How do the brothers’ distinct statements express hope and accountability?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The family refuses coerced transgression; separate speeches express resurrection hope, warning, correction and mercy without erasing their differences.

Chapter breakdown

Seven brothers and their mother are apprehended and whipped and scourged to compel eating swine’s flesh against the law. The eldest declares readiness to die rather than transgress God’s laws received from their fathers. The angry king orders fryingpans and brazen caldrons heated, the eldest’s tongue cut out, head skin removed and hands’ and feet’s extremities cut off while the family watches. Still alive, he is brought to the fire and fryingpan. During his long torment the others and mother encourage one another to die manfully, invoking Moses’s canticle that the Lord looks on truth and takes pleasure in his servants.

After his death the second is mocked, his head’s skin and hair removed, and asked whether he will eat before further bodily punishment. In his own language, not identified here by name, he refuses and receives the first’s torments. At his last gasp he says the king destroys present life but the King of the world will raise those dying for his laws to eternal life. The third quickly puts out his tongue and hands when required, saying he received them from heaven and hopes to receive them again after giving them up for God’s laws. His courage astonishes the king and company. After his death the fourth is similarly tormented; dying, he expresses resurrection hope and tells the king he will have no resurrection unto life.

The fifth, looking at the king, reminds him that despite his power he is corruptible, warns against believing their nation abandoned and predicts that God’s power will torment him and his seed. The sixth says they suffer for themselves because they sinned against God and that remarkable things are done to them, while warning that fighting God will not escape punishment. These distinct speeches are not merged into an identical resurrection declaration by every brother.

The narrator praises the mother, who sees all seven sons slain in one day and bears it courageously through hope in God. She exhorts each in her own language, described as combining a man’s heart with a woman’s thought. She says she does not know how they were formed in her womb and neither gave breath, soul or life nor framed their limbs. The world’s Creator, who formed human nativity and origin, will mercifully restore breath and life as they give themselves up for his laws.

With the youngest still alive, Antiochus feels despised. He promises by oath to make him rich and happy, take him as a friend and furnish necessities if he abandons his fathers’ laws. Unmoved, the youth prompts the king to ask his mother to counsel him to save his life. After many words she promises to counsel him, bends toward him and mocks the tyrant in her own language. She asks pity as the mother who bore him nine months, nursed him three years, nourished him and raised him. Looking at heaven, earth and everything in them, he should consider that God made them out of nothing, and mankind also. She urges him not to fear the tormentor but receive death as a worthy partner with his brothers, so she may receive him again with them in mercy.

While she is still speaking, the youngest asks whom they are waiting for and declares obedience to Moses’s law rather than the king’s command. He calls the king the Hebrews’ author of mischief and warns of God’s hand. They suffer for their sins; God’s brief anger is for chastisement and correction, with reconciliation to follow. The king should not be proud in vain hope: the all-seeing Almighty’s judgment has not been escaped. The brothers, after short pain, are under eternal life’s covenant; the king will receive just punishment for pride. Like them he offers body and life for ancestral laws, asking speedy mercy for the nation and that the king confess God alone through torments and stripes. He declares that the wrath justly brought on their nation will cease in him and his brothers. This is his declaration, not a separately verified outcome within the chapter.

Angered at being mocked, the king treats him more cruelly than the rest. He dies undefiled, wholly trusting the Lord. After the sons, the mother is consumed last; the precise manner of her death is not described. The author closes the discussion of sacrifices and excessive cruelties.

The story inside

The first six brothers’ deaths and speeches precede the account of their mother’s encouragement. The youngest receives an explicit offer of wealth and royal friendship, then his mother’s counsel and his own extended reply. His declaration that wrath will cease is retained as speech; the narrative ends with his and his mother’s deaths.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The text says their own language without naming Hebrew.
2
The mother recalls nine months in the womb and three years nursing.
3
The youngest’s request includes the king’s confession through torments and stripes; his declaration about wrath is not presented as an observed later outcome.

