4 Maccabees 8:25-27

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

²⁵ Not even the law itself would arbitrarily put us to death for fearing the instruments of torture. ²⁶ Why does such contentiousness excite us and such a fatal stubbornness please us, when we can live in peace if we obey the king?’

²⁷ But the youths, though about to be tortured, neither said any of these things nor even seriously considered them.