6 “I would counsel you, old man, before your tortures begin, to taste the swine’s flesh, and save your life; for I feel respect for your age and hoary head, which since you have had so long, you appear to me to be no philosopher in retaining the superstition of the Jews. (WEB) 7 For therefore, since nature has conferred upon you the most excellent flesh of this animal, do you loathe it? (WEB) 8 It seems senseless not to enjoy what is pleasant, yet not disgraceful; and from notions of sinfulness, to reject the gifts of nature. (WEB)
4 Maccabees 5:6–8
Semantically similar passages
Epistle to Diognetus 4:1–3
1 But again their scruples concerning meats, and their superstition relating to the sabbath and the vanity of their circumcision and the dissimulation of their fasting and new moons, I do [not] suppose you need to learn from me, are ridiculous and unworthy of a… (DIO)
4 Maccabees 11:15–17
15 I was born and reared to the same end. We are bound to die also on behalf of the same cause. (WEB) 16 So if you think it is proper to torment us for not eating the unclean, then torment!” (WEB) 17 As he said this, they brought him to the wheel. (WEB)
4 Maccabees 5:26–28
26 Those things which are suitable for our souls, he has directed us to eat; but those which are not, he has forbidden. (WEB) 27 But, tyrant-like, you not only force us to break the law, but also to eat, that you may ridicule us as we thus profanely eat. (WEB) 28 But you won’t have… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 11:24–26
24 We six youths have destroyed your tyranny. (WEB) 25 For isn’t your inability to overrule our reasoning, and to compel us to eat the unclean, your destruction? (WEB) 26 Your fire is cold to us. Your racks are painless, and your violence harmless. (WEB)
4 Maccabees 8:21–23
21 Divine Justice will pardon us if we fear the king through necessity. (WEB) 22 Why withdraw ourselves from a most sweet life, and deprive ourselves of this pleasant world? (WEB) 23 Let’s not oppose necessity, nor seek vain-glory by our own torture. (WEB)
4 Maccabees 1:32–34
32 But of the lusts, some belong to the soul and others to the body. Reasoning appears to rule over both. (WEB) 33 Otherwise, how is it that when urged on to forbidden meats, we reject the gratification which would come from them? Isn’t it because reasoning is able to com… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 7:5–7
5 For father Eleazar, projecting his disposition, broke the raging waves of the emotions as with a jutting cliff. (WEB) 6 O priest worthy of the priesthood! You didn’t pollute your sacred teeth, nor make your appetite, which had always embraced the clean and lawful, a p… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 9:15–17
15 “O most accursed tyrant, and enemy of heavenly justice, and cruel-hearted, I am no murderer, nor sacrilegious man, whom you torture, but a defender of the Divine law.” (WEB) 16 And when the spearmen said, “Consent to eat, that you may be released from your tortures,” (WEB) 17 he… (WEB)
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