4 Maccabees 3:18-20

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁸ it can overthrow bodily agonies even when they are extreme and by nobility of reason spurn all domination by the passions.

An Attempt on the Temple Treasury

¹⁹ The present occasion now invites us to a narrative demonstration of temperate reason.

²⁰ At a time when our ancestors were enjoying profound peace because of their observance of the law and were prospering, so that even Seleucus Nicanor, king of Asia, had both appropriated money to them for the temple service and recognized their way of life—