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Onias III
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Onias III was a Jewish High Priest, the son of Simon II. He is described as a pious man who, unlike the Hellenizers, fought for Judaism. Seleucus Philopator defrayed all the expenses connected with the sanctuary and was friendly to the Jews. According to 2 Maccabees, a traitorous official of the Temple, however, Simon the Benjamite, induced the king, through his official Heliodorus, to undertake the plunder of the Temple treasury; the attempt was not successful, and the Syrian court never forgave the high priest for its miscarriage.
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Onias III was a Jewish High Priest, the son of Simon II. He is described as a pious man who, unlike the Hellenizers, fought for Judaism. Seleucus Philopator defrayed all the expenses connected with the sanctuary and was friendly to the Jews. According to 2 Maccabees, a traitorous official of the Temple, however, Simon the Benjamite, induced the king, through his official Heliodorus, to undertake the plunder of the Temple treasury; the attempt was not successful, and the Syrian court never forgave the high priest for its miscarriage. When Antiochus IV Epiphanes became king, Onias was obliged to yield to his own brother Jason. According to Josephus, Jason became high priest after the death of Onias, the latter's son, who bore the same name, being then a minor. It is strange that both father and son should have been named Onias, and still more strange is the statement of Josephus that the high priest who succeeded Jason and was the brother of Onias and Jason, likewise was called Onias, and did not assume the name of Menelaus until later; for according to this statement there must have been two brothers of the same name.
While this confusion may be due to the Greek transcription of the related Hebrew names Johanan, Honiyya, and Nehonya, the account of Josephus appears wholly unreliable for this very reason. According to II Macc. iv. 23, Menelaus was not an Aaronite, but a brother of the Simon mentioned above, and hence a Benjaminite. When Menelaus purloined some vessels from the Temple to curry favor with the Seleucid Syrian nobles, Onias accused him publicly and then fled to the asylum of Daphne, near Antioch, where Menelaus, aided by the royal governor Andronicus, had him secretly assassinated, in defiance of justice and of his oath. The murdered priest was deeply mourned by both Jews and Greeks, and the king also, on his return, wept for him and sentenced Andronicus to a well-merited death.
Wellhausen and Willrich regard the story of the murder of Onias, as well as the entire list of high priests from Jaddua to the Maccabees, as legendary, while Emil Schürer and Benedikt Niese consider them historical. The passages in Daniel 8:10-11("casting down some of the host and stars...the prince of the host"), 9:26("shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself") and 11:22("...and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant") are generally referred to the murder of Onias. Onias III is the central figure of the legendary history of later times; the Byzantine "Chronicon Paschale" says that he officiated for twenty-four years, thus placing the beginning of his term of office under Egyptian rule. The Byzantine "Chronographeion Syntomon" follows Josephus in mentioning "another Onias" as the successor of Onias III., referring probably to Menelaus, who ought, perhaps, to be added to this list as Onias IV.
See also
Resources
- H. P. Chajes, Beiträge zur Nordsemitischen Onomatologie, p. 23, Vienna, 1900 (on the name);
- Herzfeld, Gesch. des Volkes Jisrael, i. 185-189, 201-206;
- Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. 2d ed., ii. 236;
- Emil Schürer, Gesch. 3d ed., i. 182, 194-196; iii. 97-100;
- Niese, in Hermes, xxxv. 509;
- Wellhausen, I. J. G. 4th ed., p. 248, Berlin, 1901;
- Willrich, Juden und Griechen vor der Makkabäischen Erhebung, pp. 77, 109, Göttingen, 1895;
- Adolf Büchler, Die Tobiaden und die Oniaden, pp. 166, 240, 275, 353, Vienna, 1899;
- J. P. Mahaffy, The Empire of the Ptolemies, pp. 217, 353, London, 1895;
- Heinrich Gelzer, Sextus Julius Africanus, ii. 170-176, Leipsic, 1885;
- Isaac Hirsch Weiss, Dor, i. 130 (on the halakic view of the temple of Onias).
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