IV Maccabees 15 - 16

15: 1 - 32; 16: 1 - 25: 17: 1 (Death of the mother: NRSV Translation, 1989)
O reason of the children, tyrant over the emotions!  O religion, more desirable to the mother than her children!  Two courses were open to this mother, that of religion, and that of preserving her seven sons for a time, as the tyrant had promised.  She loved religion more, the religion that preserves them for eternal life according to God's promise.  In what manner might I express the emotions of parent who love their children?  We impress upon the character of a small child a wondrous likeness both of mind and of form.  Especially is this true of mothers, who because of their birthpangs have a deeper sympathy toward their offspring than do the fathers.  Considering that mothers are the weaker sex and give birth to many, they are more devoted to their children.  In seven pregnancies she had implanted in herself tender love toward them, and because of the many pains she suffered with each of them she had sympathy for them; yet because of the fear of God she disdained the temporary safety of her children.  Not only so, but also because of the nobility of her sons and their ready obedience to the law, she felt a greater tenderness toward them.  For they were righteous and self-controlled and brave and magnanimous, and loved their brothers and their mother, so that they obeyed even to death in keeping the ordinances.
Nevertheless, though so many factors influenced the mother to suffer with them out of love for her children, in the case of none of them were the various tortures strong enough to pervert her reason.  But each child separately and all of them together the mother urged on to death for religion's sake.  O sacred nature and affection of parental love, yearning of parents toward offspring, nurture and indomitable suffering by mothers!  This mother, who saw them tortured and burned one by one, because of religion did not change her attitude.  She watched the flesh of her children being consumed by fire, their toes and fingers scattered/quivering on the ground, and the flesh of the head to the chin exposed like masks.

O mother, tried now by more bitter pains than even the birthpangs you suffered for them!  O woman, who alone gave birth to such complete devotion!  When the firstborn breathed his last, it did not turn you aside, not when the second in torments looked at you piteously nor when the third one expired; nor did you weep when you looked at the eyes of each one in his tortures gazing boldly at the same agonies, and saw in their nostrils the signs of the approach of death.  When you saw the flesh of children burned upon the flesh of other children; severed hands upon hands; scalped heads upon head, and corpses fallen on other corpses, and when you saw the place filled with many spectators of the torturings, you did not shed tears.  Neither the melodies of sirens nor the songs of swans attract the attention of their hearers as did the voices of the children in torture calling to their mother.  How great and how many torments the mother then suffered as her sons were tortured on the wheel and with the hot irons!  But devout reason, giving her heart a man's courage in the very midst of her emotions, strengthened her to disregard, for the time, her parental love.
Although she witnessed the destructions of seven children and the ingenious and various rackings, this noble mother disregarded all these because of faith in God.  For as in the council chambers of her own soul she saw mighty advocates -- nature, family, parental love, and the rackings of her children -- this mother held two ballots, one bearing death and the other deliverance for her children.  She did not approve the deliverance that would preserve the seven sons for a short time, but as the daughter of God-fearing Abraham she remembered his fortitude.  O mother of the nation, vindicator of the law and champion of religon, who carried away the prize of the contest in your heart!  O more noble than males in steadfastness, and more courageous than men in endurance!  Just as Noah's ark, carrying the world in the universal flood, stoutly endured the waves, so you, O guardian of the law, overwhelmed from every side by the flood of your emotions and the violent winds, the torture of your sons, endured nobly and withstood the wintry storms that assail religon.
(chapter 16) If, then a woman, advanced in years and mother of seven sons, endured seeing her children tortured to death, it must be admitted that devout reason is sovereign over the emotions/passions.  Thus I have demonstrated not only that men have ruled over the emotions, but also that a woman has despised the fiercest tortures.  The lions surround Daniel were not so savage, nor was the raging fiery furnace of Mishael so intensely hot (Daniel 3:19-30), as was her innate parental love, inflamed as she saw her seven sons tortured in such varied ways.  But the mother quenched so many and such great emotions by devout reason.
Consider this also: If this woman, though a mother, had been fainthearted, she would have mourned over them and perhaps spoken as follows: "O how wretched am I and many times unhappy!  After bearing seven children, I am not the mother of none!  O seven childbirths all in vain, seven profitless pregnancies, fruitless nurturings and wretched nursings!  In vain, my sons, I endured many birthpangs for you, and the more grievous anxieties of your upbringing.  Alas for my children, some unmarried, others married and without offspring.  I shall not see your children or have the happiness of being called grandmother.  Alas, I who had so many and beautiful children am a widow and alone, with many sorrows/ much to be pitied.  And when I die, I shall have none of my sons to bury me."
Yet that holy and God-fearing mother did not wail with such a lament for any of them, nor did she dissuade any of them from dying, nor did she grieve as they were dying.  On the contrary, as though having a mind like adamant and giving rebirth for immortality to the whole number of her sons, she implored them and urged them on to death for the sake of religion.  O mother, soldier of God in the cause of religion, elder and woman!  By steadfastness you have conquered even a tyrant, and in word and deed you have proved more powerful than a man.  For when you and your sons were arrested together, you stood and watched Eleazar eing tortured, and said to your sons in the Hebrew language, "My sons, noble is the contest to which you are called to bear witness for the nation.  Fight zealously for our ancestral law.  For it would be shameful if, while an aged man endures such agonies for the sake of religion, you young men were to be terrified by tortures.  Remember that it is through God that you have had a share in the world and have enjoyed life, and therefore you ought to endure any suffering for the sake of God.  For his sake also our father Abraham was zealous of our nation; and when Isaac saw his father's hand wielding a knife and descending upon him, he did not cower.  Daniel the righteous was thrown to the lions, and Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael were hurled into the fiery furnace and endured it for the sake of God.  You too must have the same faith in God and not be grieved.  It is unreasonable for people who have religious knowledge not to withstand pain."
By these words the mother of the seven encouraged and persuaded each of her sons to die rather than violate God's commandment.  They knew also that those who die for the sake of God live to God, as do Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs.
(17:1) Some of the guards said that when she also was about to be seized and put to death she threw herself into the flames so that no one might touch her body.