The sufferings of the holy Old Testament martyrs Eleazar the priest, the seven brothers of the Maccabees, their mother Solomon and others with them.

Before beginning the account of the sufferings of the holy martyrs, whose names are recorded here on earth in the "Maccabean Books" and in heaven <unk> in the books of everlasting life, it is fitting, in a brief foreword, to relate in advance the disturbances in Jerusalem [Jerusalem <unk> the capital of ancient Palestine] and the persecutions of the pious Jews who kept God's law, both initially instigated by the false teachers of the law and the power-hungry

The Jews were taken by the Gentiles by the Lord's anger, and the riots and persecutions increased to the point that the holy city was filled with blood and the sanctuary of God with abominations.

The first great and terrible destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon was in the days of Zedekiah king of Judah, as reported in the life of the holy prophet Jeremiah [May 1] and in the life of the holy prophet Ezekiel [July 21].

Seventy years after this desolation, the Jews, by God's mercy, were freed from captivity and returned to Jerusalem; the holy city again had fine buildings, and the rebuilt temple of God, like the first, was beautifully decorated; this history of the return from captivity, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple is detailed in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

And the people of God multiplied greatly, and dwelt in the land of Israel in the same order, and in almost the same number; and the holy city, faithful to the law of God, prospered for a long time in godliness, enjoying peace under the rule of its chief priests and princes, and was honoured and honored by all, though it was under the rule of the kings of the heathen.

Many pagan kings and princes, though idolaters, worshipped the God of Israel and sent gifts to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem (2Mac.3:2); they also showed special respect to the high priests; for example, Alexander, king of Macedonia, when he saw the high priest Addas coming out to meet him, bowed down to the ground before him; and when he entered Jerusalem and the temple of God, he brought gifts and sacrifices to the Lord of hosts.

The Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus sent many gifts to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and wrote to Eleazar the high priest, asking him to send books of the Holy Scriptures and learned men who could translate them from Hebrew into Greek; Ptolemy Philadelphus' successor Ptolemy Philopator, defeating the Syrian king Antiochus the Great, came to Judea, and in Jerusalem, in the temple of the Lord, offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the one true God.

Antiochus the Great, in his turn, defeating the Egyptians, came to Jerusalem to worship the true God; in the holy temple he brought many sacrifices with thanksgiving prayers and presented the cedar to the high priest and other leaders of the Jews.

And so it was with the nations, and so it was with Jerusalem, as long as the princes walked in the fear of Jehovah, and as long as they did according to the law of Jehovah, and as long as they did according to the law of their God, and as long as there were many calamities among them, and as long as there were many calamities among them.

In the days of the righteous high priest Simon, praised in the book of Jesus son of Sirach (50:1), when Seleucus, the son of Antiochus the Great, reigned in Asia and Syria, there was in Jerusalem a certain man named Simon, who was of the tribe of Benjamin; he was entrusted with the treasures of the temple, the administration of church servants, and the command of the soldiers who made up the church guard.

Out of pride and hatred, he always opposed the high priest and caused disturbances in the people; without enduring the threats and admonitions that the high priest often forced him to do, Simon planned to harm not only the latter but also the whole church.

(2 Maccabees 3:5-6) Apollonius conveyed Simon's message to the king, who was known for his selfishness.

The latter immediately sent the royal treasurer, Heliodorus, to Jerusalem with an army to bring the treasures to the royal treasury.

When Heliodorus, upon arriving in Jerusalem, began to take away the church's wealth and to plunder the money collected and kept for the feeding of the poor and strangers, widows and orphans, he was, as the 3rd chapter of the second book of the Maccabees reports in detail, struck by the punishment of God: he was subjected to such a cruel scourging by the angels that he almost died, and, therefore, was forced to return to the king, not carrying out his orders.

Shortly thereafter, King Seleucus was assassinated by his associates; he was succeeded by his brother Antiochus, nicknamed Epiphanes, that is, the bright one; he was even more corrupt than his predecessor.

