Hebrews 11:35

But what utterances of confessions did they herald forth! how illustrious, how great proofs of faith did they afford! The king Antiochus, their enemy, yea, in Antiochus Antichrist was set forth, sought to pollute the mouths of martyrs, glorious and unconquered in the spirit of confession, with the contagion of swine’s flesh; and when he had severely beaten them with whips, and could prevail nothing, commanded iron plates to be heated, which being heated and made to glow, he commanded him who had first spoken, and had more provoked the king with the constancy of his virtue and faith, to be brought up and roasted, his tongue having first been pulled out and cut off, which had confessed God; and this happened the more gloriously to the martyr. For the tongue which had confessed the name of God, ought itself first to go to God. …

13. Nor had I knowledge of that true inner righteousness, which doth not judge according to custom, but out of the most perfect law of God Almighty, by which the manners of places and times were adapted to those places and times, being itself the while the same always and everywhere, not one thing in one place, and another in another; according to which Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, and all those commended by the mouth of God were righteous, but were judged unrighteous by foolish men, judging out of man’s judgment, and gauging by the petty standard of their own manners the manners of the whole human race. Like as if in an armoury, one knowing not what were adapted to the several members should put greaves on his head, or boot himself with a helmet, and then complain because they would not fit. …

19. It is tried gold! Try it as thou desirest; examine it as thou wishest, thou wilt not find in it any dross. This shows us not only the fortitude of others, but also brings much farther consolation; for what saith Christ, “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven: for in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.” Again, Paul writing to the Macedonians in his desire to console them, says, “For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which are in Judea. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews.” And again, he consoles the Hebrews in like manner, reckoning up all the just who had lived in furnaces; in pits; in deserts; in mountains; in caves; in hunger; and in poverty. …

“Out of weakness were made strong.” Here he alludes to what took place at their return from Babylon. For “out of weakness,” is out of captivity. When the condition of the Jews had now become desperate, when they were no better than dead bones, who could have expected that they would return from Babylon, and not return only; but also “wax valiant” and “turn to flight armies of aliens”? ‘But to us,’ some one says, ‘no such thing has happened.’ But these are figures of “the things to come.” ( Ver. 35 ) “Women received their dead raised to life again.” He here speaks of what occurred in regard to the prophets, Elisha, [and] Elijah; for they raised the dead.

[5.] ( Ver. 35 ) “And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.” But we have not obtained a Resurrection. I am able however, he means, to show that they also were cut off, and did “not accept [deliverance], that they might obtain a better resurrection.” For why, tell me, when it was open to them to live, did they not choose it? Were they not evidently looking for a better life? And they who had raised up others, themselves chose to die; in order “to obtain a better resurrection,” not such as the children of those women.