Women received their
dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance;
that they might obtain a better resurrection. (Heb 11:35)
It is generally accepted that Heb 11:35 hearkens back to the Maccabean
martyrs in 2 Maccabees 7. In his article demonstrating that 2 Maccabees 7 is a
later interpolation, Daniel McClellan wrote the following about Heb 11:35
itself being a later insertion to Hebrews:
Evidence exists, as well, that the reference
to the Maccabean martyrs is not part of the original version of the text. The
asyndeton of vv. 32–38 refers exclusively to the prophets. Many of the
references are unambiguous, but early Christian writings show many of the more
vague references were understood as explicit allusions to specific prophets. 1
Clement 17:1, for example, refers to Heb 11:37b and attributes the allusion to
Elijah, Elisha, and Ezekiel. Origen attributes Heb 11:37 to the prophets on three
different occasions (To Africanus 9; Against Celsus 7.7 and 7.18), although he
references a version of Hebrews that contains the interpolation επιρασθησαν.
Clearly a reference to seven children and a woman from the Maccabean era is
anomalous. Heb 11:35b is also superfluous to the literary unit, as a turning
point exists in 11:36 that provides its own conjunction. (Daniel O. McClellan,
"A
Reevaluation of the Structure and Function of 2 Maccabees 7 and its
Text-Critical Implications," Studia
Antiqua 7/1 (2009):81-95, here, p. 91 n. 42)
