ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the martyrdom of the seven brothers and their mother, in 2 Maccabees 7, as a corporeal discourse. What is the author of 2 Macc 7 attempting to tell us, discursively, by means of the bodies of these martyrs? What is strategically signified by the corporeal discourse of the passion and persecution of these martyrs? It is argued that the systematic mutilation and dismemberment of the bodies of the martyrs serves, on the one hand, to position these courageous individuals as representatives of the Judean people, their culture, history, and future and, on the other hand, to show that the assault from Antiochus IV Epiphanes against these martyrs is a climactic and universal assault against the fundamentals of Judean identity. In the figures of these martyrs, there is an eclipse of the individual body of the martyr with the social and political body of God’s people. Second, it is shown that this universal assault against God’s chosen nation, as epitomised in the martyrdom, is structured strategically within a framework that depicts this act of martyrdom as an act that inverts all Judean cultic and social norms. The martyrdom of 2 Macc 7 is therefore best understood as an anti-sacrifice, and that the bodies of the martyrs are anti-sacrificial bodies. Finally, it is demonstrated that the discourse of resurrection, which is in itself a highly strategic corporeal discourse, aims to restore balance and order to the disorder caused by Antiochus. The study is concluded by extrapolating the significance of these aspects of the corporeal discourse of 2 Macc 7 in better understanding passion and persecution in the text of 2 Macc 7.
