2 Maccabees 4
The fourth chapter of 2
Maccabees is offered here in the Revised Standard version; the first
chapter can be found here.
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Jason makes Jerusalem a Greek city
The
previously mentioned Simon, who had informed about the money against his
own country, slandered Onias, saying that it was he who had incited Heliodorus
and had been the real cause of the misfortune. 
He
dared to designate as a plotter against the government the man who was
the benefactor of the city, the protector of his fellow countrymen, and
a zealot for the laws.
When
his hatred progressed to such a degree that even murders were committed
by one of Simon's approved agents, 
Onias
recognized that the rivalry was serious and that Apollonius, the son of
Menestheus and governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, was intensifying the
malice of Simon. 
So
he betook himself to the king, not accusing his fellow citizens but having
in view the welfare, both public and private, of all the people. 
For
he saw that without the king's attention public affairs could not again
reach a peaceful settlement, and that Simon would not stop his folly.
When
Seleucus
died and Antiochus
who was called Epiphanes succeeded to the kingdom, Jason the brother
of Onias obtained the high priesthood by corruption, 
promising
the king at an interview three hundred and sixty talents of silver and,
from another source of revenue, eighty talents. 
In
addition to this he promised to pay one hundred and fifty more if permission
were given to establish by his authority a gymnasium and a body of youth
for it, and to enrol the men of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch.[1]
When the king assented
and Jason came to office, he at once shifted his countrymen over to the
Greek way of life. 
He
set aside the existing royal concessions to the Jews, secured through John
the father of Eupolemus, who went on the mission to establish friendship
and alliance with the Romans; and he destroyed the lawful ways of living
and introduced new customs contrary to the law. 
For
with alacrity he founded a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced
the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat. 
There
was such an extreme of Hellenization and increase in the adoption of foreign
ways because of the surpassing wickedness of Jason, who was ungodly and
no high priest, 
that
the priests were no longer intent upon their service at the altar. Despising
the sanctuary and neglecting the sacrifices, they hastened to take part
in the unlawful proceedings in the wrestling arena after the call to the
discus, 
disdaining
the honors prized by their fathers and putting the highest value upon Greek
forms of prestige.
For this reason
heavy disaster overtook them, and those whose ways of living they admired
and wished to imitate completely became their enemies and punished them. 
For
it is no light thing to show irreverence to the divine laws - a fact which
later events will make clear.
When the quadrennial
games were being held at Tyre and the king was present, 
the
vile Jason sent envoys, chosen as being Antiochian citizens from Jerusalem,
to carry three hundred silver drachmas for the sacrifice to Heracles [i.e.,
the city god of Tyre Melqart]. Those who carried the money, however,
thought best not to use it for sacrifice, because that was inappropriate,
but to expend it for another purpose. 
So
this money was intended by the sender for the sacrifice to Heracles, but
by the decision of its carriers it was applied to the construction of triremes.
Menelaus replaces Jason
[175]
When
Apollonius the son of Menestheus was sent to Egypt for the coronation of
[Ptolemy
VI] Philometor
as king,[2] Antiochus learned that Philometor had become
hostile to his government, and he took measures for his own security. Therefore
upon arriving at Joppa he proceeded to Jerusalem. 
He
was welcomed magnificently by Jason and the city, and ushered in with a
blaze of torches and with shouts. Then he marched into Phoenicia.
[171]
After
a period of three years Jason sent Menelaus, the brother of the previously
mentioned Simon, to carry the money to the king and to complete the records
of essential business. 
But
he, when presented to the king, extolled him with an air of authority,
and secured the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three
hundred talents of silver.
After receiving
the king's orders he returned, possessing no qualification for the high
priesthood,[3] but having the hot temper of a cruel tyrant
and the rage of a savage wild beast. 
So
Jason, who after supplanting his own brother was supplanted by another
man, was driven as a fugitive into the land of Ammon.
