A second firm starting-point is found in 2 Maccabees. In one of the most grisly passages in the whole of our literature, seven brothers are being tortured in the vain attempt to make them submit to the edict of Antiochus Epiphanes. In refusing, many of them explicitly refer to the coming resurrection in which they will be vindicated and given back the bodies that are now being torn apart: And when he was at his last breath, he said, ‘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
...more
