4 Maccabees 18 - Final Exhortation, Memory, and Legacy

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The father is absent from the arena, but his teaching is still speaking. Chapter 18 remembers what he used to read, chant, and tell his children. Abel, Isaac, Joseph, the Three Holy Youths, Daniel, and the prophets had already taught them a world larger than the king’s command. The book ends by showing where courage had been growing all along: in a household receiving Scripture, and in the hope that the God who gives life can gather His people beyond death.

Historical and Scriptural Context

Chapter 17 proclaimed the martyrs’ victory and life before God. Chapter 18 asks how that witness should be carried forward. The address to the children of Abraham calls for obedience and reverence, then turns to the mother’s recollection of marriage, parenthood, and the children’s formation. The household section explains the faith that the persecution tested.

The family belongs to the martyr tradition narrated in 2 Maccabees 6 and 2 Maccabees 7. The mother’s speech in this chapter identifies her husband as dead before the loss of the sons. The narrative should not be silently rewritten to identify that father with Eleazar, whom 4 Maccabees calls a priest. The Mesra 8 Synaxarium preserves a related commemoration with different family relationships, which deserve to be stated honestly.

The father’s curriculum includes narrative, Psalm, wisdom, prophecy, and song. Together they teach righteous suffering, fidelity under accusation, refusal of idolatry, God’s presence in trial, and His power over death. The final doxology gives the right measure of the whole account. Discipline and courage have served their purpose when they end in glory to God rather than fascination with the human hero.

Geographical Significance

Jerusalem and Persia appear in the concluding account of Antiochus’ failed coercion and later warfare. Jerusalem is the place from which he departs after failing to compel abandonment of ancestral life. Persia is the direction of the further campaign. The author uses this brief account to contrast the range of imperial warfare with the king’s inability to possess faithful worship.

The chapter does not supply a detailed itinerary. Its more intimate setting is the remembered household, where the father teaches and the mother carries that teaching forward. The empire’s reach is wide; the hidden formation of a family can nevertheless outlast its threats.

The Characters 👥

• The children of Abraham: The people addressed in the final exhortation, called to turn remembrance into obedience.
• The mother: A widow who remembers her marriage, her husband’s teaching, and the scriptural formation of her children.
• The father: A teacher whose instruction continues to bear fruit after his death. His identity should not be supplied beyond what this chapter says.
• The sons: Those whose public confession was prepared through repeated household teaching.
• The scriptural witnesses: Abel, Isaac, Joseph, Phinehas, the Three Holy Youths, Daniel, Isaiah, David, Solomon, Ezekiel, and Moses, whose stories and words form a whole school of fidelity.
• Antiochus: The violent ruler placed under God’s judgment, not a warrant for private vengeance against other people.
• God: The giver of immortal life and the One to whom the book’s final glory is offered.

Light from the Word

4 Maccabees 18:1-6 - Final exhortation to Israel

4 Maccabees 18:1-6, Brenton Septuagint, public domain

¹ O Israelitish children, descendants of the seed of Abraham, obey this law, and in every way be religious. ² Knowing that religious reasoning is lord of the passions, and those not only inward but outward.

³ Whence those persons giving up their bodies to pains for the sake of religion, were not only admired by men, but were deemed worthy of a divine portion. ⁴ And the nation through them obtained peace, and having renewed the observance of the law in their country, drove the enemy out of the land. ⁵ And the tyrant Antiochus was both punished upon earth, and is punished now he is dead; for when he was quite unable to compel the Israelites to adopt foreign customs, and to desert the manner of life of their fathers, ⁶ then, departing from Jerusalem, he made war against the Persians.

The book closes by addressing Israel as children of Abraham. This matters. The argument has not been an abstract lecture on human willpower. It has been a covenantal exhortation. Those who descend from Abraham are told to obey the Law and to be religious in every way. The word “religious” here carries the sense of reverence, piety, and worshipful fidelity.

