The High Priest Games

Okay, last time I mentioned the Maccabees, who supposedly led a heroic revolution against Antiochus IV and saved Judaism from an oppressor. Which is true.

Except...there’s more to the story. Around 168 BCE, Antiochus did (sort of) attempt to suppress (some aspects of) Jewish religion and customs. But, there was a lot of background to that. First, Judah was seriously divided. On one side were Jewish Hellenizers, that is, Jews who wanted to adopt aspects of the glittering Greek culture which was, at the time, reshaping the whole of classical civilization. These Hellenizers included some very important people, like the Tobiad family, who had long been among the most influential families in the country. The Hellenizers also included many urbanites, merchants, gentry, and so on who stood to gain by connections to the larger, Greek-speaking world.

About the image: Here’s a legitimate High Priest, Zadok himself. In this painting by the Flemish artist Cornelis de Vos (1584-1651), we see Zadok anointing Solomon as king. For more on the artist, see “Cornelis de Vos,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelis_de_Vos. For more Zadok, see “Zadok,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zadok. This image is believed to be in the Public Domain.

But, country people, rural folk, and traditionalists everywhere had no love of Greek culture, and saw it (perhaps correctly) as a serious threat to their way of life.

Moreover, at that moment in history, Judah had no secular government. Rather, it was ruled by a High Priest, and had been since the return of the Captives from Babylon. But, in 175 BCE, the High Priest in office was Onias III, who was apparently a decent enough chap, but an opponent of Hellenization.(1)

However, Onias had ambitious (and ruthless) relations. Another temple official, Jason, possibly Onias’s brother (or maybe not), got into some sort of conflict with Onais. Jason, who is also a Hellenizer, then bribes Antiochus to remove Onias and make *him* (Jason), the new High Priest. (2)

Ah, but it gets better. Jason’s other brother, Menelaus, who was even more of a Hellenizer, then bribed Antiochus with an even larger sum to make *him* High Priest.(3)

And then, everything hits the proverbial fan. While Antiochus is distracted by a couple of adventures, what amounts to a civil war breaks out in Judah, with Jason’s partisans attempting a coup against Menelaus, Traditionalists fighting Hellenizers, and riots in the streets. Aghast, and seeing all this as a revolt against his own rule, Antiochus unexpectedly returns from his other entanglements, occupies Jerusalem, kills thousands of Jews, restores Menelaus but now as a puppet High Priest, and sets out to make Judah into a proper Hellenistic state. It’s then, for instance, that the Second Temple is desecrated, and a statue of Zeus is placed in the Holy of Holies.(4)

That all sets the stage for what happens afterwards -- that is, the Maccabees. And, I promise, I will get to them shortly. But I want to take just a moment to look at what’s happening here, because it will play an important role in the story of Michael the Archangel.

Remember how I said I think there was also tension between the common people and the returning Captives and their institutions? Well, I think it is about to get a whole lot worse.

You see, Onias III was at least considered a legitimate High Priest. That was because of his ancestry. At this time, a Priest was supposed to be a member of the tribe of Levi, in general, and a descendant of Aaron (the younger brother of Moses), in particular. Moreover, a High Priest was supposed to be a Zadokite, that is, descendants of Zadok, the High Priest under King David and Solomon. And Onias III seems to have met those requirements.(5)

But... Jason was Zadokite, but he’d used bribery to get the office of High Priest. And Menelaus wasn’t a Levite. He was from the tribe of Benjamin and so was technically not supposed to be anywhere near the priesthood. What both men *were* was corrupt. They had fraud and graft to gain office.

And everyone knew it.

Suddenly, the office of High Priest, which had seemed so holy before, looked pretty much like any other secular government, except that it had an extra sheen of hypocrisy. Here you had men claiming to represent God Himself, but who were no different from any other petty despot, coming to power with bribes and bloodshed.

And, alas, that was only the beginning.

More to come.

Footnotes.

1. Onais III, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onias_III

2. Jason (High Priest), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_(High_Priest)

2. Menelaus (High Priest), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menelaus_(High_Priest)

4. Maccabees, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maccabees

5. We actually don’t know what happened to Onias III. There are two stories, both of which are probable. In the first, he is murdered by Menelaus. In the second, he flees to Egypt, is welcomed warmly by the Ptolemaic king, and is allowed to establish his own alternative Temple In Exile.

I gather from what I’ve read that the general scholarly betting is that Onias III was murdered, but that his son, Onias IV, did make it to Egypt, was welcomed there, and did found a Temple. This makes sense as there really was a Temple operating in Leontopolis in Egypt for some two centuries, and it was served by priests who claimed to be descended from the Oniad family. See “Land of Onias,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_Onias

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~mjt

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