ONIAS. - 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 Maccabees.
1) O. I, son and successor of the pontiff Jaddua (a contemporary of Alexander the Great), remained in office for over 20 years (from ca. 320 to 300).
He had friendly relations with Areus, king of Sparta. During the period of his pontificate Palestine was torn by the continuous clashes of the Egyptian and Syrian armies that alternated on its territory; not a few Jews in those sad events found themselves forced to leave their homeland and settled in Alexandria.
2) O. II, son of Simon the Just and nephew of O. I, still a minor when his father died, was replaced in the pontificate by Eleazar and Manasseh, and only at the death of the latter (ca. 240 B.C.) could he enter office.
A small mind, 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 Tobiad 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 Simon II and nephew of O. II, was pontiff at the time of Seleucus IV Philopator, king of Syria (187-176 B.C.). He was distinguished for goodness and uprightness.
Seleucus, following information supplied to him by Simon, prefect of the Temple, sent to Jerusalem his chancellor Heliodorus (v.) to carry off the sacred treasures that the piety and trust of the people had deposited there. The fervent prayer raised to the Lord by the pious pontiff obtained that the sacrilegious theft be averted; yet, plotted against by Simon, he asked protection of the King himself. When Seleucus died and Antiochus IV Epiphanes succeeded to the throne, O. found himself opposed by his own brother Jason, who by offering the King 590 talents managed to buy the pontifical dignity for himself. Three years later, Menelaus, brother of Simon, by offering 300 more usurped the pontificate for himself, which however was soon taken from him in punishment for his insolvency. Menelaus, taking advantage of the absence of Antiochus, gave to his lieutenant Andronicus certain gold objects stolen from the Temple. O., who to escape the plots of the partisans of Jason had taken refuge at Daphne within the precinct of the sanctuary of Apollo, made his bitter protests for the sacrilegious act of Menelaus; but his zeal for the honor of the Temple cost him his life. Menelaus, impatient of the censures of O., begged Andronicus to do away with him. And the pious O., invited by the latter to come out from the sacred precinct in which 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 men. Having obtained the royal permission, he built at Leontopolis (v.) a temple "like that of Jerusalem, but smaller and more modest" (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XIII, 3, 3) which was to attract the Jews resident abroad and serve as a counterweight to the national sanctuary administered by illegitimate and unworthy pontiffs.
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 of the Jewish high priesthood. The temple of Leontopolis nevertheless had limited influence and was regarded in Egypt as an initiative prompted by the critical circumstances of O. Worship was maintained there until almost A.D. 72, when by order of Vespasian the Temple was closed by Lupus, governor of Alexandria.
Bibliography
Antonio Carrozzini