Verse 2 restates the thesis: religious reasoning is lord of the passions. The phrase must be read in the light of the whole book. Reason is not cold calculation. It is reason made devout by reverence for God, trained by the Law, sharpened by Scripture, and disciplined by obedience. The passions are inward and outward. Fear, desire, grief, pleasure, anger, pain, social pressure, bodily torment, and political coercion all try to rule. Devout reason places them under God.

Verses 3-4 summarize the martyrs’ public meaning. They gave up their bodies to pains for the sake of religion, were admired by men, and were deemed worthy of a divine portion. Through them the nation obtained peace and renewed observance of the Law. The text is not claiming that suffering automatically produces holiness. It is saying that faithful suffering, endured for God, becomes seed for communal renewal.

Verses 5-6 interpret Antiochus’ defeat. He is punished, and his deeper failure is named: he could not compel the Israelites to adopt foreign customs or desert the life of their fathers. This is the final answer to tyranny. The tyrant may damage bodies, cities, and institutions, but if he cannot make the faithful abandon God, he has failed at the deepest level.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrases: “obey this law,” “religious reasoning,” “unable to compel”

• Emphasize: The book ends with formation and obedience, not admiration from a distance.

• Avoid: Do not reduce devout reason to secular self-control or emotional suppression.

4 Maccabees 18:7-14 - A household formed by Scripture

4 Maccabees 18:7-14, Brenton Septuagint, public domain

⁷ And the righteous mother of the seven children spake also as follows to her offspring: I was a pure virgin, and went not beyond my father’s house; but I took care of the built-up rib. ⁸ No destroyer of the desert, [or] ravisher of the plain, injured me; nor did the destructive, deceitful, snake, make spoil of my chaste virginity; and I remained with my husband during the period of my prime.

⁹ And these my children, having arrived at maturity, their father died: blessed was he! for having sought out a life of fertility in children, he was not grieved with a period of loss of children. ¹⁰ And he used to teach you, when yet with you, the law and the prophets.

¹¹ He used to read to you the slaying of Abel by Cain, and the offering up of Isaac, and the imprisonment of Joseph. ¹² And he used to tell you of the zealous Phinehas; and informed you of Ananias and Azarias, and Misael in the fire. ¹³ And he used to glorify Daniel, who was in the den of lions, and pronounce him blessed.

¹⁴ And he used to put you in mind of the scripture of Esaias, which saith, Even if thou pass through the fire, it shall not burn thee.

The mother’s speech begins with chastity, marriage, motherhood, and household faithfulness. She remembers a faithful marriage and a household instructed in God’s word. Her testimony gives the setting of this family’s formation; it does not diminish children born in other circumstances or make an ideal family history a condition of human dignity.

Brenton’s phrase “the built-up rib” is obscure in English. Genesis 2:22 provides a strong background: the Greek says God “built” the rib into a woman, using ōkodomēsen. The phrase therefore probably evokes the woman’s own God-fashioned body and womanhood, held in chastity. The “destructive, deceitful, snake” in verse 8 likewise recalls the serpent of Genesis 3. The language of fidelity should not be turned against survivors of sexual violence: another person’s crime cannot take away their human dignity, make the victim guilty, or destroy that person’s purity.

Verse 9 honors the father. He has died before the martyrdom, but his teaching remains alive in the children. That is one of the chapter’s strongest pastoral lessons. Formation can outlive the visible presence of the teacher. The father is absent from the arena, yet his instruction is present in the children’s courage.

Verses 10-14 show the content of that formation. He taught them the Law and the prophets. He read Abel, Isaac, Joseph, Phinehas, the three holy youths, Daniel, and Isaiah. These are not random stories. They are a curriculum of righteous suffering, costly obedience, chastity, zeal for holiness, deliverance through fire, deliverance among beasts, and God’s promise to preserve those who pass through trial.

