ONESIPHORUS ('Omicrictopos, profit-bringer), a believer of Ephesus, who came to Rome during the second captivity of St. Paul in that city ; and having found out the apostle, who was in custody of a soldier, to whose arm his own was chained, was not ashamed of his chain,' but attended him frequently, and rendered him all the services in his power. This faithful attachment, at a time of calamity and desertion, was fully appreciated and well remembered by the apostle, who, in his Epistle to Timothy, carefully records the circumstance ; and, after charging him to salute in his name the household of Onesiphorus,' expresses the most earnest and grateful wishes for his spiritual welfare (2 Tim. ii. 16-18). It would appear from this that Onesiphorus had then quitted Rome.—J. K.
ONIAS ('ffylas). Two high-priests of this name are mentioned in the Apocryphal books.
i. The son of Juddua, who succeeded his father about 33o B.C. (Joseph. Antiq. xi. 7. 7). He was the father of Simon the Just, and his grandson Onias II., high-priest about B.C. 240 (Ecclus. 1. t ; Joseph. Antig. xii. 2. 4), was father of Simon IL, who became high-priest about B.C. 226. The son of this Simon was 2. Onias III., who succeeded his father about B.C. 198. An informer, Simon, having told Selen cus Philopator of certain treasures laid up in the temple, the king sent Heliodorus to seize them.
In vain Onias protested against this sacrilege ; but ere Heliodorus had accomplished his design, he was scared by an apparition, and lay dumb and helpless till, by the intercession of Onias, he was restored. Simon misrepresented this to the king, so that Onias found it necessary to appeal to the king in person, in order to protect himself from his malicious endeavours. When, on the death of Seleucus, the supreme power passed into the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes, Onias found him self supplanted by his brother Jason (B.C. 174), who was in turn displaced by Menelaus, Simon's brother. Menelaus, being reprcved by Onias for appropriating the sacred vessels of the tem ple, suborned Andronicus to assassinate his re prover (s.c. 171), an act which was punished by Antiochus by the execution of the murderer (2 Maccab. iii. 4). The account given by Josephus of the death of Onias is different from this, for he makes Onias die, apparently, a natural death, after which his brother Jason became high-priest (Antiq. xii. 5. 1). But the authority of Josephus is not such as to set aside the statement of the author of the books of the Maccabees on such a point. W. L. A.