Does the Ancient Account Really Say Their Tongues, Hands, and Feet Were Cut Off?

Primary: 2 Maccabees 7 · Period: Antiochus IV

What the ancient record says

Yes, 2 Maccabees describes mutilation, not vague execution. The first brother's tongue was cut out and his extremities cut off; brothers and mother forced to witness.

Later another brother voluntarily extends his tongue and hands when ordered. We do not clean it up (that erases the severity the writer intended) nor upgrade it (it is ancient literary account, not video, photograph, or Seleucid transcript).

The text connects the torture to forcing them to eat prohibited pork and abandon ancestral instructions.