Abel teaches that righteous blood is seen by God. Isaac teaches trust and offering. Joseph teaches purity and endurance under false suffering. Phinehas represents zeal for covenant fidelity in the account of Numbers 25. That ancient account includes violence and is no warrant for private vengeance, abuse, or religious vigilantism. The three holy youths teach refusal to worship the image. Daniel teaches faithfulness under imperial threat. Isaiah teaches that fire cannot finally consume those held by God.

The mother is therefore not simply remembering family devotions. She is explaining why her sons could answer Antiochus. Their courage was already seeded by Scripture. When the tyrant placed them in a forced apostasy crisis, they did not need to invent faith on the spot. They drew from what had already been written into them.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrases: “he used to teach you,” “the law and the prophets,” “through the fire”

• Emphasize: Martyr courage is prepared by ordinary household formation before crisis.

• Avoid: Do not romanticize the family. Focus on faithful teaching, not idealized domestic sentiment.

4 Maccabees 18:15-19 - Psalms, wisdom, resurrection, and Moses’ song

4 Maccabees 18:15-19, Brenton Septuagint, public domain

¹⁵ He chanted to you David, the hymn-writer, who saith, Many are the afflictions of the just. ¹⁶ He declared the proverbs of Solomon, who saith, He is a tree of life to all those who do His will. ¹⁷ He used to verify Ezekiel, who said, Shall these dry bones live? ¹⁸ For he did not forget the song which Moses taught, proclaiming, I will kill, and I will make to live. ¹⁹ This is our life, and the length of our days.

The father’s teaching continues through the Psalms, Proverbs, Ezekiel, and Moses. This is a beautiful picture of Scripture as a whole household school. He does not teach only commands. He chants David. He declares Solomon. He verifies Ezekiel. He remembers Moses’ song. The children receive Scripture as song, wisdom, prophecy, and covenant confession.

David’s line, “Many are the afflictions of the just,” teaches realism. The righteous should not be surprised by suffering. This protects the children from scandal when pain arrives. If they expected obedience to mean ease, Antiochus could have weaponized their confusion. But Scripture had already taught them that the just suffer, and that suffering is not abandonment by God.

Solomon’s tree of life image teaches that wisdom is life-giving. The exact wording in 4 Maccabees differs from the familiar forms readers may know from Proverbs, but the spiritual force is clear: obedience to God’s wisdom is not sterile rule-keeping. It is life. The Law forms the soul to receive life.

Ezekiel’s dry bones and Moses’ song bring resurrectional hope into the mother’s memory. “Shall these dry bones live?” and “I will kill, and I will make to live” are not decorative citations. They teach that God has authority over death. The mother and sons can face death because death is not sovereign. God is.

Verse 19, “This is our life, and the length of our days,” draws the point together. The life of the faithful is not merely biological continuation. Life is covenant communion with God. Length of days is not only many years; it is being held in the life God gives, even when earthly years are cut short.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrases: “Many are the afflictions of the just,” “tree of life,” “I will kill, and I will make to live”

• Emphasize: Scripture taught the martyrs how to interpret suffering before suffering arrived.

• Avoid: Do not treat the mother’s remembered verses as proof-texts. They form a whole spiritual imagination.

4 Maccabees 18:20-24 - Bitter day, divine judgment, immortal souls, and doxology

4 Maccabees 18:20-24, Brenton Septuagint, public domain

²⁰ O that bitter, and yet not bitter, day when the bitter tyrant of the Greeks, quenching fire with fire in his cruel caldrons, brought with boiling rage the seven sons of the daughter of Abraham to the catapelt, and to all his torments! ²¹ He pierced the balls of their eyes, and cut out their tongues, and put them to death with varied tortures. ²² Wherefore divine retribution pursued and will pursue the pestilent wretch.

