Obraz Boga w przekazie Czwartej Księgi Machabejskiej

Abstract

The Fourth Book of Maccabees (4 Macc.) ‒ although being a philosophical and rhetorical work that mainly deals with the issue of overcoming passion by means of „pious reason” ‒ contains a number of references to God which have naturally been woven into the corpus of this work. All these references allow one to draw up an image of God present in the mind of the author of 4Macc. It is evident from the analyses, that although 4 Macc. is imbued with the spirit of Greek (Hellenistic) philosophy and literature, the image of God sketched by the author of 4 Macc. is firmly rooted in the Old Testament’s theological tradition. Even the concept of pro,noia, taken directly from Greek philosophy, in 4 Macc. has a close relationship with theology of the Old Testament. This leads to the conclusion that the author of 4 Macc. ‒ in spite of his rooting in the Hellenistic culture ‒ was a pious Jew who, through his work, wanted to strengthen the faith of his brethren.