Book of Maccabees, ch.vii.and the _De Maccabaeis_, attributed to Josephus.Cf.Epistle to the Hebrews xi.

33, and following.] [Footnote 7: III.

Book (Apocr.) of Maccabees; Rufin, Suppl.ad Jos., _Contra Apionem_, ii.

5.] The persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes made this idea a passion, almost a frenzy.

It was something very analogous to that which happened under Nero, two hundred and thirty years later.