Eleazar (2 Maccabees)

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The Martyrdom of Eleazar the Scribe by Gustave Doré, 1866.

Eleazar was a

Oriental Orthodox churches. In the Eastern Orthodox calendar their feast day is August 1
.

The main source of information about Eleazar is the book 2 Maccabees, although a variant account of someone named Eleazar is found in 3 Maccabees.

Depiction in 2 Maccabees

La constance d'Eléazar, an 18th-century oil painting by Jean Germain Drouais

Those who were in charge of that unlawful sacrifice took the man aside because of their long acquaintance with him, and privately urged him to bring meat of his own providing, proper for him to use, and to pretend that he was eating the flesh of the sacrificial meal that had been commanded by the king (...) But making a high resolve, worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and the grey hairs that he [Eleazar] had reached with distinction and his excellent life even from childhood, and moreover according to the holy God-given law, he declared himself quickly, telling them to send him to Hades.

— 2 Maccabees 6:21, 23[1]

The

2 Maccabees 6, Eleazar was an elderly and respected scribe. As part of the persecution, Jews were forbidden from keeping Jewish dietary law (kashrut); to break the practice, leading members of the community were required to publicly engage in performances of pork-eating. Eleazar was expected to do such a public performance. Some of his friends suggested he arrange to have some false meat ready, validly prepared under Jewish law, such that Eleazar could appear to be breaking the law, yet not truly break it. Eleazar sharply rebuked his friends and refused the offer, however, wishing to avoid even the appearance of breaking Jewish law. He did not wish for young Jews to think that Eleazar had gone over to a foreign religion merely to live a brief while longer and "defile and disgrace my old age". Instead, he dramatically spits out the food.[2]

As a result, Eleazar is dragged off to a torture device. (The Greek word is tympanum (

2 Maccabees 7, describes the martyrdom of the woman with seven sons, and is an immediate "answer" to Eleazar's concerns of setting a poor example: it shows seven Jewish youths remaining firm in their Judaism. In the narrative of 2 Maccabees, the wrath of God in allowing the persecution turns to mercy after the example of the martyrs, resulting in the eventual success of the Maccabean Revolt.[2]

The depiction of Eleazar's death bears some similarities to the

death of Socrates, with both being exemplars of Hellenistic ideals of a noble and proper death. Eleazar makes a final statement of his principles, as if he is a defendant at a trial and calling on God as a witness.[3]

Due to a variety of reasons, 2 Maccabees was kept as part of the

death of Jesus. Medieval and early modern Christianity often treated the martyrs more as proto-Christians than as Jews.[4][5]

Depiction in 3 Maccabees

Then a certain Eleazar, famous among the priests of the country, who had attained a ripe old age and throughout his life had been adorned with every virtue, directed the elders around him to stop calling upon the holy God, and he prayed.

Eleazar also appears in the book

Ptolemaic Egypt rather than Judea, and describes a claimed persecution during the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator. In it, Eleazar prays for deliverance of the Jews of Egypt, and God sends two invisible angels in response to his prayer who turn Ptolemy's elephants against his own men rather than the Jews. The Eleazar there is not explicitly identified as the same as the Eleazar of 2 Maccabees, but is described in similar terms, and seems to be a literary reference (as the Eleazar there is already described as old, but should be middle-aged if he was really the same person).[7]

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