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The tyrant Antiyokhos, therefore, sitting in public state with his assessors upon a certain lofty place, with his armed troops standing in a circle around him,
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commanded his spearbearers to seize every one of the Ivrim, and to compel them to taste swine flesh and things offered to carved powers.
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Should any of them be unwilling to eat the accursed food, they were to be tortured on the wheel and so killed.
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When many had been seized, a foremost man of the assembly, a Ivri (Hebrew), by name Elazar, a kohen by family, by profession a lawyer, and advanced in years, and for this reason known to many of the king’s followers, was brought near to him.
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Antiyokhos, seeing him, said,
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“I would counsel you, old man, before your tortures begin, to taste the swine 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 one trained in wisdom in retaining what you call the superstition of the Yehudim (Jews).
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For therefore, since nature has conferred upon you the most excellent flesh of this animal, do you loathe it?
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It seems senseless not to enjoy what is pleasant, yet not disgraceful; and from notions of sinfulness, to reject the gifts of nature.
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You will be acting, I think, still more senselessly, if you follow vain conceits about the truth.
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You will, moreover, be despising me to your own punishment.
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Won’t you awake from your trifling disciplined wisdom, give up the folly of your notions, and regaining understanding worthy of your age, search into the truth of an expedient course?
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Won’t you respect my kindly admonition and have pity on your own years?
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For bear in mind that if there is any power which watches over this covenantal Way of yours, it will pardon you for all transgressions of the Torah which you commit through compulsion.”
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While the tyrant incited him in this manner to the unlawful eating of meat, Elazar begged permission to speak.
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Having received permission to speak, he began to address the people as follows:
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“We, O Antiyokhos, who are persuaded that we live under the Torah established by Elohim, consider no compulsion to be so forcible as obedience to that Torah.
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Therefore we consider that we ought not to transgress the Torah in any way.
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Indeed, were our Torah (as you suppose) not truly from Elohim, and if we wrongly think it from Elohim, we would have no right even in that case to destroy our sense of covenantal Way.
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Don’t think that eating ritually unclean meat is a trifling offence.
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For transgression of the Torah, whether in small or great matters, is of equal importance;
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for in either case the Torah is equally slighted.
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But you deride our disciplined wisdom, as though we lived in it irrationally.
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Yet it instructs us in self-control, so that we are superior to all pleasures and lusts; and it trains us in courage, so that we cheerfully undergo every grievance.
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It instructs us in righteousness, so that in all our dealings we give what is due. It teaches us covenant faithfulness, so that we properly worship the one and only Elohim.
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That is why we don’t eat ritually unclean food; for believing that the Torah was established by Elohim, we are convinced that the Creator of the world, in giving his laws, sympathises with our nature.
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Those things which are suitable for our inner lives, he has directed us to eat; but those which are not, he has forbidden.
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But, tyrant-like, you not only force us to break the Torah, but also to eat, that you may ridicule us as we thus profanely eat.
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But you won’t have this cause of laughter against me,
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nor will I transgress the set-apart oaths of my forefathers to keep the Torah.
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No, not if you pluck out my eyes, and consume my entrails.
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I am not so old, and void of courage as to not be youthful in reason and in defence of my covenantal Way.
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Now then, prepare your wheels, and kindle a fiercer flame.
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I will not so pity my old age, as on my account to break the Torah of my land.
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I will not play false to you, O Torah, my instructor, or forsake you, O beloved self-control!
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I will not put you to shame, O one trained in wisdom Reason, or deny you, O honoured priesthood and knowledge of the Torah.
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Mouth! You shall not pollute my old age, nor the full stature of a perfect life.
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My ancestors will receive me as pure, not having feared your compulsion, even to death.
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For you will rule like a tyrant over the lawless, but you will not rule over my thoughts about covenantal Way, either by your arguments, or through deeds.”