4 Maccabees 13:1-7

1 Since, then, the seven brothers despised sufferings even unto death, everyone must concede that devout reason is sovereign over the emotions.

2 For if they had been slaves to their emotions and had eaten defiling food, we would say that they had been conquered by these emotions.

3 But in fact it was not so. Instead, by reason, which is praised before God, they prevailed over their emotions.

4 The supremacy of the mind over these cannot be overlooked, for the brothers mastered both emotions and pains.

5 How then can one fail to confess the sovereignty of right reason over emotion in those who were not turned back by fiery agonies?

6 For just as towers jutting out over harbors hold back the threatening waves and make it calm for those who sail into the inner basin,

7 so the seven-towered right reason of the youths, by fortifying the harbor of religion, conquered the tempest of the emotions.

Footnotes

• [a]. Gk [they]