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4 Maccabees
Chapter 2
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4 Maccabees 2:1
And what wonder? if the lusts of the soul, after participation with what is beautiful, are frustrated,
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4 Maccabees 2:2
on this ground, therefore, the temperate Joseph is praised in that by reasoning, he subdued, on reflection, the indulgence of sense.
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4 Maccabees 2:3
For, although young, and ripe for sexual intercourse, he abrogated by reasoning the stimulus of his passions.
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4 Maccabees 2:4
And it is not merely the stimulus of sensual indulgence, but that of every desire, that reasoning is able to master.
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4 Maccabees 2:5
For instance, the law says, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor anything that belongs to thy neighbour.
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4 Maccabees 2:6
Now, then, since it is the law which has forbidden us to desire, I shall much the more easily persuade you, that reasoning is able to govern our lusts, just as it does the affections which are impediments to justice.
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4 Maccabees 2:7
Since in what way is a solitary eater, and a glutton, and a drunkard reclaimed, unless it be clear that reasoning is lord of the passions?
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4 Maccabees 2:8
A man, therefore, who regulates his course by the law, even if he be a lover of money, straightway puts force upon his own disposition; lending to the needy without interest, and cancelling the debt of the incoming sabbath.
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4 Maccabees 2:9
And should a man be parsimonious, he is ruled by the law acting through reasoning; so that he does not glean his harvest crops, nor vintage: and in reference to other points we may perceive that it is reasoning that conquers his passions.
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4 Maccabees 2:10
For the law conquers even affection toward parents, not surrendering virtue on their account.
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4 Maccabees 2:11
And it prevails over marriage love, condemning it when transgressing law.
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4 Maccabees 2:12
And it lords it over the love of parents toward their children, for they punish them for vice; and it domineers over the intimacy of friends, reproving them when wicked.
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4 Maccabees 2:13
And think it not a strange assertion that reasoning can in behalf of the law conquer even enmity.
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4 Maccabees 2:14
It alloweth not to cut down the cultivated herbage of an enemy, but preserveth it from the destroyers, and collecteth their fallen ruins.
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4 Maccabees 2:15
And reasoning appears to be master of the more violent passions, as love of empire and empty boasting, and arrogance, and loud boasting, and slander.
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4 Maccabees 2:16
For the temperate understanding repels all these malignant passions, as it does wrath: for it masters even this.
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4 Maccabees 2:17
Thus Moses, when angered against Dathan and Abiram, did nothing to them in wrath, but regulated his anger by reasoning.
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4 Maccabees 2:18
For the temperate mind is able, as I said, to be superior to the passions, and to transfer some, and destroy others.
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4 Maccabees 2:19
For why, else, does our most wise father Jacob blame Simeon and Levi for having irrationally slain the whole race of the Shechemites, saying, Cursed be their anger.
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4 Maccabees 2:20
For if reasoning did not possess the power of subduing angry affections, he would not have spoken thus.
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4 Maccabees 2:21
For at the time when God created man, He implanted within him his passions and moral nature.
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4 Maccabees 2:22
And at that time He enthroned above all the holy leader mind, through the medium of the senses.
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4 Maccabees 2:23
And He gave a law to this mind, by living according to which it will maintain a temperate, and just, and good, and manly reign.
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4 Maccabees 2:24
How, then, a man may say, if reasoning be master of the passions, has it no control over forgetfulness and ignorance?
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Chapter 2 · All reading sections
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About this edition
4 Maccabees — Brenton historical English
Unverified edition
Reading language: eng · Original language (catalog): Ancient source language(s)
Recorded completeness: All 18 chapter files and 483 supplied numbered verses of this identified English witness; all supplied footnotes retained. No claim that this translation is an original-language source or HSLT. This independent historical edition retains its own source readings.. Available reading sections are listed below.
Available body coverage · eng
18 chapter/reading unit(s) · 483 nonempty passage record(s).
Supported chapters & passages
- Chapter 1 · 35 passage record(s)
- Chapter 2 · 24 passage record(s)
- Chapter 3 · 21 passage record(s)
- Chapter 4 · 26 passage record(s)
- Chapter 5 · 38 passage record(s)
- Chapter 6 · 35 passage record(s)
- Chapter 7 · 25 passage record(s)
- Chapter 8 · 27 passage record(s)
- Chapter 9 · 32 passage record(s)
- Chapter 10 · 21 passage record(s)
- Chapter 11 · 27 passage record(s)
- Chapter 12 · 20 passage record(s)
- Chapter 13 · 27 passage record(s)
- Chapter 14 · 20 passage record(s)
- Chapter 15 · 32 passage record(s)
- Chapter 16 · 25 passage record(s)
- Chapter 17 · 24 passage record(s)
- Chapter 18 · 24 passage record(s)
Body coverage is separate from textual verification. Counts do not establish complete chapters or textual completeness.
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