14
When the tyrant urged him in this fashion to eat meat unlawfully, Eleazar asked to have a word.
15
When he had received permission to speak, he began to address the people as follows:
16
"We, O Antiochus, who have been persuaded to govern our lives by the divine law, think that there is no compulsion more powerful than our obedience to the law.
17
Therefore we consider that we should not transgress it in any respect.
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Even if, as you suppose, our law were not truly divine and we had wrongly held it to be divine, not even so would it be right for us to invalidate our reputation for piety.
19
Therefore do not suppose that it would be a petty sin if we were to eat defiling food;
20
to transgress the law in matters either small or great is of equal seriousness,
21
for in either case the law is equally despised.
22
You scoff at our philosophy as though living by it were irrational,
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but it teaches us self-control, so that we master all pleasures and desires, and it also trains us in courage, so that we endure any suffering willingly;
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it instructs us in justice, so that in all our dealings we act impartially, and it teaches us piety, so that with proper reverence we worship the only living God.