17
For if we so die, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us, and all the fathers will praise us."
18
Those who were left behind said to each of the brothers who were being dragged away, "Do not put us to shame, brother, or betray the brothers who have died before us."
19
You are not ignorant of the affection of brotherhood, which the divine and all-wise Providence has bequeathed through the fathers to their descendants and which was implanted in the mother's womb.
20
There each of the brothers dwelt the same length of time and was shaped during the same period of time; and growing from the same blood and through the same life, they were brought to the light of day.
21
When they were born after an equal time of gestation, they drank milk from the same fountains. For such embraces brotherly-loving souls are nourished;
22
and they grow stronger from this common nurture and daily companionship, and from both general education and our discipline in the law of God.
23
Therefore, when sympathy and brotherly affection had been so established, the brothers were the more sympathetic to one another.
24
Since they had been educated by the same law and trained in the same virtues and brought up in right living, they loved one another all the more.
25
A common zeal for nobility expanded their goodwill and harmony toward one another,
26
because, with the aid of their religion, they rendered their brotherly love more fervent.
27
But although nature and companionship and virtuous habits had augmented the affection of brotherhood, those who were left endured for the sake of religion, while watching their brothers being maltreated and tortured to death.