And Menelaus held
the office, but he did not pay regularly any of the money promised to the
king. 
When Sostratus
the captain of the citadel kept requesting payment, for the collection
of the revenue was his responsibility, the two of them were summoned by
the king on account of this issue. 
Menelaus
left his own brother Lysimachus as deputy in the high priesthood, while
Sostratus left Crates, the commander of the Cyprian troops.
Onias killed
While such was the
state of affairs, it happened that the people of Tarsus and of Mallus [in
Cilicia]
revolted because their cities had been given as a present to Antiochis,
the king's concubine. 
So
the king went hastily to settle the trouble, leaving Andronicus, a man
of high rank, to act as his deputy.
But Menelaus, thinking
he had obtained a suitable opportunity, stole some of the gold vessels
of the temple and gave them to Andronicus; other vessels, as it happened,
he had sold to Tyre and the neighboring cities.
When Onias became
fully aware of these acts he publicly exposed them, having first withdrawn
to a place of sanctuary at Daphne near Antioch. 
Therefore
Menelaus, taking Andronicus aside, urged him to kill Onias. Andronicus
came to Onias, and resorting to treachery offered him sworn pledges and
gave him his right hand, and in spite of his suspicion persuaded Onias
to come out from the place of sanctuary; then, with no regard for justice,
he immediately put him out of the way. 
For
this reason not only Jews, but many also of other nations, were grieved
and displeased at the unjust murder of the man.
When the king returned
from the region of Cilicia, the Jews in the city appealed to him with regard
to the unreasonable murder of Onias, and the Greeks shared their hatred
of the crime. 
Therefore
Antiochus was grieved at heart and filled with pity, and wept because of
the moderation and good conduct of the deceased; 
and
inflamed with anger, he immediately stripped off the purple robe from Andronicus,
tore off his garments, and led him about the whole city to that very place
where he had committed the outrage against Onias, and there he dispatched
the bloodthirsty fellow. The Lord thus repaid him with the punishment he
deserved.
Trial of Menelaus
When many acts of
sacrilege had been committed in the city by Lysimachus with the connivance
of Menelaus, and when report of them had spread abroad, the populace gathered
against Lysimachus, because many of the gold vessels had already been stolen. 
And
since the crowds were becoming aroused and filled with anger, Lysimachus
armed about three thousand men and launched an unjust attack, under the
leadership of a certain Auranus, a man advanced in years and no less advanced
in folly.
But when the Jews
became aware of Lysimachus' attack, some picked up stones, some blocks
of wood, and others took handfuls of the ashes that were lying about, and
threw them in wild confusion at Lysimachus and his men. 
As
a result, they wounded many of them, and killed some, and put them all
to flight; and the temple robber himself they killed close by the treasury.
Charges were brought
against Menelaus about this incident. 
When
the king came to Tyre, three men sent by the senate presented the case
before him. 
But
Menelaus, already as good as beaten, promised a substantial bribe to Ptolemy
son of Dorymenes to win over the king. 
Therefore
Ptolemy, taking the king aside into a colonnade as if for refreshment,
induced the king to change his mind. 
Menelaus,
the cause of all the evil, he acquitted of the charges against him, while
he sentenced to death those unfortunate men, who would have been freed
uncondemned if they had pleaded even before
Scythians.
And so those who
had spoken for the city and the villages and the holy vessels quickly suffered
the unjust penalty. 
Therefore
even the Tyrians, showing their hatred of the crime, provided magnificently
for their funeral. 
But
Menelaus, because of the cupidity of those in power, remained in office,
growing in wickedness, having become the chief plotter against his fellow
citizens.
>> to chapter 5 >>
In other words, he wanted to call Jerusalem Antioch.
Note 2:
Unclear. Ptolemy VI had been king since 180. However, his mother Cleopatra
I Syra acted as regent until her death in 175, when Ptolemy married
to Cleopatra
II. Probably, this event is meant.
Latest revision: 7 December 2006
