ONIA. – Name of four Jewish high priests of the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. (Fl. Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XII–XIII; and Bell. Iud., VII). The first and the third are mentioned in the Maccabees.
1) O. I, son and successor of the high priest Iaddua (a contemporary of Alexander the Great), remained in office for more than 20 years (from ca. 320 to 300).
He maintained friendly relations with Ario, king of Sparta. During his high priesthood, Palestine was torn by the continual clashes of Egyptian and Syrian armies, which alternately crossed its territory; in these sad circumstances not a few Jews were forced to leave their homeland and settled in Alexandria.
2) O. II, son of Simone il Giusto and grandson of O. I, was still a minor when his father died; he was replaced in the high priesthood by Eleazaro and Manasse, and only upon the latter’s death (ca. 240 B.C.) was he able to take office.
Small-minded 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 Giuseppe Tobiade did he manage to avert the terrible reprisal threatened by the King. Political and administrative affairs remained almost entirely in the hands of his nephew.
3) O. III, son of Simone II and grandson of O. II, was high priest in the time of Seleucus IV Philopator, king of Syria (187–176 B.C.). He was distinguished by goodness and integrity.
Following information supplied by Simone, prefect of the Temple, Eliodoro (v.) to Jerusalem to remove the sacred treasures that the piety and trust of the people had deposited there. The fervent prayer addressed to the Lord by the pious high priest obtained the prevention of the sacrilegious theft; but, threatened by Simone, he sought protection from the King himself. After Seleucus’s death, and the accession to the throne of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, O. found himself opposed by his own brother Giasone, who, by offering the King 590 talents, succeeded in purchasing the high-priestly dignity. Three years later, Menelao, brother of Simone, offering 300 more, usurped the high priesthood for himself, though it was soon taken from him as punishment for his insolvency. Taking advantage of Antiochus’s absence, Menelao gave his lieutenant Andronico several golden objects stolen from the Temple. O., who had taken refuge in Dafne, within the precinct of the sanctuary of Apollo, to escape the snares of Giasone’s partisans, bitterly protested against Menelao’s sacrilegious act; but his zeal for the honor of the Temple cost him his life. Unable to tolerate O.’s censures, Menelao asked Andronico to eliminate him. And the pious O., invited by the latter 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 murdered.
Seeing that the conduct of the Seleucid kings made his succession to the high priesthood precarious, he took refuge in Egypt
with the rival monarch Ptolemy VI Philometor, offering himself as high priest and military commander. Having obtained the royal permission, Leontopoli (v.) a temple “similar to that of Jerusalem, but smaller and more modest” (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XIII, 3, 3), which was intended to draw Jews living abroad and to serve as a counterweight to the national sanctuary administered by illegitimate and unworthy high priests.
The act 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 to the Jewish high priesthood. The temple of Leontopoli nevertheless had limited influence and was regarded in Egypt as an initiative prompted by O.’s critical circumstances. Worship there was maintained until almost A.D. 72, when, by order of Vespasian, the Temple was closed by Lupo, governor of Alexandria.