²³ But the children of Abraham, with their victorious mother, are assembled together to the choir of their fathers; having received pure and immortal souls from God. ²⁴ To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The final unit remembers the day as “bitter, and yet not bitter.” This phrase is crucial. The day is bitter because the suffering is real. The author does not baptize cruelty as if pain were sweet in itself. It is also not bitter because the martyrs do not lose God. Their death becomes witness, victory, and entrance into the company of the righteous.

Verse 21 names cruelty so that evil is not minimized, then turns immediately to divine judgment and the martyrs’ life with God. The chapter’s end gives no invitation to spectacle. The wounded belong to God, and their persons are greater than what was done to them.

Verse 22 names divine retribution. Antiochus does not escape judgment. The martyrs entrust judgment to God rather than taking vengeance into their own hands. Their witness gives no warrant for private revenge or hatred of another people. Faithful endurance joins refusal of apostasy to patience, prayer, and trust that God judges rightly.

Verse 23 gives the final hope: the children of Abraham, with their victorious mother, are assembled to the choir of their fathers and have received pure and immortal souls from God. The word “choir” is beautiful because it turns the end of torture into worship. The martyrs do not end as mutilated bodies under Antiochus. They are gathered among the fathers, alive to God.

The last line gives the right ending to the whole book: glory to God forever. The martyrs’ courage has served its purpose when it leads to worship. Pain has not become holy in itself, nor human toughness an object of devotion. The gift of life, the strength to remain faithful, and the gathering of the departed all return the heart to God.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrases: “bitter, and yet not bitter,” “divine retribution,” “choir of their fathers,” “glory for ever”
• Emphasize: The chapter ends in doxology. The martyrs’ memory should lead to worship.
• Avoid: Do not turn divine judgment into resentment or the torture details into spectacle.

The Scriptures at home and in the Church (4 Maccabees 18:10-19)

The repeated phrase “he used to” is the quiet center of the household’s strength. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 places God’s words in the ordinary rhythm of sitting at home, walking, lying down, and rising. Second Timothy 3:14-17 remembers Scripture known from childhood and directs that knowledge toward salvation through faith in Christ. The father here neither waits for a crisis nor tries to explain every future difficulty in advance. He gives his children words with which to recognize God when difficulty comes.

In a Coptic home, the Agpeya Psalms and the hymns of the Tasbeha can become part of that same repeated schooling. A child learns not only a text but what the household turns toward when it is tired, grateful, afraid, or ashamed. Memorization bears fruit when it is joined to meaning, tenderness, and a visible willingness to repent. A parent who asks forgiveness teaches how the words live.

Christological Reading

The father’s curriculum belongs within Scripture’s larger witness to Christ. Its righteous sufferers and preserved servants do not each supply an identical prediction of His Passion. They form the reader to recognize innocent suffering, costly obedience, God’s faithfulness, and life given beyond human power. Hebrews 12:22-24 brings the Christian to Jesus, Mediator of the new covenant, whose blood speaks better things than Abel’s. The saving center is the Lord Himself, not a collection of interchangeable heroes.

The father’s use of Ezekiel’s dry bones and Moses’ song directs the family toward the God who gives life. Christ makes that hope manifest in His own Resurrection. The martyrs’ immortal souls are gifts they receive from God; Christian hope also awaits the raising of their bodies. The chapter’s language should not be used to make bodily life irrelevant. The bodies wounded by the tyrant remain God’s creatures and the objects of His promise.

St Athanasius on life through the Resurrection

St Athanasius describes Christian courage as the effect of the Savior’s victory over death, rather than a native power possessed only by exceptional people. Of those who believe in Christ he writes, “For they verily know that when they die they are not destroyed, but actually [begin to] live, and become incorruptible through the Resurrection.”¹ The translator’s brackets are retained. This is a thematic Christian witness, not a direct comment on this chapter.

That witness gives the closing doxology its Christian horizon. The family is gathered with the righteous because life is God’s gift, and Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. Remembering the martyrs should therefore strengthen prayer, mercy, repentance, and fidelity. A memory that makes us proud of being harder than other people has drifted away from the Lord who gives life to the weak.

