ELEAZAR, the high priest, died in the year 276 B.C., and was succeeded by Manasseh, his brother. Upon the latter’s death (after an uneventful term of office), in the thirty-fourth year of Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.C. 251), the priesthood fell to Onias II., the son of Simon the Just, and nephew of the late priests, Eleazar and Manasseh. Four years later (B.C. 247) the king of Egypt died, and was succeeded by Ptolemy III. (Euergetes).
Towards the end of this king’s reign, the misconduct of Onias well-nigh brought the people into great danger. All secular as well as religious matters fell within the juris diction of the high priest. This dignitary, Onias, a man “of a little soul, neglected to pay the tribute of twenty talents of silver the amount annually due to the Egyptian king. The arrears having become very high, Euergetes sent one Athenion to demand the amount owing, with threats that soldier: should be immediately sent to dispossess the Jews. All Jerusalem was put into great consternation. At this juncture a young man named Joseph, a nephew of the high priest and son of Tobias, showed great discretion in the management of the difficulty. Taking the Egyptian ambassador to his house, he entertained him in so sumptuous a manner that Athenion returned to Egypt with a glowing account of the young man’s behavior Joseph followed Athenion to present himself to the king on behalf of his aged uncle, and, happening to travel in a caravan of Cœle Syrians and Phoenicians, he discovered that they intended to purchase from the king the right of farming his revenues in Cœle-Syria, Phœnicia, Judaea, and Samaria. This was the ordinary custom: the king took from the purchaser a stated amount, the latter extorted what he could. Joseph learned that his fellow travelers intended to offer eight thousand talents for the right, though it appeared that the revenues were worth double that sum. On the set day Joseph bid sixteen thousand talents, and secured the privilege. Two thousand men were placed at his disposal to assist him in carrying out his office. At Askelon he was rudely resisted; he executed twenty persons, and confiscated their property, and with the same rigor he overcame opposition at Scythopolis. These stern measures struck fear into all others; no further opposition was made, and for twenty-two years Joseph held this rich and important position. It seems to have ceased for a time, upon Antiochus recovering the provinces, to be afterward re-held by Joseph until his death, when an old man.
Although, during the then recent years, the land of Israel had been free from wars and tumults, it was not so with the neighboring countries. “The tide of war was ebbing, flowing, from north to south, and from south to north.” Between the rival powers, Egypt and Syria, there had been almost incessant strife, notwithstanding that (in Syria especially) several deaths had occurred in the kingly line. Seleucus Nicator, the first of his dynasty, had been succeeded, after thirty-three years’ reign, by Antiochus Soter; he, after nineteen, by Antiochus Theos; and he in turn by Seleucus Callinicus. The year after Onias sent Joseph into Egypt (B.C. 226). Callinicus was killed by a fall from a horse, and his son, another Seleucus, ascended the Syrian throne. He— a poor, weak prince— adopted the surname “Ceraunus”―Tunderer. He was poisoned by two of his commanders, who held him in contempt, and the succession passed to his brother, Antiochus, then a minor, who was afterward called “the Great.” This was in B.C. 223.
Two years later, the third of the Ptolemies (Euergetes) died. His son, Ptolemy II., was suspected of having poisoned his father, and from this circumstance, it is said, he received in irony the name “Philopater” Lover of his father. It is at any rate certain that soon after his succession he murdered his mother and brother. He was in every way a vile person, giving himself up to the grossest profligacy, while the administration of his affairs was neglected. Taking advantage of this, Antiochus of Syria, who asserted that under the original treaty for the partition of Alexander’s empire, Cœle-Syria, Phœnicia, Samaria, and Judea were allotted to his predecessor Seleucus Nicator, attempted the recovery; of these lands. His arms were partly successful, but various circumstances hindered him for some years from pursuing the advantages gained, and in the spring of 217, both sides took the field, each being thoroughly well equipped for the war. At Raphia, neap Gaza, a severe battle was fought; Antiochus was completely routed with a loss of 10,000 men and 4000 prisoners. Hereupon the cities of Cœle-Syria which had been captured by Antiochus, eagerly submitted themselves to their old masters the Egyptians, under whose benign rule they had so long been, while their submission to the Syro-Macedonian power had been only at the edge of the sword.
Ptolemy made a sort of triumphal procession through the cities, and visited Jerusalem Here he gave many gifts to the Temple, and offered many sacrifices and oblations. Not content, however, with entering the outer court, he was bent upon going into the Holy of holies. In vain did priest and people protest against it, and deprecate so great a profanation of the sacred house; the king pressed forward, but was smitten (it is said) with such a terror and paralysis in the very act, that he was carried out half dead. And so he left Judæa, with a fearful hatred against the Jewish people in consequence of this rebuff.
