Onias III

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Onias III, son of Simon II, was High Priest of Israel during the late Second Temple period under the Seleucid Empire. He is remembered as a devout priest who opposed the Hellenization of Judea.

Around 175 BCE, after Antiochus IV Epiphanes became ruler, Onias was forced to yield the high priesthood to his brother Jason, who favored Greek-style reforms. Jason’s grip on the position was challenged by rivals, including Menelaus. Onias publicly accused Menelaus of stealing temple vessels to win favor with the royal court, and he eventually fled to Daphne near Antioch. There, Menelaus, with the governor Andronicus, had Onias assassinated.

Ancient accounts differ on the details. The 2 Maccabees narrative says Onias’s death was mourned by Jews and Greeks and the king punished Andronicus. Josephus offers a different chronology, placing Onias’s flight after the Temple in Jerusalem was defiled during the Sixth Syrian War and describing Onias’s later founding of a separate temple at Leontopolis in Egypt, where he served as high priest while the Jerusalem temple lay closed. Scholars debate these stories, noting political struggles and possible biases in the sources.