1
Furthermore, they encouraged them to face the torture, so that they not only despised their agonies, but also mastered the emotions of brotherly love.
2
O reason, more royal than kings and freer than the free!
3
O sacred and harmonious concord of the seven brothers on behalf of religion!
4
None of the seven youths proved coward or shrank from death,
5
but all of them, as though running the course toward immortality, hastened to death by torture.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.