The Church’s Voice in Worship

This passage has no established place in the Coptic Orthodox lectionary.

On Mesra 8, the Coptic Synaxarium commemorates “The Martyrdom of Sts. Eleazar, Salome, His Wife, and Their Children.” This falls on August 14 in 2026, 2027 and 2028. St-Takla’s English narrative calls them Lazarus the Elder and Salomi and names their seven children. Lazarus is a Greek shortened form of Eleazar, but the family descriptions are not identical: 2 Maccabees presents Eleazar as an aged scribe, and 4 Maccabees calls him a priest, without identifying him as the brothers’ father; the mother is unnamed in those books. The Coptic narrative makes him Salomi’s husband and the children’s father. Its description of Antiochus as “King of Rome” is an anachronism, not a detail to import into the biblical history. The narrative nevertheless remembers their refusal of apostasy and says that “they received the crown of martyrdom.” This commemoration is not a lectionary reading of 4 Maccabees and does not give it the canonical standing of 1 and 2 Maccabees.²

The readings for Mesra 8 are Psalm 4:3, 6-7 and Matthew 11:25-30 at Vespers; Psalm 112:1-2 (LXX 111:1-2) and Mark 10:13-16 at Matins; and Hebrews 11:32-12:2, 1 Peter 4:12-19, Acts 19:23-41, Psalm 66:12-14 (LXX 65:12-14), and Matthew 18:10-20 at the Liturgy. Hebrews’ remembrance of those tortured in hope of a better resurrection and the Psalm’s passage through fire and water offer a fitting way to hear the martyrs’ witness. That connection is a reading of these texts together, not a claim that the lectionary supplies an official explanation of 4 Maccabees.

Much of the father’s teaching remains audible in Coptic worship. Genesis 22:1-19, the offering of Isaac, is read at the Ninth Hour of Great Thursday. Deuteronomy 32:1-43, including Moses’ song of God’s sovereignty over death and life, belongs to Bright Saturday’s Midnight Praises in Coptic Reader. Ezekiel 37:1-14 is the prophecy in the Palm Sunday General Funeral. Luke 20:27-38 belongs to the Coptic funeral rites for monks and monk-priests and to Matins on Friday of the third week of Great Lent; the Gospel of the General Funeral is instead John 5:19-29. The Ninth Hour Psalter also joins affliction, thanksgiving, and the precious death of God’s saints. The household’s instruction and the Church’s prayer draw from the same Scriptures without making this chapter itself an appointed reading.

At the Ninth Hour on Monday of Holy Pascha, Genesis 2:15-3:24 includes both the formation of the woman and the deception of the serpent. Proverbs 3:5-18, with wisdom as a tree of life, is read at Matins on Monday of the fifth week of Great Lent. Psalm 34:19-20 (LXX 33:19-20 in the lectionary reference) is the Liturgy Psalm on Abib 12 and Abib 24. The familiar words about the righteous person’s afflictions thus have a named place in the Church’s prayer, while the exact Brenton verse number differs as noted below.

The Lenten prophecies also preserve the other themes of the father’s teaching. The Friday of the fifth week service for March 20, 2026 includes Isaiah 43:1-9, with God’s promise of presence through fire. The Friday of the first week service for February 20, 2026 prints Deuteronomy 6:3-7:26, containing the command to teach the children. These are the ranges and occasions of those services; the shorter Deuteronomy 6:3-25 is not being presented as the whole reading.

The final “choir of their fathers” can be heard beside Coptic prayer for the departed. The Funeral of Men asks, “Graciously, O Lord, repose all their souls in the bosom of our holy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” and continues with the petition for the Paradise of joy.³ The same prayer asks, “Raise up their bodies also on the day which You have appointed, according to Your true promises which are without lie.”⁴ Repose and resurrection belong together. The last word spoken over a faithful life is hope in God, not the tyrant’s violence.

