Recounting various heroes of faith, the author of Hebrews, in 11:35,
writes:
Women received their
dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in
order to obtain a better resurrection. (NRSV)
To those who may be unfamiliar with non-canonical texts, this might seem
an obscure and difficult text; notwithstanding, if one is familiar with texts
such as the pseudepigrapha and the Apocrypha (cf. D&C 91), we see that the
author of Hebrews (fwiw, I hold to Lukan authorship of the epistle) is
recounting well-known traditions to his audience. As Daniel McClellan wrote in
a recent essay:
Chapter 11 of Hebrews
is a famous explanation of and exhortation to faith that appeals to a number of
narratives and traditions about the heroes of Jewish history. The author
mentions Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and many other. In Hebrews
11:35-37, the author states, “Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were
tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better
resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
moreover, of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder,
were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and
goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.”
Two references are of interest to us. First,
verse 35b refers to those who did not accept deliverance from torture in the
interest of obtaining a “better resurrection.” Second, verse 37 refers to someone
being “sawn asunder.” Neither of these two references fits with the stories from
out OT, which raises the question of the traditions to which the author is
referring.
Fortunately, this mystery is not terribly
difficult to solve. The first reference is to the book 2 Maccabees, which is
found in the Apocrypha (or what Catholics call the deuterocanonical books) and
was included in the early uncial manuscripts like Sinaiticus (fourth century)
and Alexandrinus (fifth century). Second Maccabees recounts historical events
related to the Jewish revolt from Antiochus IV Epiphanes during the 160s BC. It
expand on the narrative from the first seven chapters of the book of 1
Maccabees, filling in some additional detail, including a well-known narrative
about the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons, which is likely the source
of the reference in Hebrews 11:35. According to that narrative, Antiochus arrested
the mother and her seven sons and threatened to torture them if they do not eat
por. One by one, they refused and were tortured to death. Several of the sons
declared that while Antiochus will have nothing but divine punishment to look
forward to, they look forward to a glorious resurrection as a result of dying
for the law:
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2 Maccabee 7:9
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2 Maccabee 7:14
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And when
he was at his last breath, “You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this
present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting
renewal of life, because we have died for his laws.”
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When he
was near death, he said, “One cannot but choose to die at the hands of
mortals and to cherish the hope God gives of being raised again by him. But
for you there will be no resurrection to life.”
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The reference in Hebrews 11 to one “sawn
asunder” comes from an early Jewish composition known as the Martyrdom of Isaiah, incorporated into a
Christian text known as the Martyrdom and
Ascension of Isaiah. In the first chapter of this work, the prophet Isaiah
prophesies of his death (Martyrdom and
Ascension of Isaiah 1:9); “He will cause many in Jerusalem and Judah to
desert the truth faith, and Beliar will dwell in Manasseh, and by his hands I
will be sawed in half.”
This martyrdom itself is narrated in the
fifth chapter (Martyrdom and Ascension of
Isaiah 5:1, 14): “Because of these visions, therefore, Beliar was angry
with Isaiah, and he dwelt in the heart of Manasseh, and he sawed Isaiah in half
with a wood saw . . . And while Isaiah was being sawed in half, he did not cry
out, or weep, but his mouth spoke with the Holy Spirit until he was sawed in
two.”
These narratives were written during the
persecutions of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and were intended to exhort Jewish
people to remain faithful in the face of those persecutions. Prior to these
stories, champions of faith like Daniel and his companions were miraculously
saved by the intercession of God, but these martyrdoms marked a new motif in which
the faithful were not saved but looked forward to recompense on the other side
of the veil. Isaiah asserts to Hezekiah that he will receive “the inheritance
of the Beloved” (Martyrdom and Ascension
of Isaiah 1:13), while the mother and her seven sons look forward to
resurrection in a glorious life. While neither text would ultimately be
included in the canon that would develop centuries later, they were considered
authoritative and historically accurate among some early Christians, and they
provided powerful examples of faith to which the author of Hebrews could appeal
in his exhortation of Christians to endure persecution. (Daniel O. McClellan, “The
Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament” in Lincoln H. Blumell, ed. New Testament History, Culture, and Society:
A Background to the Texts of the New Testament [Provo/Salt Lake City: BYU Religious
Studies Center/Deseret Book, 2019], 497-513, here, 506-7)
