ONI'AS'S TEMPLE. A sanctuary built at Lcontopolis in Egypt by the Jewish high priest Onias, probably not long after the desecration of the temple at -Jerusalem Antiochus 1V., Epiphanies, in December, a.e. 168. According to Josephus. this Leontopolis was situated in the tleliopolitan none (Ant., xiii. 3, 2), 180 stadia northeast of Memphis (Be!. vii. 10, 3), and is not to he confused with the well known Leontopolis in the Delta. It consequently cannot have been far from the city of Heliopolis itself. In the Ilinerarium _Antonini a Virus Judtrornin i; mentioned that may have belonged to the Nome of "Heliopolis, but is 464 stadia from Memphis. At this place, thee modern Belbeis, there once was a temple of the goddess Bast, and in the neighborhood there is a Tell el-Yehudiyyeh. Another Tell el-Yehudiyyeb, however, is found near Heliopolis with a Jewish cemetery. This has been identified by Naville as the capital of 'the land of Onias,' and it is probably identical also with the Castro Juthroruni mentioned in a Notitin Dignitatitm Orienti.g. c.25 A.D., while the so-called Camp of the Jews (A nt., xiv. R, 2) was in another direction, northwest of Memphis. A temple of Bast is perhaps more likely to have been allowed to fall into ruins there than nearer to Bubastis. There is no reason for doubting that an old pagan temple was given to Onias and remodeled by him. The tower-like shape indi cates this. If it had been a new structure, the pattern of the temple in .lerusalem would no doubt have been followed in regard to the exterior as well as the interior.
As to the identity of the Jewish high priest there is still some uncertainty. In his Jewish War, written a few years after the fall of Jerusalem, .Tosephus states that Onias, son of Simon, lied from Antiochus IV., Epiphanes, to Egypt, and built the temple of Leontopolis (i. 1, I, vii. 10, 2-4). He would consequently be Onias Ill., son of Simon the Just. With this agree Theodore of Mopsuestin, in his commentary on Psalm Iv., the references in the Palestinian Talmud (Yoma vi. 3), and the Babylonian Tal mud (\lenaehoth 109 a). On the other hand, Josephus declares in his Antiquities (xii. 5, 1; 9, 7; xiii. 3, 1.3: xiii. 10, 4; xx. 10) that the builder was a son of ODiag. Ill.. who tied to Egypt in the time of Antioehus V., Enpator (n.c. 164-162). when Menelaus was deposed, and Aleinms took his place. As the were I‘ritten c.95 A.n., and therefore may be thought to represent more careful research, and it is told in 11. Mace. iv. 33 sqq, how Onias was murdered by Andronicus in a sanctuary at Daphme, near Antioch, and bitterly lamented by Antioehus IV., many scholars have credited the later account rather than the earlier. But neither Joseph's himself nor Theodore. who else where follows IL Maccabees, mentions any such murder of Onias, and Baethgen, Willrich, and Wellhausen have strongly argued that the notice is unhistorical, being either a confusion with the murder of Menelaus or a transference to the Jewish high priest of the tragic fate of a son of Seleucus murdered by Andronicus at Daphme and naturally mourned by Antioehus. Josephus mar. in his old age, have been misled by a poorer source or an altered tradition, a change of attitude toward the temple at Leontopolis being clearly discernible on the part of the Jew ish teachers.
If it was Onias III. who in B.C. 170 fled to Egypt, it is natural to suppose that the desecra tion of the temple in Jerusalem and its dedication to Zeus Olympius in B.c. 168 led him to ask Ptol emy VII., Philometor, and Cleopatra 1. for the temple of Bast at Leontopolis. For three years the legitimate high priest and ethnarch would then have officiated in a temple dedicated to the worship of Yahweh before the restoration of the Yahweh cult in Jerusalem in December, u.c. 165. Onias not only had with him numerous emigrants who formed military colonies, but left behind many sympathizers. This is evident from Isaiah xis. 18-25, probably written in B.C. 150, when Jonathan sat by the side of Alexander lialas, as lie was married to Cleopatra. Here reference is made to five cities in Egypt oc cupied by Hebrews, one of them called Leon topolis (the city of the Lion), and to an altar and sacred stone (or lower,' if the word is read Mizpah) at the border of Egypt, where the Egyptians are expected to offer sacrifices to Yah weh. The feeling of the Greek translator toward Leontopolis is seen in his rendering the name 'The City of Righteousness.' It has been sup posed that the Ribylline Oracles (v. 492 seq.) refer to this temple, but that is probably wrong. Early regulations preserved in the Mishna (Menachoth xiii. 10) provide that a sacrifice promised to this temple should be offered there, and that priests of the temple should not lose their priestly dignity or share of the offerings if they came to Jerusalem. It is only after the destruction of the temple, and especially by rabbis of the second and third centuries, that the cult there was condemned (Menachoth. 109 b). After the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 it seems to have enjoyed such hivor that the Romans had reason to fear it. and after A.D. 72 Lupus closed it, and some time later, possibly A.D. 75, Paulinus destroyed it (Bel. dud., vii. 10, 2-4). Josephus states that it had then stood 343 years. This is no doubt an error for 243, which would place its consecration as a Yahweh sanctuary in B.C. 168. Consult: Cassel, be Templo Oniw Heliopolitano (Bremen, 1730) ; Herzfeld, Ueschichte des Israel, vol. ii., p. 557 seq. (Leipzig, 1863) ; Ewald, Geschichte desIkes Israel, vol. iii., p. 405 seq. (Gottingen, 1852) : Graetz, Geschiehte der Juden (4th ed.. Leipzig, 1888) ; Baethgen, in Zeitschrift fiir alt testainentliche Wissenschaft, vol. vii. (Giessen, 1886) ; Willrieh, Jude,' end Griechen roe der makkabitischen Erhebung (Gottingen. 1895) : id., Judaica (Gottingen, 19001 ; Bertholet, Die 8tel lung der Arnehien and der Juden zu den Free, den (Leipzig. 1S96) ; Sehtirer, Gesehichte des jiidischen Volkes, vol. iii. (3d ed., Leipzig. 1898) ; Derenbourg. Essai sur Phistoire et lu geographic de in Palestine (Paris, 156;g Saville, Seventh Memoir of Egypt Exploration Fund (London, 1888) : Wellhausen, Israelitische and jiidische Geschiehte (3d ed., Berlin, 1899) ; Hamburger, in Real-Encyelopadie des Judenthema (Strelitz, 1896 ) .