33 Otherwise, how is it that when urged on to forbidden meats, we reject the gratification which would come from them? Isn’t it because reasoning is able to command the appetites? I believe so. (WEB) 34 Hence it is, then, that when craving seafood, birds, four-footed animals, and all kinds of food which are forbidden to us by the law, we withhold ourselves through the mastery of reasoning. (WEB) 35 For the affections of our appetites are resisted by the temperate understanding, and bent back again, and all the impulses of the body are reined in by reasoning. (WEB)
4 Maccabees 1:33–35
Semantically similar passages
4 Maccabees 2:3–5
3 For, although young, and ripe for sexual intercourse, he nullified by reasoning the stimulus of his emotions. (WEB) 4 It isn’t merely the stimulus of sensual indulgence, but that of every desire, that reasoning is able to master. (WEB) 5 For instance, the law says, “You shall… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 1:2–4
2 For reason is necessary to everyone as a step to science. In addition, it embraces the praise of self-control, the highest virtue. (WEB) 3 If, then, reasoning appears to hold the mastery over the emotions which stand in the way of temperance, such as gluttony and lust, (WEB)
4 Maccabees 3:1–3
1 The argument is exceedingly ridiculous, for reasoning doesn’t appear to rule over its own affections, but over those of the body, (WEB) 2 in such a way as that any one of you may not be able to root out desire, but reasoning will enable you to avoid being enslaved to… (WEB) 3 … (WEB)
4 Maccabees 2:17–19
17 Thus Moses, when angered against Dathan and Abiram, did nothing to them in wrath, but regulated his anger by reasoning. (WEB) 18 For the temperate mind is able, as I said, to be superior to the emotions, and to correct some and destroy others. (WEB) 19 For why else did our most… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 2:8–10
8 Therefore, a man who regulates his course by the law, even if he is a lover of money, immediately puts pressure on his own disposition by lending to the needy without interest, and cancelling the debt on the seventh year. (WEB) 9 If a man is greedy, he is ruled by the… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 13:2–4
2 For just as if they had eaten of the unholy as slaves to the emotions, we would have said that they had been conquered by them. (WEB) 3 Now it is not so. But by means of the reasoning which is praised by God, they mastered their emotions. (WEB) 4 It is impossible to overlook t… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 13:15–17
15 for great is the trial of soul and danger of eternal torment laid up for those who transgress the commandment of God. (WEB) 16 Let’s arm ourselves, therefore, in the self-control, which is divine reasoning. (WEB) 17 If we suffer like this, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will receive… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 6:34–35
34 It is only fair that we should allow that the power belongs to reasoning, since it masters external miseries. (WEB) 35 It would be ridiculous if it weren’t so. I prove that reasoning has not only mastered pains, but that it is also superior to the pleasures, and withst… (WEB)
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