16 “We, O Antiochus, who are persuaded that we live under a divine law, consider no compulsion to be so forcible as obedience to that law. (WEB) 17 Therefore we consider that we ought not to transgress the law in any way. (WEB) 18 Indeed, were our law (as you suppose) not truly divine, and if we wrongly think it divine, we would have no right even in that case to destroy our sense of religion. (WEB) 19 Don’t think that eating unclean meat is a trifling offense. (WEB) 20 For transgression of the law, whether in small or great matters, is of equal importance; (WEB) 21 for in either case the law is equally slighted. (WEB) 22 But you deride our philosophy, as though we lived in it irrationally. (WEB) 23 Yet it instructs us in self-control, so that we are superior to all pleasures and lusts; and it trains us in courage, so that we cheerfully undergo every grievance. (WEB) 24 It instructs us in justice, so that in all our dealings we give what is due. It teaches us piety, so that we properly worship the one and only God. (WEB) 25 That is why we don’t eat the unclean; for believing that the law was established by God, we are convinced that the Creator of the world, in giving his laws, sympathizes with our nature. (WEB) 26 Those things which are suitable for our souls, he has directed us to eat; but those which are not, he has forbidden. (WEB)
4 Maccabees 5:16–26
Semantically similar passages
1 Clement 21:3–5
3 Let us see how near He is, and how that nothing escapeth Him of our thoughts or our devices which we make. (1CL) 4 It is right therefore that we should not be deserters from His will. (1CL) 5 Let us rather give offense to foolish and senseless men who exalt themselves and boas… (1CL)
2 Maccabees 4:16–18
16 For this reason, severe calamity overtook them. The men whose ways of living they earnestly followed, and to whom they desired to be made like in all things, these became their enemies and punished them. (WEB) 17 For it is not a light thing to show irreverence to God’s… (WEB)
Sirach 15:19–20
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1 Clement 41:2–4
2 Not in every place, brethren, are the continual daily sacrifices offered, or the freewill offerings, or the sin offerings and the trespass offerings, but in Jerusalem alone. And even there the offering is not made in every place, but before the sanctuary in t… (1CL)
Testament of Naphtali 2:31–33
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1 Maccabees 14:44–46
44 and that it should not be lawful for any of the people or of the priests to nullify any of these things, or to oppose the words that he should speak, or to gather an assembly in the country without him, or to be clothed in purple, or wear a buckle of gold; (WEB) 45 but… (WEB)
Acts 16:20–22
20 They brought them to the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews and are throwing our city into turmoil 21 by promoting customs that are unlawful for us Romans to adopt or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates orde…
1 Maccabees 2:20–22
20 yet I and my sons and my kindred will walk in the covenant of our fathers. (WEB) 21 Far be it from us that we should forsake the law and the ordinances. (WEB) 22 We will not listen to the king’s words, to turn aside from our worship, to the right hand, or to the left.” (WEB)
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