The Josippon (Zëna Ayhud, 'History of the Jews') is a medieval historical chronicle composed in southern Italy around 953 CE, anonymously attributed to Joseph ben Gurion (identified with the historian Josephus). Unlike all other books in the Ethiopian canon, the Josippon has no native division into chapters and verses in its manuscript tradition. It was translated from Arabic into Ge'ez around 1300 CE and added to the Scriptures of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. In this digital edition, each 'verse' represents one complete paragraph of the continuous text.
Josippon
Chapter 14 — Death of Elazar
Elazar, chief of the priests, was seized; he was the Elazar about whom we wrote that he went to Egypt in the days of Ptolemy. They brought Elazar before Philip, and Philip said to him: "Elazar, O wise and understanding man, please do not transgress the commandment of the king: eat from the meat of his sacrifice." He replied: "Woe unto me if I reject the commandment of my God in order to fulfill the commandment of the king." Philip summoned him privately and said to him: "You know that I have loved you for a long time, so now I take pity upon your soul and your old age. Please, take some of the meat of your sacrifices from which you eat and eat it before the people, and they will say that you have eaten from the meat of the king's sacrifices, and you shall live and not die."
When Elazar heard this, he showed everyone the value of his greatness and the holiness of his glory, and he said to Philip: "Today I am ninety years old, and at my age it is not fitting to worship my God in deceit, nor may I deceive men. If the young men say that Elazar at ninety years rejected the law of his God, then they too will disobey it and be lost. Now, heaven forbid that I should disgrace my holiness and sully the purity of my old age or weaken these youths who are with me and enfeeble them so that they say that Elazar at ninety sinned against the rule of his God and chose to be a slave to the vanities of gentiles, so let us do the same. For though I might escape this day from your hand, how could I be saved from the hand of my God, from whom neither the living nor the dead may escape, for he has the power to kill the living and quicken the dead? I shall die bravely and leave behind courage for my people, and my young men, when they see this humble death, they will consent to do likewise and will die for the honor of their Torah as I so humbly died."
When Philip heard these words, he turned completely cruel, commanding his men to torture and beat the old man and to profane the pious Ḥasid. As they beat him mercilessly, with all manner of blows, he groaned and said: "O Lord my God, who has brought me to this old age, You know that I could have saved myself from this humble death, but I did not so desire for I love it. And now, the violent blows are too hard for me, and I have not the strength to endure; but because of my fear of You, they are trifling in my eyes and are as nothing, and I suffer them with courage." And with these words he ended his days and returned his soul, bequeathing courage to his people and strength to his young men.