Fourth Book Of Maccabees
1926 anthology, complete selected publisher reading text
Rutherford H. Platt
33 And Reason is proved to subdue the impulse not only of sexual desire, but of all sorts of covetings.
34 For the Law says, ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.’
35 Verily, when the Law orders us not to covet, it should, I think, confirm strongly the argument that the Reason is capable of controlling covetous desires, even as it does the passions that militate against justice.
36 How else, can a man, naturally gormandizing and greedy and drunken, be taught to change his nature, if the Reason be not manifestly the master of the passions?
37 Certainly, as soon as a man orders his life according to the Law, if he is miserly he acts contrary to his nature, and lends money to the needy without interest, and at the seventh-year periods cancels the debt.
38 And if he is parsimonious, he is overruled by the Law through the action of Reason, and refrains from gleaning his stubbles or picking the last grapes from his vineyards.
39 And with regard to all the rest we can recognize that Reason is in the position of master over the passions or affections.
40 For the Law ranks above affection for parents, so that a man may not for their sakes surrender his virtue, and it overrides love for a wife, so that if she transgress a man should rebuke her, and it governs love for children, so that if they are naughty a man should punish them, and it controls the claims of friendship, so that a man should reprove his friends if they do evil.
41 And do not think it a paradoxical thing when Reason through the Law is able to overcome even hatred, so that a man refrains from cutting down the enemy’s orchards, and protects the property of the enemy from the spoilers, and gathers up their goods that have been scattered.
42 And the rule of Reason is likewise proved to extend through the more aggressive passions or vices, ambition, vanity, ostentation, pride, and backbiting.
43 For the temperate mind repels all these debased passions, even as it does anger, for it conquers even this.
44 Yea, Moses when he was angered against Dathan and Abiram did not give free course to his wrath, but governed his anger by his Reason.
45 For the temperate mind is able, as I said, to win the victory over the passions, modifying some, while crushing others absolutely.
46 Why else did our wise father Jacob blame the houses of Simeon and Levi for their unreasoning slaughter of the tribe of the Shechemites, saying, ‘Accursed be their anger!’
47 For had not Reason possessed the power to restrain their anger he would not have spoken thus.
48 For in the day when God created man, he implanted in him his passions and inclinations, and also, at the very same time, set the mind on a throne amidst the senses to be his sacred guide in all things; and to the mind he gave the Law, by the which if a man order himself, he shall reign over a kingdom that is temperate, and just, and virtuous, and brave.
CHAP. II.
The ruling of Desire and Anger. The story of David’s thirst. Stirring chapters of ancient history. Savage attempts to make the Jews eat swine. Interesting references to an ancient bank (Verse 21.)
WELL then, someone may ask, if Reason is master of the passions why is it not master of forgetfulness and ignorance?
2 But the argument is supremely ridiculous. For Reason is not shown to be master over passions or defects in itself, but over those of the body.
3 For example, none of you is able to extirpate our natural desire, but the Reason can enable him to escape being made a slave by desire.
4 None of you is able to extirpate anger from the soul, but it is possible for the Reason to come to his aid against anger.
5 None of you can extirpate a malevolent disposition, but Reason can be his powerful ally against being swayed by malevolence.
6 Reason is not the extirpate of the passions, but their antagonist.
7 The case of the thirst of King David may serve at least to make this clearer.
8 For when David had fought the live-long day against the Philistines, and by the help of our country’s warriors had slain many of them, he came at eventide, all fordone with sweat and toil, to the royal tent, around which was encamped the whole army of our ancestors.
9 So all the host fell to their evening meal; but the king, being consumed with an intense thirst, though he had abundance of water, was unable to slake it.
10 Instead, an irrational desire for the water that was in the possession of the enemy with growing intensity burned him up and unmanned and consumed him.
11 Then when his body-guard murmured against the craving of the king, two youths, mighty warriors, ashamed that their king should lack his desire, put on all their armour, and took a water-vessel, and scaled the enemy’s ramparts; and stealing undetected past the guards at the gate, they searched through all the enemy’s camp.
12 And they bravely found the spring, and drew from it a draught for the king.
13 But David, though still burning with the thirst, considered that such a draught, reckoned as equivalent to blood, was a grievous danger to his soul.
14 Therefore, opposing his Reason to his desire, he poured out the water as an offering to God.
15 For the temperate mind is able to conquer the dictates of the passions, and to quench the fires of desire, and to wrestle victoriously with the pangs of our bodies though they be exceeding strong, and by the moral beauty and goodness of Reason to defy with scorn all the domination of the passions.
16 And now the occasion calls us to set forth the story of the self-controlled Reason.
17 At a time when our fathers enjoyed great peace through the due observance of the Law, and were in happy case, so that Seleucus Nicanor, the king of Asia, sanctioned the tax for the temple-service, and recognized our polity, precisely then, certain men, acting factiously against the general concord, involved us in many and various calamities.
18 Onias, a man of the highest character, being then high priest and having the office for his life, a certain Simon raised a faction against him, but since despite every kind of slander he failed to injure him on account of the people, he fled abroad with intent to betray his country.
19 So he came to Apollonius, the governor of Syria and Phoenicia and Cilicia, and said, ‘Being loyal to the king, I am here to inform you that in the treasuries of Jerusalem are stored many thousands of private deposits, not belonging to the temple account, and rightfully the property of King Seleucus.’
20 Apollonius having made inquiry into the details of the matter, praised Simon for his loyal service to the king, and hastening to the court of Seleucus, disclosed to him the valuable treasure; then, after receiving authority to deal with the matter, he promptly marched into our country, accompanied by the accursed Simon and a very powerful army, and announced that he was there by the king’s command to take possession of the private deposits in the treasury.
21 Our people were deeply angered by this announcement, and protested strongly, considering it, an outrageous thing for those who had entrusted their deposits to the temple treasury to be robbed of them, and they threw all possible obstacles in his way.
22 Apollonius, however, with threats, made his way into the temple.