophets throughout.

Sed omnium admiratione

But the mother was to be admired above all. The paean to the mother begins here. The mother is compared to St. Felicitas (mother of seven martyred sons under Antoninus, who said to the judge: \"Your mercy is impiety, and your exhortation is cruelty\"), and to St. Symphorosa. The mother surpasses Abraham in the test of sacrifice: he was asked to offer one son; she freely gave seven. St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Cyprian, St. Chrysostom, Prudentius, Gaudentius of Brescia, St. Leo, St. Ephrem, St. Bernard, and Theophilus of Alexandria all celebrate her martyrdom.

Hortatrix vero mulier

But the mother was right worthy of admiration and worthy to be remembered by good men, who beheld her seven sons slain in the space of one day and bore it with good courage, for the hope she had in God. The mother spoke to each son in the Hebrew tongue, lest Antiochus understand — the maternal tongue of faith, the language in which the law was given and God is worshipped. The content of her exhortations: (1) a reminder that God gave them breath and life, so he may ask it back; (2) an explicit profession of faith in the resurrection of the body (vv. 22–23).

Adhuc autem superstite

Now when the youngest was yet alive, the king coming near, and using fair words, counselled him with oaths, that he would make him rich and happy. Antiochus offers the last brother not only release from torture but wealth, friendship, and authority — the rewards of apostasy. The contrast is deliberate: having failed to break the brothers by force, Antiochus tries seduction. The youth's response (v. 30) is the most theologically complete: he refuses gifts, expresses solidarity with his brothers, invokes the divine covenant, and pronounces the most explicit doom on Antiochus.

At ille spreto rege

But he, nothing regarding the king, contemning him, exhorted his brothers. The youngest brother spurns the king's offer with contempt. Lapide: here the hierarchy of goods is perfectly displayed — the greatest prince on earth is worthless compared to the least of God's servants; temporal riches are nothing compared to eternal glory; the tyrant's friendship is nothing compared to solidarity with the martyred brothers in God's kingdom.

Filioli miserere mei

My son, have pity upon me, that bore thee nine months in my womb, and suckled thee three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up to this age. The mother's direct address to her youngest son is one of the most moving passages in the Old Testament. Lapide notes that she does not appeal to his love for her to save his life, but uses the memory of maternal care to strengthen him for death: she bore him and nursed him for God, and now uses that bond to urge him to die for God. This is the inversion of the merely natural maternal instinct — which would plead for the child's life — into a supernatural act of total oblation.

Obsecro te nate

I beseech thee, my son, look upon heaven and earth, and all that is in them, and consider that God made them out of nothing, and mankind also. The mother's argument for creation ex nihilo and the resurrection of the body: God who made all things from nothing can restore a destroyed body. Lapide notes this is one of the clearest Old Testament statements of creation from nothing — important both for natural theology (against Platonists and Aristotelians who taught the eternity of matter) and for the theology of the resurrection.

Ille vero adhuc loquente

But as the mother was yet speaking, the young man said: Whom are you waiting for? The youngest brother's speech (vv. 30–38) is the theological climax of the chapter: he condemns Antiochus in the strongest terms, accepts his own death, hopes in the resurrection, and prays that the wrath of God upon the Jewish people — which has been the occasion of all these sufferings — may now end with him.

Fratres enim mei modo

For my brethren, having now undergone a short pain, are partakers of eternal life under God's covenant. The distinction between the brief suffering of martyrdom and the eternal life it obtains is stated with perfect clarity. Lapide draws the practical application: the pain of virtue is always brief, the reward always eternal; the pleasure of vice always brief, the punishment always eternal; therefore it is supreme wisdom to choose virtue over vice.

In me autem et in fratribus

But I, as my brethren, offer up my life and my body for the laws of our fathers. The youngest brother's final act: he offers his life not as a burden but as a gift — to move God to have mercy on the nation, whose punishment through Antiochus he prays is now drawing to an end. Lapide notes the prophetic dimension: the youngest brother predicts that with his death the wrath of God against Israel will end. This prophecy was fulfilled — Antiochus died miserably three years later (chapter 9), and Judas Maccabeus arose to free the people.

Iratus autem rex

Then the king, being exasperated, used the cruelest tortures against this last and the mother. Antiochus, unable to break the martyrs by either pain or persuasion, vents his rage in their most savage killing. But his resorting to such extremes shows his weakness, not his power. The tyrant's cruelty is the measure of the martyr's victory.

Novissimus autem omnium

Last of all after the sons, the mother also was consumed. She who gave birth to seven sons for earth has now given birth to them for heaven; she who last saw them die now joins them in the kingdom. St. Gregory the Great (Hom. 3 in Evang.): \"I would not call this woman a martyr but something more than a martyr — who having sent seven pledges ahead to the kingdom, died so many times before herself in her sons' deaths, but came as the eighth.\"