ONIA. - Name of four high priests who judged in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. (Flavius Josephus, *Antiquitates Judaicae*, XII-XIII; and *Bellum Judaicum*, VII). The first and third are mentioned in Maccabees.
1) O. I, son and successor of the high priest Jaddua (contemporary of Alexander the Great), held office for more than 20 years (c. 320 to 300 B.C.).
He maintained friendly relations with Areus, king of Sparta. During his pontificate Palestine was torn by the continual incursions of the Egyptian armies which alternated on its territory; not a few Jews, in those sad events, were forced to leave their homeland and settled in Alexandria.
2) O. II, son of Simon the Just and grandson of O. I, was still a minor when his father died, and was replaced in the pontificate by his uncles Eleazar and Manasseh, and only after their death (c. 240 B.C.) could he take office.
Of small mind and greedy for money, he refused to pay the tax of 20 talents of silver to Ptolemy III Euergetes. Only through the tactics of his nephew Joseph Tobiah did he manage to avoid the terrible retaliation threatened by the king. Political and administrative affairs remained almost entirely in the hands of his nephew.
3) O. III, son of Simon II and grandson of O. II, was high priest in the time of Seleucus IV Philopator, king of Syria (187-176 B.C.). He distinguished himself for goodness and rectitude.
Seleucus, following information provided by Simon, prefect of the Temple, sent his chancellor Heliodorus (v.) to Jerusalem to remove the sacred treasures which the piety and trust of the people had deposited there. The ardent prayer raised to the Lord by the pious high priest obtained that the sacrilegious theft be avoided; but Simon, having plotted against him, he sought protection from the king himself. After the death of Seleucus and the succession of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, O. found himself opposed by his own brother Jason, who by offering the king 360 talents managed to purchase the pontifical dignity. Three years later, Menelaus, brother of Simon, by offering 300 more talents, usurped the pontificate for himself, which however was soon taken from him as punishment for his insolvency. Menelaus, taking advantage of Antiochus’ absence, gave some gold objects stolen from the Temple to his lieutenant Andronicus. O., who to escape the plots of Jason’s partisans had taken refuge in Daphne within the sanctuary of Apollo, made bitter remonstrances for Menelaus’ sacrilegious act; but his zeal for the honor of the Temple cost him his life. Menelaus, intolerant of O.’s censures, asked Andronicus to put him to death. And the pious O., invited by him to leave the sacred precinct where he enjoyed the right of asylum, was treacherously killed.
4) O. IV, son of O. III, was still young when his father was assassinated.
Seeing that the conduct of the Seleucid kings made his succession to the pontificate precarious, he took refuge in Egypt with the rival monarch Ptolemy VI Philometor, offering himself as high priest and as captain of armed forces. Having obtained royal permission, he built at Leontopolis (v.) a temple “similar to that of Jerusalem, but smaller and more modest” (Flavius Josephus, *Antiquitates Judaicae*, XIII, 3, 3) which was to attract the resident judges abroad and serve as a counterbalance to the national sanctuary administered by unworthy and illegitimate high priests.
The fact was criticized by the priestly circles of Jerusalem as an open violation of the centralization of worship, although O. was recognized as the natural heir of the Jewish high priesthood. The temple of Leontopolis, however, had limited influence and was regarded in Egypt as an initiative prompted by O.’s critical circumstances. The cult there was maintained until almost 72 A.D., when by order of Vespasian the Temple was closed by Lupus, governor of Alexandria.