32
When they declared on oath that they did not know where the man was whom he wanted,
33
he stretched out his right hand toward the sanctuary, and swore this oath: "If you do not hand Judas over to me as a prisoner, I will level this shrine of God to the ground and tear down the altar, and build here a splendid temple to Dionysus."
34
Having said this, he went away. Then the priests stretched out their hands toward heaven and called upon the constant Defender of our nation, in these words:
35
"O Lord of all, though you have need of nothing, you were pleased that there should be a temple for your habitation among us;
36
so now, O holy One, Lord of all holiness, keep undefiled forever this house that has been so recently purified."
37
A certain Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor as a man who loved his compatriots and was very well thought of and for his goodwill was called father of the Jews.
38
In former times, when there was no mingling with the Gentiles, he had been accused of Judaism, and he had most zealously risked body and life for Judaism.
39
Nicanor, wishing to exhibit the enmity that he had for the Jews, sent more than five hundred soldiers to arrest him;
40
for he thought that by arresting him he would do them an injury.
41
When the troops were about to capture the tower and were forcing the door of the courtyard, they ordered that fire be brought and the doors burned. Being surrounded, Razis fell upon his own sword,
42
preferring to die nobly rather than to fall into the hands of sinners and suffer outrages unworthy of his noble birth.