forests, and even a tax on the Levitical tithes and on all revenues of the Temple.9 Matters
became much more worse under the Pontificate of Onias II., the son and successor of
Simon II. A dispute between him and one Simon, a priest, and captain of the temple-
guard,10 apparently provoked by the unprincipled covetousness of the latter, induced
Simon to appeal to the cupidity of the Syrians by referring to the untold treasures which
he described as deposited in the Temple. His motive may have been partly a desire for
revenge, partly the hope of attaining the office of Onias. It was ascribed to a super-natural
apparition, but probably it was only superstition which arrested the Syrian general at that
time. But a dangerous lesson had been learned alike by Jew and Gentile.
9. In 1 Macc. x. 29-33; Jos. And. xii;3. 3; xiii, 2. 3. In view of these express testimonies
the statement of Ewald (Gesch. d. V. Isr. vol. iv. p. 373), to the effect that Palestine, or at
least Jerusalem, enjoyed immunity from taxation, seems strange indeed. Schürer (u.s.p.
71) passes rather lightly over the troubles in Judĉa before Antiochus Epiphanes.
10. Herzfeld rightly corrects 'Benjamin' in 2 Macc. iii. 4. Comp. u. s. p. 218.
Seleucus IV. was succeeded by his brother Antiochus IV., Epiphanes (175-164).
Whatever psychological explanation may be offered of his bearing - whether his conduct
was that of a madman, or of a despot intoxicated to absolute forgetfulness of every
consideration beyond his own caprice by the fancied possession of power uncontrolled
and unlimited - cruelty and recklessness of tyranny were as prominently his
characteristics as revengefulness and unbounded devotion to superstition. Under such a
reign the precedent which Simon, the Captain of the Temple, had set, was successfully
followed up by no less a person than the brother of the High-Priest himself. The promise
of a yearly increase of 360 talents in the taxes of the country, besides a payment of 80
talents from another revenue (2 Macc. iv. 8, 9), purchased the deposition of Onias III. -
the first event of that kind recorded in Jewish history - and the substitution of his brother
Joshua, Jesus, or Jason (as he loved to Grecianise his name), in the Pontificate.11 But this
was not all. The necessities, if not the inclinations, o f the new High-Priest, and his
relations to the Syrian king, prescribed a Grecian policy at home. It seems almost
incredible, and yet it is quite in accordance with the circumstances, that Jason should
have actually paid to Antiochus a sum of 150 talents for permission to erect a
Gymnasium in Jerusalem, that he entered citizens of Antioch on the registers of
Jerusalem, and that on one occasion he went so far as to send a deputation to attend the
games at Tyre, with money for purchasing offerings to Heracles! And in Jerusalem, and
throughout the land, there was a strong and increasing party to support Jason in his plans,
and to follow his lead (2 Macc. iv. 9, 19). Thus far had Grecianism already swept over
the country, as not only to threaten the introduction of views, manners, and institutions
wholly incompatible with the religion of the Old Testament, but even the abolition of the
bodily mark which distinguished its professors (1 Macc. i. 15; Jos. Ant. xii.5. 1).
11. The notice in Jos. Ant. xii. 5. 1 must be corrected by the account in 2 Macc. Comp.
Herzfeld, u. s.
But the favor which Antiochus showed Jason was not of long duration. One even more
unscrupulous than he, Menelaus (or, according to his Jewish name, Onias), the brother of
that Simon who had first excited the Syrian cupidity about the Temple treasure, outbade