4 Maccabees 13:1-3

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Reason’s Sovereignty in the Seven

13 Since, then, the seven brothers despised sufferings even unto death, everyone must concede that pious reason is sovereign over the passions. ² For if they had been slaves to their passions and had eaten defiling food, we would say that they had been conquered by these passions. ³ But in fact it was not so. Instead, by reason, which is praised before God, they prevailed over their passions.