The wider Byzantine commemoration is kept on August 1. The Orthodox Church in America names the mother Solomonia and remembers the seven brothers with their teacher Eleazar.⁵ This broader Orthodox remembrance is distinct from the Coptic Mesra 8 narrative and does not erase the differences between them.

Spiritual Fruit

The father “used to” teach. That repetition is more searching than an appeal to one heroic act. What we repeat at home forms an expectation of life: the complaints we return to, the fears we rehearse, the judgments we pronounce, and the words of God we receive. Choose a small daily place for Scripture that can survive an ordinary tired evening. Explain one phrase well rather than turning prayer into an examination that children fear failing.

The father has died, yet his instruction continues in his sons. This consoles those whose hidden service seems to leave little visible result. A word of truth, a patient explanation, or a prayer learned beside someone may remain long after the teacher can see its fruit. Faithful teaching releases the result to God; it does not guarantee that every child will follow the same path or give a parent control over another person’s freedom.

The chapter also gives grief words without making bitterness sovereign. A day can remain bitter because cruelty and loss are real, while God’s gift of life prevents bitterness from becoming the final truth. Pray a Psalm of distress, remember a departed person by name, and perform a work of mercy in that person’s memory. Such remembrance joins sorrow to communion instead of requiring the mourner to erase the wound.

Lord Jesus Christ, write Your words into our common life before the hour of testing. Bless the hidden teachers whose patience forms hope in others. Receive our departed in Your mercy and raise their bodies according to Your promise. When the day is bitter, keep us near You, and let the final word of our life be glory to God forever.

Teaching Notes

Exhortation and the tyrant’s failure (4 Maccabees 18:1-6)

• Begin with the difference between admiration and obedience. Ask what the opening command requires after the story has been heard.
• Keep divine judgment distinct from private revenge and from contempt for Greeks, Gentiles, or any modern people.

Household formation (4 Maccabees 18:7-14)

• Explain the probable Genesis 2:22 background of “built-up rib” and the Genesis 3 resonance of the serpent without pretending every obscure phrase has been settled.
• Never imply that sexual violence makes its victim impure or that children born outside an ideal household have lesser dignity.
• Read the father’s examples as a formation in fidelity. The mention of Phinehas does not authorize private violence, religious vigilantism, or harm to another person.
• Connect the repeated instruction with Deuteronomy 6:6-9 and 2 Timothy 3:15; ask about realistic practices at home.

Psalms, wisdom, and life (4 Maccabees 18:15-19)

• Distinguish the chapter’s recalled wording from the wording of the underlying passages. Do not silently replace Brenton’s embedded text to make the quotation identical.
• Explain the Psalm numbering difference without guessing a universal offset. Keep Ezekiel’s corporate restoration context alongside its Christian resonance with resurrection.

Judgment, gathering, and doxology (4 Maccabees 18:20-24)

• Read the violence soberly and move with the text to God’s judgment and life.
• Keep immortal life and bodily resurrection together. Use the funeral prayer’s explicit petition for the raising of bodies.
• Close in prayer and doxology, not a demand to imitate dangerous actions or seek suffering.

Discussion Questions

1. Why does the book end with a command to obey rather than with praise alone?
2. What does the father’s repeated teaching reveal about the preparation of courage?
3. How can a household teach Scripture without turning it into pressure or performance?
4. Which of the father’s remembered passages gives the clearest language for a difficult season in your life?
5. What is gained by keeping the original context of Ezekiel’s dry bones beside the Christian hope of resurrection?
6. How can remembrance of the departed become prayer and mercy rather than nostalgia alone?
7. What does “bitter, and yet not bitter” allow a grieving person to acknowledge?
8. Why must divine judgment remain different from personal revenge?
9. How does the final doxology protect the book from becoming admiration for human toughness?

