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Menelaus (2nd century BCE) was the Jewish High Priest, from 172 to 162 BCE.

< High Priests: ... Onias III -> Menelaus -> Alcimus ... >

• This page is edited by Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan.

Menelaus was the first non-Zadokite High Priest to serve in the Second Temple, from 172 BCE when he deposed the last Zadokite High Priest Jason, to 162 BCE, when he was put to death by the Syrian King Antiochus V Eupator and replaced by Alcimus.

It was such a hated enemy of the Maccabees that his name is not even mentioned in 1 Maccabees, while his central role in the Maccabean Revolt as the leader of the Hellenistic party is highlighted by 2 Maccabees and Josephus.

Like his predecessor, Menelaus obtained the High Priesthood by "outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver" (2 Macc 4:24) before the Seleucid king Antiochus IV. Pressed by economical needs, and according to Josephus, personally "angered with Jason" for reasons that remain unknown to us (Ant 12:238), Antiochus IV miscalculated the impact of his decision on the religious balance in Jerusalem. The transition of power did not go smoothly. Not being a member of the House of Zadok, the Aaronite Menelaus "had no qualification for the high priesthood" (2 Macc 4:25). Jason fled to "the country of the Ammonites" (4:26), where he could count on the protection of the Tobiads of Transjordan. With Onias III still alive in his exile in Antioch, the new high priest faced two dangerous rivals; each of them could legitimately challenge his power.

In spite of all these easily foretold difficulties, the Hellenistic party shifted their support and money from Jason to Menelaus. Those who mostly had benefited from Jason's reforms, among them the Tobiads of Jerusalem, felt that they were strong enough to take the situation into their own hands and that the mediation of a "supporting" Zadokite was no longer necessary. However, for the first time, they had to face a strong opposition that they were unable to overcome without applying to the king. "The multitude were divided between [Jason and Menelaus]... The sons of Tobias took the part of Menelaus, but the greater part of the people assisted Jason; and by that means Menelaus and the sons of Tobias were distressed and retired to Antiochus and informed him that they were desirous to leave the laws of their country" (Ant 12:239-240). With even the high priest and his entourage now embracing the Greek way of life, the process of Hellenization went on, stronger then ever, but the Hellenistic party was more and more dependant on the support of Antiochus, and more and more identifiable as the pro-Seleucid party.

Further problems arose because of the patent inability of Menelaus to keep his promises to Antiochus IV. He had offered the Seleucid king a higher bid, but it was the people, and the poorest among the people, who had to pay for it. As the burden of taxation increased, so did the popular discontent. Menelaus realized it and tried to find alternative sources of income by selling "some of gold vessels of the Temple" (2 Macc 4:32). It did not help; the only apparent result was to add religious outrage to an already explosive situation. Onias III voiced the discontent: "when Onias became fully aware of these acts, he publicly expose them" (2 Macc 4:33). Menelaus' bloody vengeance reached him in the sanctuary to Apollo and Artemis at Daphne near Antioch where Onias (III) had sought refuge (2 Macc 4:33-34). Onias' murder was politically "unreasonable"; Antiochus could not openly denounce his man in Jerusalem, but made it clear that he was "inflamed with anger" (2 Macc 4:35-38).

Popular resentment against Menelaus grew. It was enough that in 169 BCE "a false rumor arose that Antiochus was dead" (2 Macc 5:5), to prompt a major crisis. Jason made an attempt to regain the power. Confident on popular discontent, and made stronger by the fact that after his brother's death he was now by all means the legitimate high priest, he entered Jerusalem by force and, with Menelaus besieged in the citadel, began slaughtering his enemies (2 Macc 5:5-6). The reaction of the redivivus Antiochus was ruthless. Jason fled and died in exile; "many of the opposite party" were slaughtered (Ant 12:247). The authority of Menelaus was restored, who "lorded over his compatriots worse than the others did" (2 Macc 5:23).

Two years later, in 167 BCE, Antiochus IV once again intervened in Jerusalem. "Great numbers of people" were killed, the Temple was emptied of its secret treasures" (Ant 2:250). For the first time since Menelaus and the Hellenistic party took power in Jerusalem, the same worship in the Temple underwent radical changes: the daily sacrifices were interrupted (Dan 9:27; 1 Macc 1:45), the altar was defiled by "a desolating abomination" (Dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11; 1 Macc 1:54), and a new calendar was introduced (Dan 7:25)--a change from the Zadokite sabbatical calendar to the Macedonian lunar calendar that would have lasting and monumental consequences in the development of Jewish thought even after the Maccabean crisis.

A large-scale religious persecution hit those who followed the Zadokite laws. Those who dared resist, were seen as political enemies and treated as such. A strong opposition coalesced under the leadership of the priestly family of the Maccabees. The Maccabean Revolt forced Antiochs IV to a humiliating defeat; the Mosaic Torah was reaffirmed as Israel's national law and the Temple was rededicated.

It is not easy to explain such dramatic developments. According to Jewish post-Maccabean sources, the villain was Antiochus IV who issued a general decree "to his whole kingdom that all should be one people and that all should give up their particular customs" (1 Macc 1:41-42; cf. 2 Macc 6:).