He was known for his extreme pride (2 Maccabees 5:21; 9:8); he called himself God and adopted the nickname Olympian Zeus; he ordered all his subjects to worship only the god <unk> Olympian Zeus, with whom he identified himself; i.e., Antiochus actually ordered himself to be worshiped as God (2 Maccabees 6:7).

In 175 C.E., the pious high priest Onias was overthrown by his brother Jesus, who changed his name to Jason, bought the high priesthood from Antiochus, and received permission to introduce the Greek games, further increasing the number of traitors to the true religion.

Three years later, Jason was overthrown by Menelaus, who offered a large price for the position of high priest, which he held by the lowest means: thus Menelaus killed Onias (2Mac.4:23-50).

Between his first and second campaigns in Egypt, Antiochus plundered the temple in Jerusalem (1Mac.1:21), and upon his final return from Egypt, he ordered the abolition of worship of Jehovah, circumcision, observance of the Sabbath, and the distinction between clean and unclean; he ordered the burning of sacred books; he ordered the erection of altars on which, under threat of death, everyone had to offer sacrifices to Olympian Zeus (1Mac.1:41; 2Mac.5:24);15 Kislev in 168 A.D.

In the temple, an altar to the Olympian Zeus was erected (2Mac.6:2; 1Mac.1:54) and the first sacrifice was made on the 25th of Kislev, and a cult of Zeus Xenius was established on Mount Gerizim (2Mac.6:2).

In Modena, near Joppa, he killed the Syrian chief before a pagan altar, and the armed uprising of the Jews began Antiochus decided to suppress him with military force; the need for money forced him to divide his army into two parts; with one half he went himself to the eastern provinces to collect taxes (2Mac.8:10; 1Mac.3:34), and the other part he gave under the leadership of Lisania, who was beheaded by Judas Maccabeus, and the Jews seized the temple.

On 25 Kislev 165 C.E., three years after the first pagan sacrifice, the temple was solemnly cleansed and consecrated, and it was decided to celebrate a feast annually in memory of the glorious day (1 Maccabees 4:59), called the "Feast of Renewal" (John 10:22). Meanwhile, Antiochus had little success in the East; he attempted to rob the wealthy temple of Nanea at Elymaid, but was driven out by the inhabitants and died in 164 C.E.

In the New Testament, Antiochus is depicted as an enemy of the Lord, His people, and His covenant (1 Maccabees 1:10), and in the New Testament as a prototype of the antichrist (Revelation 13:5).] In Jerusalem, there was a great disturbance.

Desiring to please the king, this unworthy power-lover expressed his love for Hellenic [Hellenic <unk> Greek] civil laws, customs, and customs and promised to introduce them among the Jews: having received for his money and promises the power of the high priest, Jason deprived it of his brother, St. Onias, and began to introduce pagan lawlessness in place of the good civil laws existing among the Jews.

At the foot of Mount Zion, he set up places for entertainment, schools where Greek philosophical teachings were taught, and pavilions for young men to play; Jason even set up prostitute houses in the holy city, where adultery was unpunished, despite the direct prohibition of the law; these unnecessary houses were frequented mainly by young men who had studied the Hellenic arts.

By introducing Hellenistic wickedness into Jerusalem, Jason turned many away from true worship, so that even the priests abandoned the temple of God to pagan spectacles, runs, wrestling, and other games and wildness; 6 and even more so the young and unstable in the law, who extolled Hellenic laws and customs and, forgetting the law of God, were easily inclined to wickedness.

But the men of the law, and the godly men, seeing the iniquity that was done in Jerusalem, could not help sighing for the destruction of the covenant of the Lord, and for the profanation of the holy city; and they wept for their own kindred, who followed in the footsteps of the blind leader Jason, who out of love for God and His law, sold the faith of the fathers, and introduced so many causes of temptation and fall among the people of God.

