MENELAUS. – High priest of Jerusalem, who unlawfully succeeded Jason, who in turn had intruded in place of his brother Onias III, the last legitimate high priest, during the reign of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–163 BC; cf. 2 Macc. 4:23–50).
According to many critics, M., like his brother Simon, was not of the tribe of Benjamin (as the current Greek text of 2 Macc. 3:4 states), but of the tribe of Levi and of the lineage of Bilga (as per ancient Latin versions), that is, of the fifteenth priestly class.
He distinguished himself by his tyrannical cruelty toward his compatriots and by continuous plundering of the Temple treasury, acts committed either to repay Antiochus or to curry favor with influential persons. He treacherously had the pious Onias III assassinated because the latter had dared to reproach him for his sacrilegious conduct.
When Antiochus IV (q.v.), returning from his second campaign in Egypt, entered the Temple to plunder its treasury, he was accompanied by Menelaus, who, having penetrated into the “Holy of Holies,” removed the golden candelabrum and altar.
During the campaign of Antiochus V Eupator (163–162) against Judea, Menelaus was with the king in an attempt to ingratiate himself. Having become odious because of his intrigues, he was condemned to death and perished at Berea by suffocation, being cast into the interior of a tower filled with ashes.