The persecution was methodical and savage. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle preserved by Moses Gaster in 1899, Phillipos, the officer left behind by Antiochus, carried out the king's orders with precision. He prohibited the people of Judah from studying the Torah, banned their worship, supported the wicked, and slaughtered many of the Hassidim—the pious faithful.
Two women were discovered who had circumcised their newborn sons. The authorities hanged them by their breasts with their infants and hurled them from the top of a tower. Others fled to caves to observe the Sabbath in secret. When soldiers found them, they sealed the cave entrances and burned everyone alive—men, women, and children who refused to desecrate God's day.
Then came the test of Eleazar, a priest and elder, ninety years old. The authorities ordered him to eat swine's flesh. He refused. They tried to reason with him: just open your mouth and pretend. His friends urged him to accept a substitution—they would secretly place permitted meat before him, and he could eat that instead. No one would know.
Eleazar refused that too. He was ninety years old, he said, and if the young people saw him pretend to violate God's law—even as a ruse—they would think the old man had truly abandoned his faith. "Shall I bring this shame upon my grey hairs?" he asked. Better to die honestly than to live as a fraud. The soldiers beat him with every weapon they had, without pity. As they struck him, Eleazar groaned a final prayer: "O Lord my God, You know I could have saved myself from this death, but I did not wish to, on account of my love for You." He died with those words on his lips, leaving—as the chronicle puts it—"might to his people and power to his young men."
LXXXVIII. (1) The king then returned to Macedonia,
and, having left Phillipos in the land of Judah, he (PhilHp)
acted according to the word of the king, and prohibited the
people of Judah from studying the Torah and from per-
forming the service of their God. He supported the wicked
and the rebellious of our people, and slew many of the con-
gregation of the Hassidim.
(2) At that time two women were discovered who had
circumcised their children. They hanged them by their
breasts, and hurled them with their children from the top
262 [LXXXVIII. 3
of a tower; they burst open and died. (3) After this Eleazar,
the chief of the priests, of whom we have spoken as having
gone to Egypt in the days of Ptolemy, was captured and
brought to PhiUip. And Phillip said to him, 'Eleazar,
thou art a wise man and a man of understanding, now, do
not transgress the command of the king, but eat of the
flesh of his sacrifice.' But Eleazar replied, ' Far be it
from me to set aside the command of my God for the per-
formance of the command of the king.' Then did Phillip
call him aside and say, * Thou knowest that I have loved
thee now for many years, therefore I have pity for thy soul
and for thy old age. Now let a portion of the flesh of your
own sacrifices which you are allowed to eat be brought to
thee, and eat it before the people so that they will say thou
eatest of the flesh of the king's sacrifice. By this means
thou canst save thy life and not die.'
(4) When Eleazar heard this he thought of the greatness
of his honour and of the sanctity of his glory, and said to
Phillip, ' I am now ninety years old, and have never yet
served my God with deceit, nor is it meet for me now to
do so and to deceive man, for then the young men will
say, " Since Eleazar, although ninety years of age, has
frustrated the law of his God, we can also do so," and they
will thus bring destruction upon themselves. Now, far be
it from me to defile my holiness, to taint the purity of my
old age, and to cause these young men with me to waver,
and give them the pretext for saying, " Eleazar, although
ninety years of age, has sinned against his God, and has
chosen to serve the vanities of the nations; let us do like-
wise." For even if I escape from your hands to-day, I
cannot escape God, for no man can, either living or dead,
since His dominion extends over the living to bring death
upon them, and over the dead to quicken them to life. I
shall therefore die true to my faith, and shall leave my
power behind to my people and my young men, so that
when they see me give up my life so readily, they will
desire to follow my example, and thus keep their Torah
precious, and will choose a worthy death.'
Lxxxix. 2] 263
(5) As soon, however, as Phillipos heard these words, he
turned exceedingly cruel, and commanded his men to bind
the pious old man and to beat him. They thereupon smote
him with all manner of weapons without pity, and he
groaned, saying, ' 0 Lord my God, who hast caused me to
reach this old age, Thou knowest that I was able to deliver
my soul from such a death, but did not wish to do so on
account of my love for Thee. Now they smite so cruelly
and fiercely that I would not be able to bear it were it not
for my fear of Thee, which renders them as nothing in my
eyes, and I suffer them willingly.' While he was still
speaking these words his life closed, and he left might to
his people and power to his young men.