Jason exercised his illegally acquired power for three years, after which he was banished by another, like him, power-loving and adherent to Hellenistic wickedness, Menelaus; thus Jason himself had to suffer what he had previously done to his righteous brother Onias.

Menelaus gave the king more money and in return received the power of the high priesthood; by expelling Jason, he obtained the violent death of the wicked royal nobleman and the former high priest, the righteous Onias.

The people killed Lysimah for stealing church vessels and money. Menelaus, wishing to avenge his brother's death, bought the king's right to punish the Jerusalemites with death and many of them, received the king's power of the high priest (2Mac.4:23-50).

And there was a marvelous sign, the coming of the wrath of God upon the city: there were seen in the air legions of soldiers, clothed in golden garments, and with helmets on their heads, soldiers riding on horses, going into battle with one another, with naked swords and spears in their hands; some cut each other with swords, some lifted up spears and shields, some shot arrows at one another.

There was a flash of fire.

And the word came to Jerusalem, saying, The king is dead in the war; and the Egyptians went down to Egypt.

And the godly men of Jerusalem rejoiced, and made merry, and made merry, when they saw that the wicked king was dead, and that he had returned alive out of Egypt to Syria; and they set their hearts against him, and gave him no tribute, and prepared themselves to fight against him.

When the king heard this, he was very angry, and came with an army to Jerusalem; and the gates of Jerusalem were shut before him, but they could not resist him strongly enough, because there were divisions among the besieged, and those who had turned to Hellenic wickedness, especially the false high priest Menelaus, were fond of the king.

When the king had taken the city, he commanded that all who were found in the streets should be slaughtered without mercy, and that men, women, old men, young men, and infants should be put to death in the houses; and in three days the number of the slain was eighty thousand, and forty thousand were bound and cast into prisons, and almost as many were given to the soldiers as captives.

In his pride the king, under the leadership of the traitor of the fatherland and the law <unk> Menelaus, dared to enter the temple of God; here he took the golden altar, the golden lampstand, the golden incense stands and all the precious vessels donated by the kings for the decoration of the temple; he also seized the curtain, the crowns and other gold ornaments and the hidden gold and silver he found.

After desolating and desecrating God's temple, devastating the city and filling it with blood and tears, the king returned to Antioch, and in Jerusalem and throughout Judea Antiochus left for torture even more than himself, cruel tormentors.

And it came to pass at the end of those days, that Antiochus sent to all the provinces of his kingdom, and to all the peoples of his kingdom, to worship the same gods, and to keep the same laws. And many of the Jews also did so, and they sacrificed to idols, and profaned the sabbath.

A few days after the decree was issued, the king sent one of his advisers, an Athenian of birth, from Antioch to Jerusalem with the task of forcing all Jews to renounce their ancestral laws, worship idols, and eat meat sacrificed to idols; he gave a special order to force the Jews to eat pork, which was forbidden by law.

And the king's messenger came with the king's army, and profaned the house of Jehovah, and set up an abomination in the house of Jehovah, and caused the people of God to do the same.

And many of them that had not the hardening of the soul did hasten to sacrifice unto idols; and they that had the hardening of the faith fled to the mountains, and to the deserts, and to the caves, and to the holes.

Those who remained in the city were seized and forced to go to the king's birthday and other pagan festivals to offer sacrifices to idols.

And the king's eunuchs heard it told him, saying, Two women have circumcised their children.

Then the tormentor ordered the women to be seized and led around the city to be scorned, and the infants were dragged by their necks to the nipples; then they were thrown from the city wall with their heads down; thus the mothers and their babies died a martyr's death.

After this, one of the first scribes, a priest named Eleazar, was captured, an elderly man with gray hair, very good-looking, famous for his wisdom and piety; he was known to all as one of the first teachers of the law in Jerusalem: he was one of the seventy-two interpreters who translated the holy Scriptures from Hebrew to the Greek king of Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus.

