Arrival of Heliodorus in Jerusalem

While the holy city was inhabited in unbroken peace and the laws were strictly observed because of the piety of the high priest Onias and his hatred of wickedness,

But a man named Simon, of the tribe of Balgea, who had been made captain of the temple, had a disagreement with the high priest about the administration of the city market.

When he had arrived at Jerusalem and had been kindly welcomed by the high priest of the city, he told about the disclosure that had been made and stated why he had come, and he inquired whether this really was the situation.

The high priest explained that there were some deposits belonging to widows and orphans

To see the appearance of the high priest was to be wounded at heart, for his face and the change in his color disclosed the anguish of his soul.

There was something pitiable in the prostration of the whole populace and the anxiety of the high priest in his great anguish.

So the high priest, fearing that the king might get the notion that some foul play had been perpetrated by the Jews with regard to Heliodorus, offered sacrifice for the man’s recovery.

While the high priest was making the atonement, the same young men appeared again to Heliodorus dressed in the same clothing, and they stood and said, “Be very grateful to the high priest Onias, since for his sake the Lord has granted you your life.

Jason’s Reforms

When Seleucus died and Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, succeeded to the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias obtained the high priesthood by corruption,

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 true high priest,

Menelaus Becomes High Priest

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 but having the hot temper of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a savage wild beast.

Menelaus left his own brother Lysimachus as deputy in the high priesthood, while Sostratus left Crates, the commander of the Cyprian troops.

and to levy tribute on the temple as he did on the sacred places of the other nations and to put up the high priesthood for sale every year.

Now a certain Alcimus, who had formerly been high priest but had willfully defiled himself in the days of separation, realized that there was no way for him to be safe or to have access again to the holy altar

Therefore I have laid aside my ancestral glory—I mean the high priesthood—and have now come here,

with orders to kill Judas and scatter his troops and to install Alcimus as high priest of the great temple.

What he saw was this: Onias, who had been high priest, a noble and good man, of modest bearing and gentle manner, one who spoke fittingly and had been trained from childhood in all that belongs to excellence, was praying with outstretched hands for the whole body of the Jews.