Context No. 2778 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

2 Maccabees 6:7-11: in context

7On the day of the king’s birth every month, they were led along with bitter constraint to eat of the sacrifices. When the feast of Dionysia came, they were compelled to go in procession in honor of Dionysus, wearing wreaths of ivy. 8A decree went out to the neighboring Greek cities, by the suggestion of Ptolemy, that they should observe the same conduct against the Jews, and should make them eat of the sacrifices, 9and that they should kill those who didn’t choose to go over to the Greek rites. So the present misery was for all to see. 10For example, two women were brought in for having circumcised their children. These, when they had led them publicly around the city with the babes hung from their breasts, they threw down headlong from the wall. 11Others who had run together into the caves nearby to keep the seventh day secretly, were betrayed to Philip and were all burned together, because their piety kept them from defending themselves, in view of the honor of that most solemn day.

This is a harrowing account of persecution, and it should be read slowly and with respect. Under Antiochus, Jews are dragged monthly to eat pagan sacrifices and forced to march in the procession of Dionysus. A decree spreads to nearby cities: make them conform, and kill those who refuse. Two mothers who had circumcised their sons are paraded through the city with the babies at their breasts and thrown from the wall. Others, hiding in caves to keep the Sabbath, are burned alive because their reverence for the holy day kept them from defending themselves.

The writer records these deaths not as defeat but as faithfulness. These are people who would not betray their covenant with God even to stay alive, and the book honors them as witnesses, not as fools who threw their lives away. Their devotion cost them everything, and the account refuses to let them vanish quietly into the machinery of persecution. It is part of the long memory that would one day become the church's roll of martyrs.

Is there any loyalty to God I hold so deeply that I would keep it even at great cost, or does my faith end where the danger begins?

Sources

2 Maccabees 6:11: "Because their piety kept them from defending themselves, in view of the honor of that most solemn day."
Hebrews 11:35: "Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection."
Revelation 12:11: "They overcame him because of the Lamb's blood... and they didn't love their life, even to death."