Onias ., III, 44th High Priest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_Onias http://www.biblesearchers.com/yahshua/davidian/dynasty2.shtml#LukeM...

The House of Zadok Onias III (44th High Priest)

Onias III.: Son of Simon II. He is described as a pious man who, unlike the Hellenizers, fought for Judaism (II Macc. iii.-iv.). Seleucus Philopator defrayed all the expenses connected with the sanctuary and was friendly to the Jews. A traitorous official of the Temple, however, Simon the Benjamite, induced the king to undertake the plunder of the Temple treasury (see Heliodorus); the attempt was not successful, and the Syrian court never forgave the high priest for its miscarriage. When Antiochus IV. (Epiphanes) became king, Onias was obliged to yield to his own brother Jason (II Macc. iv. 7). According to Josephus ("Ant." xii. 5, § 1), Jason became high priest after the death of Onias, the latter's son, who bore the same name, being then a minor. It is strange that both father and son should have been named Onias, and still more strange is the statement of Josephus that the high priest who succeeded Jason and was the brother of Onias and Jason, likewise was called Onias, and did not assume the name of Menelaus until later; for according to this statement there must have been two brothers of the same name.

While this confusion may be due to the Greek transcription of the related Hebrew names Johanan, Ḥonya, and Neḥonya, the account of Josephus appears wholly unreliable for this very reason. According to II Macc. iv. 23, Menelaus was not an Aaronite, but a brother of the Simon mentioned above, and hence a Benjamite. When Menelaus purloined some vessels from the Temple to curry favor with the Syrian nobles, Onias accused him publicly and then fled to the asylum of Daphne, near Antioch, where Menelaus, aided by the royal governor Andronicus, had him secretly assassinated, in defiance of justice and of his oath. The murdered priest was deeply mourned by both Jews and Greeks, and the king also, on his return, wept for him and sentenced Andronicus to a well-merited death (II Macc. iv. 29-39).

Wellhausen and Willrich regard the story of the murder of Onias, as well as the entire list of high priests from Jaddua to the Maccabees, as legendary, while Schürer and Niese consider them historical.The passage in Dan. ix. 26, "shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself," is generally referred to the murder of Onias (comp. Baethgen in Stade's "Zeitschrift," 1886, vi. 278). Onias III. is the central figure of the legendary history of later times; the Byzantine "Chronicon Paschale" says that he officiated for twenty-four years, thus placing the beginning of his term of office under Egyptian rule. The Byzantine "Chronographeion Syntomon" follows Josephus in mentioning "another Onias" as the successor of Onias III., referring probably to Menelaus, who ought, perhaps, to be added to this list as Onias IV.; an account of his life is given, however, in Jew. Encyc. viii. 491, s.v. Menelaus.