The Alexandrinus Text of 4 Maccabees

This article examines textual variants in the text of 4 Maccabees as presented in Codex Alexandrinus. The specific variant trends from Alexandrinus discussed in this study relate to the portrayal of the abilities of the Torah and reason, the diminished rewards the martyrs receive, how the torturers and torture acts are described, how the martyrs' direct speech about these torture acts is presented, and the manner in which the mother of the martyrs is domesticated. Rather than providing an etiology for these variants by attributing them to scribal intentionality, this study seeks to show that the reader of Alexandrinus would be more likely to give assent to the author's thesis, namely, that pious reason is the supreme master of the passions because of the manner in which the martyrs and their tortures are depicted. Additionally, Alexandrinus provides its reader with a more vivid picture of the training the Torah provides and with a more domesticated representation of the martyrs' mother. This article is thus focused on how the text of Alexandrinus would affect its reader differently than today's eclectic text.