Later on, Antiochus proposed of terms of peace to Ptolemy, and the latter readily entertained them. The fact is, both were sick of the strife; Antiochus found his authority diminished by his severe defeat at Raphia, and Ptolemy loved his pleasures better than the hardships of “the tented field.” Accordingly Cœle-Syria and Palestine were declared to be Egyptian possessions, and peace was confirmed. Josephus well describes the sufferings of the Jews and Cœle-Syrians during these and the subsequent struggles: “It fell out that these nations were equally sufferers, both when Antiochus was beaten and when he beat the others; so that they were very like to a ship in a storm, which is tossed by the waves on both sides.”
For a few years at least the land had rest, but it was not so with the unfortunate Jews of Alexandria. The persecutions they suffered are detailed at length in the third book of Maccabees, but it is difficult to ascertain how far that is a trustworthy record. It has the appearance of being highly embellished. According to this book, the hateful Philopater published a decree forbidding all access to himself by those who did not worship the gods which he worshipped. This was a side-blow at the Jews. It was an effectual means of debarring them from all justice and protection. A second decree debased all Jews from the first rank of citizenship (granted to them by Ptolemy Soter to the third. A re-enrollment was commanded to be made, at the time of which all of the third rank were to have an ivy-leaf— the badge of the god Bacchus— branded upon them. To refuse was to draw down sentence of death. On the other hand, the king granted to all who would sacrifice to his gods the right of retaining their position in the first rank. Only about 300 forsook the God of their fathers; the rest stood firm, and refused all intercourse with the apostates. This was represented to the king as a revolt from his authority. He therefore commanded that the Jews should be brought to the Hippodrome at Alexandria, there to be destroyed by elephants, as a spectacle for his people. They were brought, and their deliverance was a remarkable one, if our authority may be trusted. The time came for the display, but a deep sleep following the previous night’s carousal, prevented the presence of the king. The next day, absolute forgetfulness of his plans marvelously possessed him! So that day passed. Meanwhile the imprisoned Jews earnestly besought God’s delivering mercy. The third day came: the king was present; the elephants, made drunk and furious with wine and frankincense, were let loose upon the Jews; but an angelic vision appeared, and, to the terror of all, the beasts turned upon their attendants, destroying many! Philopater’s wrath was turned to pity; he at once rescinded his decrees, restored to the Jews their original estate, and gave them many favors, with permission to put all the apostates to death, which was done. So runs the story, but it is undoubtedly elaborated, in order (it is thought) to put the Alexandrian Jews on a level with the Palestinian, with respect to persecutions and miraculous deliverances. The account is a marked contrast to the sober narrative of the book of Esther, wherein another deliverance is recorded, and “the words of inspiration stand ennobled by the presence of their later counterpart.
Twelve years later (B.C. 204) Philopater died, worn out with his abominable excesses. His son, Ptolemy V. (Epiphanes), succeeded him, being at the time a child of only five years of age. Antiochus was still reigning in the rival kingdom of Syria, and, though by treaty Palestine and Cœle-Syria had been ceded to the Egyptians, he had not lost his longing for them. Accordingly, he arranged with Philip, king of Macedon, that they should take advantage of the Egyptian king’s infancy and divide his dominions between them. This plot was never carried out, owing to Roman intervention, but Antiochus managed to seize the provinces referred to in the years B.C. 203-2.
In the year 199, while Antiochus was engaged in war in other parts of his dominions, the Egyptians dispatched an army under one Scopas, an able general, to recover those two provinces, which he did, but in the next year Antiochus recaptured them, defeating Scopas with great slaughter. Several things― (the attempt by Philopater to invade the Temple; the persecutions at Alexandria; the ravages of Scopas) ―had by this time conspired to make the Jews dissatisfied with the Egyptian rule, and the priests and people went in solemn procession to meet Antiochus, and to assist him in every way they could. He was very favorable to the Jews, and granted them many privileges. In order to prevent the Egyptians renewing the attack upon Palestine, he sent proposals that, when arrived at a fit age, his daughter, Cleopatra, should be given in marriage to the youthful Ptolemy, and that upon this event the provinces should be restored, with her, as dowry. The offer was accepted, and the marriage was accomplished a few years later, in the year B.C.193. The revenues were, however, shared between the two kingdoms.
Antiochus had now passed the zenith of his power. Undoubtedly possessing in his earlier days great valor, prudence, and administrative ability, he seems to have become vain, ambitious, and less careful than before, carried away with his successes. Jealous of the mighty Roman power which had grown up in the west (as that power, too, was jealous of him), he embarked in a war, which, after several reverses, ended most disastrously for him. A battle was fought at Magnesia, near Mount Sipylus. The Roman forces numbered only about thirty thousand; the Syrians were between eighty and ninety thousand. In vain did this large army attack the Roman legions; the latter were everywhere victorious, and Antiochus barely managed to escape with a mere handful of his troops.
Hereupon, in a kind of despair, he sued for peace, which was granted on crushing terms, part of which was that he bore all the expenses of the war. This placed him in great straits, and led him while at Elymais, in Persia (B.C.187), to pillage a temple devoted to Jupiter Belus, where great treasure was stored. This incensed the people, who rose up against him and slew him, and thus miserably did Antiochus the Great perish at last. “He stumbled and fell, and was not found.”
Jr.