Test your recall

What does the mother ask the youngest to consider when looking at heaven and earth?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 108873–108940
7:7. So when the first was dead after this manner, they brought the next to make him a mocking stock: and when they had pulled off the skin of his head with the hair, they asked him if he would eat, before he were punished throughout the whole body in every limb. 7:8. But he answered in his own language, and said: I will not do it. Wherefore he also, in the next place, received the torments of the first: 7:9. And when he was at the last gasp, he said thus: Thou indeed, O most wicked man, destroyest us out of this present life: but the King of the world will raise us up, who die for his laws, in the resurrection of eternal life. 7:10. 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: 7:11. And said with confidence: These I have from heaven, but for the laws of God I now despise them, because I hope to receive them again from him. 7:12. So that the king, and they that were with him, wondered at the young man’s courage, because he esteemed the torments as nothing. 7:13. And after he was thus dead, they tormented the fourth in the like manner. 7:14. And when he was now ready to die, he spoke thus: It is better, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God, to be raised up again by him; for, as to thee, thou shalt have no resurrection unto life. 7:15. And when they had brought the fifth, they tormented him. But he, looking upon the king, 7:16. Said: Whereas thou hast power among men though thou art corruptible, thou dost what thou wilt but think not that our nation is forsaken by God. 7:17. But stay patiently a while, and thou shalt see his great power, in what manner he will torment thee and thy seed. 7:18. After him they brought the sixth, and he being ready to die, spoke thus: Be not deceived without cause: for we suffer these things for ourselves, having sinned against our God, and things worthy of admiration are done to us: 7:19. But do not think that thou shalt escape unpunished, for that thou hast attempted to fight against God. 7:20. Now the mother was to be admired above measure, and worthy to be remembered by good men, who beheld her seven sons slain in the space of one day, and bore it with a good courage, for the hope that she had in God: 7:21. And she bravely exhorted every one of them in her own language, being filled with wisdom; and joining a man’s heart to a woman’s thought, 7:22. She said to them: I know not how you were formed in my womb; for I neither gave you breath, nor soul, nor life, neither did I frame the limbs of every one of you. 7:23. But the Creator of the world, that formed the nativity of man, and that found out the origin of all, he will restore to you again, in his mercy, both breath and life, as now you despise yourselves for the sake of his laws.
Lines 108942–109009
7:24. Now Antiochus, thinking himself despised, and withal despising the voice of the upbraider, when the youngest was yet alive, did not only exhort him by words, but also assured him with an oath, that he would make him a rich and a happy man, and, if he would turn from the laws of his fathers, would take him for a friend, and furnish him with things necessary. 7:25. But when the young man was not moved with these things, the king called the mother, and counselled her to deal with the young man to save his life. 7:26. And when he had exhorted her with many words she promised that she would counsel her son. 7:27. So bending herself towards him, mocking the cruel tyrant, she said in her own language: My son have pity upon me, that bore thee nine months in my womb, and gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up unto this age. 7:28. 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: 7:29. So thou shalt not fear this tormentor, but being made a worthy partner with thy brethren, receive death, that in that mercy I may receive thee again with thy brethren. 7:30. While she was yet speaking these words, the young man said: For whom do you stay? I will not obey the commandment of the king, but the commandment of the law which was given us by Moses. 7:31. But thou that hast been the author of all mischief against the Hebrews, shalt not escape the hand of God. 7:32. For we suffer thus for our sins. 7:33. And though the Lord, our God, is angry with us a little while, for our chastisement and correction, yet he will be reconciled again to his servants. 7:34. But thou, O wicked, and of all men most flagitious, be not lifted up without cause with vain hopes, whilst thou art raging against his servants. 7:35. For thou hast not yet escaped the judgment of the Almighty God, who beholdeth all things. 7:36. For my brethren having now undergone a short pain, are under the covenant of eternal life: but thou, by the judgment of God, shalt receive just punishment for thy pride. 7:37. But I, like my brethren, offer up my life and my body for the laws of our fathers: calling upon God to be speedily merciful to our nation, and that thou by torments and stripes mayst confess that he alone is God. 7:38. But in me, and in my brethren, the wrath of the Almighty, which hath justly been brought upon all our nation, shall cease. 7:39. Then the king being incensed with anger, raged against him more cruelly than all the rest, taking it grievously that he was mocked. 7:40. So this man also died undefiled, wholly trusting in the Lord. 7:41. And last of all, after the sons, the mother also was consumed. 7:42. But now there is enough said of the sacrifices and of the excessive cruelties.