Sunday August 08, 2004

The Seven Maccabees, their Mother Solomonia and Eleazar the Priest (Part 2)

We left our story with Solomonia, the mother of the "Seven Maccabees", watching her sons being martyred one by one for their faith in God and their resulting refusal to eat sacrificial pork ("the other forbidden food"). The first six, from eldest to the next-to-youngest, defied the mad King and were killed, leaving the seventh and youngest child, Solomonia's only remaining son. The author of 2 Maccabees writes of her:

The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day [six thus far], she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. She encouraged each of them in the language of their fathers. Filled with a noble spirit, she fired her woman's reasoning with a man's courage, and said to them, "I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws."

2 Maccabees 7:20-23

Please don't hold the "man's courage" thing against him; he was writing 2200 years ago, and no doubt he would agree that Solomonia was more courageous than 99% of the men who ever lived. Me, I freak out at the sight of a splinter, so she's got me beat hands down.

At this point, the king is furious. He's zero for six in converting the boys, and Solomonia has only made matters worse by encouraging them. He has one chance left, with the youngest son -- who, according to the Prolog, is just three years old -- and he doesn't want to blow it. He promises him riches and rewards, and then pressures the mother to talk some sense into him. "After much urging on his part [we can only imagine what that entailed], she undertook to persuade her son." (v. 26) And so she speaks to him "in their native tongue" (v. 27), Hebrew, which the Greek king cannot understand, and says to him:

My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in my womb, and nursed you for three years [talk about courage!!], and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your life, and have taken care of you. I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also mankind comes into being. Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God's mercy I may get you back again with your brothers.

vv. 27-29

Not only is she courageous, she's also a ground-breaking theologian. Her remark that "God did not make [the heaven and the earth and everything that is in them] out of things that existed" is the first direct biblical teaching that God created ex nihilo, that is, "out of nothing" (rather than from things which pre-existed along with Himself), which is a fundamental doctrine of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Compare with the opening verses of Genesis: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." (Gen. 1:1-2) What deep? What waters? God didn't created the seas until verse 9, on the third day of creation. Genesis, written much earlier than 2 Maccabees, is much less clear on ex nihilo. Kudos to Solomonia.

But back to the story. Inspired by his older brothers, and by his mother and her strengthening words, the three-year old proceeds to lambaste the king for eight verses (he goes on longer and in much more detail than his brothers!):

What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king's command, but I obey the command of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses. But you, who have contrived all sorts of evil against the Hebrews, will certainly not escape the hands of God. For we are suffering because of our own sins. And if our living Lord is angry for a little while, to rebuke and discipline us, he will again be reconciled with his own servants. But you, unholy wretch, you most defiled of all men, do not be elated in vain and puffed up by uncertain hopes, when you raise your hand against the children of heaven. You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty, all-seeing God. For our brothers after enduring a brief suffering have drunk of everflowing life under God's covenant; but you, by the judgment of God, will receive just punishment for your arrogance. I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the laws of our fathers, appealing to God to show mercy soon to our nation and by afflictions and plagues to make you confess that he alone is God, and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty which has justly fallen on our whole nation."

vv. 30-38

before he is tortured more brutally than his brothers, and meets his end.

"Last of all, the mother died, after her sons," (v. 41) continues 2 Maccabees, though the Prologue relates the tradition that "she leaped into the flames and was consumed in the fire rendering her soul to God": further testimony -- as if it were necessary! -- to her "man's courage."

"Let this be enough, then, about the eating of sacrifices and the extreme tortures" (v. 42) -- though I shall return to talk about why fasting is so important, as much for us as it was for the Seven Maccabees, their Mother Solomonia and Eleazar the Priest.

(2004-08-08 14:55:15.0) Permalink