Chapter 9: Rationalization of Mankind

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“Just as pleasure and pain are two plants growing from

the body and the soul, so there are many offshoots of these plants, each of which the master cultivator, reason, weeds and prunes and ties up and waters and thoroughly irrigates, and so tames the jungle of habits and emotions. For reason

is the guide of the virtues, but over the emotions it is sovereign.

Observe now, first of all, that rational judgment is sovereign over the emotions by virtue of the restraining power of

self-control. Self-control, then, is dominance over the desires. Some desires are mental, others are physical, and reason obviously rules over both. Otherwise, how is it that when we are attracted to forbidden foods we abstain from

the pleasure to be had from them? Is it not because reason is able to rule over appetites? I for one think so. Therefore when we crave seafood and fowl and animals and all sorts of foods that are forbidden to us by the law, we abstain

because of domination by reason. For the emotions of the appetites are restrained, checked by the temperate mind, and all the impulses of the body are bridled by reason.” 4 Maccabees 1:28-35

Rational judgment is sovereign over the emotions of man by virtue of the restraining power of self-control. This is how our unlimited desires are checked. 4 Maccabees points out that wisdom, of which rational judgment

is a part, is conditioned by the knowledge of both divine and human matters. See verse 1:16. Therefore, being rational involves keeping the emotions in check and simply examining the facts of the matter for truth. Those who seek to be rational about a matter seek truth. When it comes to the truth,

however, one must be knowledgeable in the matters of the divine. One must have spiritual understanding, which is a gift from God Almighty.

You Cannot Be Rational Without Knowledge Of God!