MENELAUS. - High priest of Jerusalem, who unlawfully succeeded Jason, himself an intruder in place of his brother Onias III, the last legitimate pontiff, at the time of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-163 B.C.; cf. 2 Macc. 4:23-50).
According to many critics, M., like his brother Simon, was not of the tribe of Benjamin (current Greek text of 2 Macc. 3:4), but of the tribe of Levi and of the lineage of Bilgah (ancient Latin versions), that is, of the fifteenth priestly class.
He was distinguished for his tyrannical ferocity toward his compatriots, and for continual plundering of the Temple treasury, perpetrated for the purpose of paying off his debts to Antiochus, or of currying the favor of influential personages. He had the pious Onias III treacherously assassinated because he had dared to censure his sacrilegious conduct.
When Antiochus IV (v.) returned from the second Egyptian campaign and entered the Temple to plunder its treasury, he was accompanied by M., and having penetrated into the "Holy Place" he carried off the lampstand and the golden altar.
In the campaign of Antiochus V Eupator (163-162) against Judea, M. was at the King's side with the aim of winning his favor. Having become odious because of his intrigues, he was condemned to death, and met his end in Berea by asphyxiation, hurled into the interior of a tower filled with ashes.