- 1 4 Maccabees 1 Α′ The book opens by arguing that pious reason rules the passions, defines reason, wisdom, and virtue in relation to the law, and identifies the coming martyr narratives as the decisive proof of that claim. PDF
- 2 4 Maccabees 2 Β′ The law is shown actively disciplining desire, greed, family affection, friendship, and anger, so that reason appears not as abstraction but as practical mastery over ordinary human impulses. PDF
- 3 4 Maccabees 3 Γ′ Reason does not destroy the passions but governs them, and David's refusal of the life-risking water becomes the key illustration before the narrative turns toward the Seleucid crisis. PDF
- 4 4 Maccabees 4 Δ′ Jerusalem's crisis is traced from Simon's betrayal and sacrilegious intrigue through Jason's corruption and Antiochus' Hellenizing tyranny, setting the stage for the martyrs' test of pious reason. PDF
- 5 4 Maccabees 5 Ε′ Eleazar stands before Antiochus and answers the tyrant's appeal to expediency by presenting obedience to the law as the truest philosophy and the surest mastery over appetite, fear, and honor. PDF
- 6 4 Maccabees 6 Ϛ′ Eleazar's torture, refusal of pious pretense, and final prayer prove that pious reason can master pain and death no less than pleasure, making his martyrdom an atoning witness for the nation. PDF
- 7 4 Maccabees 7 Ζ′ Eleazar's death is interpreted through images of seamanship, siege, priesthood, and patriarchal fidelity as a luminous demonstration that pious reason holds firm amid suffering. PDF
- 8 4 Maccabees 8 Η′ The seven brothers and their mother are brought before Antiochus, whose flattery, threats, and torture devices only sharpen the contrast between tyrannical power and the brothers' reasoned resolve. PDF
- 9 4 Maccabees 9 Θ′ The brothers' collective reply and the deaths of the first martyrs turn the courtroom of Antiochus into a reversal in which the tyrant stands condemned and steadfast obedience is crowned with immortal hope. PDF
- 10 4 Maccabees 10 Ι′ The third and fourth brothers meet mutilation and death with familial solidarity and eschatological confidence, showing that pious reason can transform torture itself into witness against the tyrant. PDF
- 11 4 Maccabees 11 ΙΑ′ The fifth and sixth brothers continue the martyr contest, exposing Antiochus as already judged by God while proving that disciplined reason remains stronger than contrived pain. PDF
- 12 4 Maccabees 12 ΙΒ′ The youngest brother rejects both pity and royal favor, denounces Antiochus with prophetic sharpness, and dies in prayer, bringing the brothers' witness to its fiercest climax. PDF
- 13 4 Maccabees 13 ΙΓ′ The seven brothers' endurance is explicitly interpreted as proof that devout reason rules pain and affection alike, with their mutual exhortation revealing martyrdom as a shared victory of piety. PDF
- 14 4 Maccabees 14 ΙΔ′ The brothers' harmony is praised through cosmic and bodily analogies, and the marvel of their unity prepares the reader for the even greater steadfastness of their mother. PDF
- 15 4 Maccabees 15 ΙΕ′ The mother of the seven is extolled as the supreme human exemplar of piety, choosing fidelity to God over her children's temporal safety and enduring the spectacle of all their deaths without collapse. PDF
- 16 4 Maccabees 16 ΙϚ′ The mother's steadfast exhortation is held forth as the climactic proof that devout reason can rule even the most powerful maternal grief, pain, and fear. PDF
- 17 4 Maccabees 17 ΙΖ′ The martyrs are praised through epitaph, architecture, and athletic imagery, and their deaths are interpreted as both heavenly victory and atoning defense of the nation. PDF
- 18 4 Maccabees 18 ΙΗ′ The book closes by exhorting Israel to honor the martyrs, recalling the mother's scriptural catechesis of her sons, and sealing the whole argument with divine justice, covenant memory, and doxology. PDF