Chapter X.
How much praise is deserved by the priest Eleazar for enduring punishments steadfastly, for which he should truly be considered blessed.
43. Nor will I pass over you, Eleazar, the high priest, but you must be prayed for, since you are a priest's priest; both an elder skilled in the law and a teacher who lived a long life. When you were offered to the prosecutor Antiochus, you were not captured by his temptations, nor were you swayed by his rewards, nor were you broken by the severity of his punishments. Finally, he resorted to flattery, thinking that his torments could overcome you. 'I blush,' he said, 'at your gray hair, I revere your old age, I admire your prudence. Why do you think you should abstain from the good foods that nature provides?' Relax this stubbornness of yours, wake up at some point, while you still prefer to persuade than to force; lest, defeated, you make yourself subject to punishments that you refute with reason. To this, the old man responded: We, Antiochus, are not led by intention, but by reverence for the Law, which commands abstaining from pork. You consider it a most beautiful creature; nevertheless, you cannot deny that temperance is more powerful than pleasure, that obedience to the law is superior to transgression. But if you think this is a trivial matter, to eat pork: he who disregards the law in small things, how will he hold to it in great things? Or if this creature is precious; you will be avenged, when we are deprived of that which is most beautiful. But our abstinence is a discipline of chastity. For we learn to cut off luxury, to conquer desires, to exclude lusts, to resist the pleasures of the body. It is also an exercise of fortitude, not to yield to punishments for the Law. Justice and prudence also require that we reserve what we have chosen to follow with fear of God, even in the face of death. Who will demand food for the free? But who will make himself a laughingstock in order to serve this, and not be laughed at? I am not so old that the strength of my spirit does not rejuvenate.
Suspensus itaque cum hinc atque inde graviter verberaretur, nec jam ferrent senilia membra verberum poenas, lassatis carnificibus atque extensoribus, in terram deflexus inflexibilem mentem gerebat. Et quidam seu longaevam miseratus aetatem, seu tentamentis circumvenire desiderans: Responde, inquit,tantummodo te manducaturum: nos te escae ejus immunem praestabimus. At ille clamans: Nequaquam, inquit, contingat mihi, ut fiam senex incentivum juvenilis erroris, qui huc usque eram forma salutaris instituti. Am I going to deceive myself with illusions, so I can profit from a short-lived life and devote all the labors of my existence as a small provision for old age? Old age should be a haven, not the shipwreck of a previous life. I will not deny you, O sacred laws of the fatherland; I will not renounce you, venerable institutions of our forefathers; I will not tarnish you, priestly robes; I will not openly defile you with the dust of treachery, O gray hair! In short, through enduring torment, he has become the master of perseverance for others, having been chosen as an example of weakness. Therefore, blessed is he in whom torments could not overcome reason. Is he not blessed, who could be a conqueror of punishments by the strength of his soul, and preserve his passion unscathed in such great waves of suffering through the remedy of piety?