196 BERNARDO ESTRADA sorrowful because of all Your scourges”) 54. They could have been written in a period when several ordeals happened to the chosen people, probably the Maccabean age. It triggered the apocalyptic period in which there was no clear distinction between the old covenants and the new covenant, partly due to Messianic expectation. Two texts deserve our attention: Jdt 8,25-7: “let us thank ... because He puts us to the test” (eyxaristhswmen [...] oti ß ¥ ™ peirazei hmav) could contain the elements C, B, even though it ¥ Ω˜ does not speak about joy, as Nauck himself recognizes 55. Wis 3,4-6 (ean kolasuwsin h elpùv aytwn auanas¥av plhrhv) considers a ¥ù ˜ Ω¥ ı ß ˜ ß ı ß brief punishment and the reward of immortality (B, D). b) Later Judaism and Intertestamental Literature In the second Book of Maccabees (2 Macc 6,28-30), Eleazar refuses to eat unclean food lest he give bad example to young people: “ I now endure sore pains in body by being beaten: but in soul I am well pleased to suffer these things, because I fear him” (B, C). The first element is formed by the trial (taıv plhgaıv teleytan) and sore ˜ ˜ ˜ p a i n s (a l g h d o n a v mastigoy m e n o v ) , the second, by soul ¥ ¥ ¥ complacency (kata cyxhn de hdewv), not properly joy. Eleazar ù ù ùΩ¥ foresees his death and says that he will suffer it willingly. Rather than joy in suffering we could speak of readiness to accept pain 56. In the account of the seven brothers (4 Macc 7,21-23) the topic is formulated in an interrogative way. The author sees that suffering any toil for virtue’s sake is a cause of being blessed (B, A). The macarism in the neuter gender (makarion estin) makes no ¥¥ß reference to the person but to the very possibility of enduring pain and toil. Behind the call to control emotions and sentiments and even pain lies some Stoic reasoning that considers the model of a virtuous and wise man. A kind of self-satisfaction could come from this, but certainly it is not the joy that comes from God. In the same Fourth Book of Maccabees appears the declaration of the second of the seven brothers to the tyrant (4 Macc 9,29): Cf. MILLAUER, Leiden als Gnade, 167-168. Other texts quoted are: 54 Is 35.10 ; 51,11; 61.7 and Ps 126. Cf. NAUCK, Freude, 77. 55 Cf. L. GOPPELT, Der erste Petrusbrief (Göttingen 1977) 302-303, adds 56 also 2 Macc 6.12-17 and 4 Macc 17.20-2.