The circumstances of the death of Menelaus, who some years after these events was ultimately executed by Antiochus V as a traitor, betray a different story. The Greeks apparently thought that Menelaus "was to blame for all the trouble" (2 Macc 13:4) and specifically, for having "persuaded [Antiochus IV] to compel the Jews to leave the religion of their fathers" (Josephus, Ant 12:384), thus dragging the Seleucid monarchy to an unfortunate experience. The report sounds genuine, as it contradicts the view that the same Jewish authors previously offered of the Maccabean crisis as a religious persecution promoted by the Greeks. However, nothing is said about the motivations of Menelaus and in particular, about what happened in the two critical years, between 169 and 167 BCE, which separate the two interventions of Antiochus IV in Jerusalem. The only text that seems to apply to this period is the very confused beginning of Josephus' Jewish War (Bel 1:31-33). We read that just before Antiochus "spoiled the Temple and put a stop to the constant practice of offering a daily sacrifice," i.e., immediately before Antiochus' second intervention in 167 BCE, there was turmoil in Jerusalem. "A great sedition fell among the men of power in Judea and they had a contention about obtaining the government; while each of those who were of dignity could not endure to be subject to their equals". The authenticity of the passage is strengthened by the fact that it contradicts Josephus' own position that only after the beginning of the Maccabean revolt Alcimus was the first "who was not of the high priest stock" (Ant 12:387), to take the office. In order to save the continuity of the priesthood, Josephus would like his readers to believe that Menelaus was the "younger brother" of Onias III and Jason (Ant 12:238-239; 15:41; 19:298; 20:235), not an Aaronite priest from the tribe of Bilgah. Here, on the contrary, we have evidence that the issue of being ruled by "equals" arose before and not after the Maccabean revolt. It happened when the non-Zadokite Menelaus took power, and more specifically between 169 and 167 BCE, after the death of both Onias III and Jason. Any other setting would be anachronistic.

The problem was the coming to age of Onias IV, the legitimate heir of the House of Zadok, and the support he apparently received from the Ptolomeis. Within this context, it is likely that Menelaus himself directed the king by suggesting him those measures that in a very simple and effective way could identify their enemies and lead to their punishment. "The very fact that Antiochus was able to individuate precisely which Jewish practices to abolish demonstrates that the person advising him on the matter knew the Judaism of the period very well and wanted to destroy that particular Judaism, not all Judaism" (Paolo Sacchi).

What Menelaus did not foretell, however, was that the punishment of their enemies would ignite the flames of a ruinous civil war. The unexpected opposition came not from the nostalgic of the Zadokite or Ptolemaic power but from those who, mostly in the countryside outside Jerusalem, more heavily had to bear the burden of taxation while being excluded from the benefits of Hellenistic economy and culture.

The failure of Menelaus resulted in compromise. The Seleucid monarchy could not acknowledge open defeat. When the Temple was rededicated, it was Menelaus who led the ceremonies. But as soon as the situation became more stable, Menelaus was executed and the high priesthood was given to Alcimus.

Related categories

• High Priests / Zadokites

External links

• Wikipedia

Josephus, Antiquities 12.5.1-- 1. About this time, upon the death of Onias [III] the high priest, they gave the high priesthood to Jesus [Jason] his brother; for that son which Onias left [or Onias IV.] was yet but an infant; and, in its proper place, we will inform the reader of all the circumstances that befell this child. But this Jesus [=Jason], who was the brother of Onias, was deprived of the high priesthood by the king, who was angry with him, and gave it to his younger brother, whose name also was Onias; for Simon had these three sons, to each of which the priesthood came, as we have already informed the reader. This Jesus changed his name to Jason, but Onias was called Menelaus. Now as the former high priest, Jesus, raised a sedition against Menelaus, who was ordained after him, the multitude were divided between them both. And the sons of Tobias took the part of Menelaus, but the greater part of the people assisted Jason; and by that means Menelaus and the sons of Tobias were distressed, and retired to Antiochus, and informed him that they were desirous to leave the laws of their country, and the Jewish way of living according to them, and to follow the king's laws, and the Grecian way of living. Wherefore they desired his permission to build them a Gymnasium at Jerusalem. And when he had given them leave, they also hid the circumcision of their genitals, that even when they were naked they might appear to be Greeks. Accordingly, they left off all the customs that belonged to their own country, and imitated the practices of the other nations.

Cf. 1 Maccabees 1:11-15 -- 11 In those days certain renegades came out from Israel and misled many, saying, “Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles around us, for since we separated from them many disasters have come upon us.” 12 This proposal pleased them, 13 and some of the people eagerly went to the king, who authorized them to observe the ordinances of the Gentiles. 14 So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to Gentile custom, 15 and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil.

2 Maccabees 13:4-8 -- [4] But the King of kings aroused the anger of Antiochus against the scoundrel [i.e. Menelaus]; and when Lysias informed him that this man was to blame for all the trouble, he ordered them to take him to Beroea and to put him to death by the method which is the custom in that place. [5] For there is a tower in that place, fifty cubits high, full of ashes, and it has a rim running around it which on all sides inclines precipitously into the ashes. [6] There they all push to destruction any man guilty of sacrilege or notorious for other crimes. [7] By such a fate it came about that Menelaus the lawbreaker died, without even burial in the earth. [8] And this was eminently just; because he had committed many sins against the altar whose fire and ashes were holy, he met his death in ashes.

Josephus, Antiquities 12.9.7 -- The king sent to Judas, and to those that were besieged with them, and promised to give them peace, and to permit them to make use of, and live according to, the laws of their fathers; and they gladly received his proposals; and when they had gained security upon oath for their performance, they went out of the temple. But when Antiochus came into it, and saw how strong the place was, he broke his oaths, and ordered his army that was there to pluck down the walls to the ground; and when he had so done, he returned to Antioch. He also carried with him Onias the high priest, who was also called Menelaus; for Lysias advised the king to slay Menelaus, if he would have the Jews be quiet, and cause him no further disturbance, for that this man was the origin of all the mischief the Jews had done them, by persuading his father to compel the Jews to leave the religion of their fathers. So the king sent Menelaus to Berea, a city of Syria, and there had him put to death, when he had been high priest ten years. He had been a wicked and an impious man; and, in order to get the government to himself, had compelled his nation to transgress their own laws.