The Koine Bible

But if indeed the seven brothers despised the pains even to death, it is agreed from every side that the devout reason is master of the passions itself

For if, having been enslaved to the passions, they had eaten defiled meat, we would say that they had been conquered by these things.

But now not so, but by the reasoning praised by God they prevailed over the passions

whose rule of the mind it is not possible to overlook, for they prevailed over both passion and pains

How then is it not possible for these to confess the mastery of passion of blessing, who were not turned back from the pains through fire?

For just as towers of harbors, checking the threats of the waves, provide calm to those sailing in into the harbor

Thus the seven-towered good reasoning of the young men, having fortified the harbor of piety, conquered the lack of self-control of the passions.

For having set up a sacred choir of piety, they encouraged one another, saying:

Let us die as brothers, brothers, for the law; let us imitate the three young men in Assyria, who despised the equal-citizenship furnace.

Let us not play the coward in the display of piety.

And the one said, Take courage, brother, and the other, Endure nobly.

But he, being reminded, said, Remember from where you are, or of what father Isaac endured to be slaughtered by the hand for piety.

And each one, all together looking at one another, bright and very courageous, said to themselves, Let us dedicate ourselves to God with all the heart, to him who has given our souls, and let us use our bodies for the keeping of the law.

Let us not fear the one who seems to kill.

For great is the contest of the soul and the danger lying in eternal torment for those who have transgressed the commandment of God.

Therefore let us arm ourselves with the mastery over passions of the divine reason.

For in this way Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will receive us when we have died, and all the fathers will praise us

And to each one of those being torn away from them the remaining ones were saying: Do not disgrace us, brother, nor prove false to our brothers who have died before us.

But you do not ignore the bonds of brotherhood, which divine and all-wise providence apportioned through fathers to those being born, and through the mother’s womb planting them up.

in which brothers, having dwelt an equal time and having been formed in the same time and having grown from the same blood and having been brought to perfection through the same soul

and having been borne for the same periods of time and drinking milk from the same fountains from which they were nurtured, souls loving their brothers from embraces

and they grow more strongly through companionship and the daily habit and the other training and our practice in the law of God

Thus indeed, then, since brotherly affection had been established as compassionate, the seven brothers were more compassionate toward one another

For having been disciplined by the same law and having practiced the same virtues and having been brought up in the righteous life, they loved themselves all the more

For the rivalry of noble goodness stretched out their goodwill and unanimity toward one another.

For together with piety they made brotherly love more desirable for themselves

But nevertheless, although the attractions of brotherhood, of nature and of custom and of the habits of virtue were growing together for them, the remaining brothers held back, seeing those being scourged being tormented even to death, because of piety.