When Lazarus was brought to the torturer and forced to eat pork, he chose to die a glorious martyr's death for God's law rather than live a dishonorable and displeasing life.

Thus Eleazar willingly went to the torture stake; he spit out the way because he was forced to touch unclean flesh with his mouth; he set an example for other God-fearing Jews who were also threatened with death for obeying God's law, in effect teaching them that they should not commit sin in order to preserve earthly life, that they should not be enraged by God's law-breaking attachment to it.

And some of the heathen, who had long known Lazarus, took pity on him, and brought him in secret, in place of the swine's flesh, other flesh, which was not forbidden by law, and said in his ear, Take this, and eat it before all, instead of the swine's flesh; and all that see thee eat it, shall say, It is the king's flesh, and thou shalt thus escape torment and death.

I would rather go to hell than to provoke my lord by transgressing his holy law, and I should not, having reached the age of old age, be hypocritical in the seduction of many young men, who, when they see me doing what you advise me, will say, 'Look, Eleazar in his old age has left the ancient law of our fathers for the law of the heathen,' and because of my hypocrisy they will turn away from the true God and perish in my sight.

and they will turn away from God's law and will turn to Greek immorality, and I will be ashamed of my old age for the loss of so many souls.

If I escape the torment of men, I shall not escape the punishing hand of God, either in life on earth or after death in the grave. It is better for me to die now, and to die firmly, not despondent in the torments of the holy law, I will grace my gray hairs with courage and leave a good example for the youth to imitate.

And the people that had mourned before him were filled with indignation and wrath, and the priest of God cried out to the Lord in the time of his great affliction, when he was about to die.

O Lord, who art all-knowing and all-merciful, thou knowest that though I should escape death, yet with joy and love I willingly take the cruel wounds, and suffer the grievous torments of my flesh, for thy holy name's glory I suffer.

(2 Maccabees 6:18-31) The account of the sacred books about the sufferings of St. Eleazar is supplemented by the following tradition: after being severely beaten, strong vinegar was poured into his nostrils, which gave off a foul odor, and then thrown into the fire. He prayed to God that the Lord would accept his suffering and death as a sacrifice for all the Jewish people, and gave up his spirit.

After the martyrdom of St. Lazarus, seven brothers were seized along with his mother, and as they were of noble birth, they were sent to the king himself in Antioch to be tested. Here, contrary to the express prohibition of the law, the king forced them to eat pork, which was considered a clear sign of apostasy from the Lord of Savoy, in whom the Jews believed, and an addition to the wickedness of the Hellenists, which the Jews avoided for fear of punishment.

The seven brothers, who were disciples of Eleazar, the priest and teacher of Jerusalem, remembered his advice well and remained steadfast in their piety: they did not obey the king for anything, not agreeing to break the law.

And one of his brethren, the oldest of them, answered and said, What sayest thou? Let us die rather than to break the laws of our fathers. And the king was wroth, and commanded that the pots and pans should be heated. And the king commanded that the young man's tongue should be cut off, and that his skin should be flayed, and that his body should be cut off before his brethren and his mother.

And the king commanded that the martyr, who had been stripped of all his limbs, but was still breathing, should be brought to the hearth, and be burned in the pan; and when the smoke of the pan was rising, the brethren and the mother exhorted one another to die with courage, saying, The Lord God will see, and have mercy on us, as Moses said in his song before the people, and he will have mercy on the bondmen.

And when the first of them was dead, they brought the second to be scourged, and plucked the skin of his head with the hair, and said, Shall he eat [pork] before they cut him in pieces? And he answered in his own tongue, No. And he took the same punishment as the first, and when he expired, he said, Thou, the tormentor, takest us from this life, but the King of the world shall raise us up, who are dead for his laws, to life everlasting.