Glossary

• Household catechesis: Repeated teaching of faith through Scripture, prayer, example, and shared obedience in the home.
• Agpeya: The Coptic book of the hours, whose Psalms and prayers give daily life a pattern of worship.
• Tasbeha: Coptic Midnight Praise, with biblical canticles and hymns.
• Built-up rib: Brenton’s obscure phrase in 18:7, probably evoking the woman fashioned by God in Genesis 2:22.
• Divine retribution: God’s judgment of evil, distinguished from private retaliation.
• Choir of the fathers: The righteous company with whom the mother and sons are gathered before God.
• Immortal souls: Life beyond death received from God, not a denial of the body’s promised resurrection.
• Salome: The name in the Mesra 8 Coptic Synaxarium title for the otherwise unnamed mother; St-Takla’s narrative uses Salomi.

Translation Notes

Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX). In Genesis 2:22 the Greek verb is ōkodomēsen, “built,” while Brenton renders it “formed.” This supplies a strong background for “the built-up rib” in 18:7, but the interpretation remains a probable allusion, not a certainty established by the English phrase alone. The serpent language in 18:8 likewise recalls Genesis 3 in the context of a testimony about chastity and marriage.

The father’s recalled biblical lines do not all reproduce their underlying passages verbatim. In particular, 18:16 has “He is a tree of life to all those who do His will,” while Proverbs 3:18 in Brenton speaks of wisdom as “She” and of those laying hold of her. The difference should remain visible rather than becoming a proof that Proverbs contains this chapter’s exact wording.

Psalm 34:19 is the standard primary reference for the afflictions of the righteous, with LXX Psalm 33. The lectionary reference labels the appointment Psalm 34:19-20 (LXX 33:19-20); Brenton’s printed Greek-Psalter numbering places “Many are the afflictions of the righteous” at Psalm 33:20. The difference is a verse-numbering matter, not a change to the words embedded in 4 Maccabees 18:15.

Sources

• 4 Maccabees 18, Brenton’s English Septuagint (1851); 2 Maccabees 6-7 for the martyr tradition.

• Genesis 2:21-25; Genesis 3:1-7; Genesis 4; Genesis 22; Genesis 39; Numbers 25; Daniel 3; Daniel 6; Isaiah 43:1-3; Psalm 34:19 (LXX Psalm 33, Brenton verse 20); Proverbs 3:13-18; Ezekiel 37:1-14; Deuteronomy 6:3-9; Deuteronomy 32:39; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; Hebrews 12:22-24; Luke 20:27-38.

• Coptic Synaxarium, Mesra 8, and the day’s complete reading set; Holy Pascha Monday Ninth Hour and Great Thursday Ninth Hour; Bright Saturday Midnight Praises; Palm Sunday General Funeral; the funeral rites for monks and monk-priests; the named Lenten prophecies and annual Psalms explained above.

• Genesis 2:22, Greek text of Swete’s Septuagint, text, for the verb “built” and the rib fashioned into a woman.

This passage has no established place in the Coptic Orthodox lectionary.

Footnotes

1. St Athanasius, On the Incarnation 27.2, translated by Archibald Robertson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, vol. 4 (1892), text. The brackets in “[begin to]” belong to the translation. ↩

2. Coptic Synaxarium, Mesra 8, “The Martyrdom of Sts. Eleazar, Salome, His Wife, and Their Children”; St-Takla English narrative. The reading set is the Coptic calendar appointment for Mesra 8, not a reading of 4 Maccabees. ↩

3. Coptic Reader, The Funeral of Men, prayer for repose, Coptic Reader. ↩

4. Coptic Reader, The Funeral of Men, prayer for the resurrection of the bodies of the departed, Coptic Reader. ↩

5. Orthodox Church in America, “7 Holy Maccabee Martyrs,” August 1, used for the calendar remembrance and name Solomonia, not as direct commentary on 4 Maccabees. ↩