Then the third brother was rebuked, and at the demand of his tongue, he immediately put it out, without fear, stretching out both hands, and courageously said, "I received them from heaven, and I do not regret them for his laws, and I hope to receive them from him again". The king himself and those who were with him were amazed at the courage of the boy, as he did not cause any suffering. When this one died, they also tortured and tortured the fourth in the same way.

And the fifth was brought forth, and he was tormented; and he said, Thou art a corrupter, and thou hast power over men, and thou doest as thou wilt; but think not that God hath forsaken our seed.

And the sixth, who was about to be put to death, said, Be not deceived, for we have sinned against our God, and a strange thing is come upon us; but think not that thou shalt escape, who hast dared to contend with God.

But the most remarkable and glorious memory is that of the mother, who, seeing her seven sons slain in one day, bore it with hope in the Lord, and, being full of courage and strengthening the feminine reasoning with the masculine spirit, encouraged each of her sons in her native tongue, saying to them:

I did not give you breath, nor did I make you alive, nor did I make you alive; but the Creator of the world, who formed man, and made all things, will give you breath, and will give you life again, because ye have not spared your souls from his commandments.

And Antiochus thought that he was despised, and took the word to be a reproach to himself, and persuaded the youngest that remained, not only with words, but also with oaths, that he would make him rich and happy, if he would depart from his father's laws, that he would be his friend, and that he would give him honourable offices.

After much persuasion, she agreed to persuade her son, and leaning over to him and laughing at the cruel torturer, she said in her native language:

"My son, have mercy on me, who carried you in my womb for nine months, and nursed you for three years. I beg you, my son, to look at the heavens and the earth and see all that is in them, and to know that God created everything from nothing, and that this is how the human race came to be. Do not be afraid of this murderer, but be worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that by the mercy of God I may redeem you with your brothers.

And while she was yet speaking, he said, What do ye see? I do not obey the king's commandment, but the law of Moses, which was given to our fathers; and thou, who makest all evil for the Jews, shalt not escape out of the hand of God; but we suffer for our sins.

If our living Lord was angry with us for a little while for admonition and punishment, He will again have mercy on His servants. But you, the wickedest and most transgressor of all men, are not arrogant in vain, boasting in false hopes that you will raise your hand against His servants, for you have not yet escaped from the judgment of the Almighty, the All-Seeing God.

But I, like my brethren, commit my soul and body to the laws of the fathers, praying to God that he may soon have mercy on the people, and that you may confess that there is only one God by your torments and punishments, and that upon me and my brethren may end the wrath of the Almighty, which has justly come upon our whole race.

And when the king was angry, he dealt more cruelly with him than with the rest, and was angry at the ridicule, and he died a clean man, trusting in the Lord with all his heart.

So the mother died with her children, laying down her soul for the law of the Lord Almighty.

And when the Lord saw the blood of his servants that had been shed, he was moved with compassion toward them, and raised up among them Judas the son of Maccabeus, who with his army fought the wicked Antiochus, and put away his captains, and slew all the transgressors, and cleansed the temple of idols, as is written in the books of Maccabees.

And when the king was in his old age, he was stricken with a terrible disease, and his bowels were full of worms, and his breath was foul, and his bowels were full of worms, and his bowels were full of foul odour, and his bowels were full of worms, and his bowels were full of foul odour, and his bowels were full of foul odour, and his bowels were full of foul odour, and his bowels were full of foul odour, and his bowels were full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour, and his bowels full of foul odour.

But the Lord did not grant mercy to him who did not grant it to others: Antiochus, without bringing true repentance, died a cruel death, arousing in all the thought of the just judgment of God. All praised Almighty God, as now he is praised by all generations and will always be praised forever and ever. Amen.

The wisdom of God, the pillar of the seventh, and the divine light of the lamp of the seventh, the Maccabees, the all-wise, before the martyrs, the greatest of the martyrs, pray with them all to God, that those who revere you may be saved.