HIGH-PRIEST
250
HIGH-PRIEST
Eliashib hindering rather than seconding the zeal of the devout Tirshatlia Nehemiah for the observance of God's law in Israel (Neh. xiii, 4, 7) ; and Johanan, Josepliiis teUs us, murdered his own brother Jesus or Joshua in the Temple, which led to its further profanation by Ba- goses, the general of Artaxerxes Mnemon's army (A/it. xi,7). Jaddua was high-priest in the time of Alexan- der the Great. Concerning him, Josephus relates the story that he went out to meet Alexander at Sapha (probably the ancient Mizpeh) at the head of a proces- sion of priests; and that when Alexander saw the mid- titude clothed in white, and the priests in their Unen garments, and the higli-priest in blue and gold, with the mitre on his head, and the gold plate, on which was the name of God, he stepped forward alone and adored the Name, and hastened to embrace the high-priest (Anf. xi, 8, 5). Josephus adds many other particulars in the same connection ; and the narrative, though sometimes disputed as savoring of the apocryphal, derives support from the circumstances of the times, especially tjie leni- ency of Alexander toward the Jews. See Alex,\xder THE Great. It was the brother of this Jaddua, jManas- seh, who, according to the same authority, was, at the request of Sanballat, made the first high-priest of the Samaritan temple by Alexander the Great. (See on this whole period, Herzfeld, Gesck. d. Volkes Israel, 1865, i, 368 sq.)
Jaddua was succeeded by Onias I, his son, and he again by Simon the Just, the last of the men of the great synagogue, as the Jews speak, and to whoin is usually ascribed the completion of the Canon of the O. T. (Prid.Conwc/. i, 515). Of him Jesus, the son of Sirach, speaks in terms of most glowing eulogy in Ecclus. 1, as- cribing to him the repair and fortification of the Tem- ple,'with other works. The passage (1-21) contains an interesting account of the ministrations of the high- priest. Upon Simon's death, his son Onias being under age, Eleazar, Simon's brother, succeeded him. The high- priesthouJ of Eleazar is memorable as being that under which the Sept. version of the Scriptures is said to have been made at Alexandria for Ptolemy Philadelphus, ac- cording to the account of Josephus taken from Ai-isteas (.1 ni. xii, 2). This translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, valuable as it was with reference to the wider interests of religion, and marked as was the providence which gave it to the world at this time as a preparation for the approaching advent of Christ, yet, viewed in its relation to Judaism and the high-priesthood, was a sign, and perhaps a helping cause of their decay. It marked a growing tendency to Hellenism utterly inconsistent with the spirit of the Mosaic economy. Accordingly, in the high-priesthood of Eleazar's rival nephews, Jesus and Onias, we find their very names changed into the Greek ones of Jason and Menelaus, and with the intro- duction of this new feature of rival high-priests we find one of them, Menelaus, strengthening himself and seek- ing support from the SjTo-Greek kings against the Jew- ish party by oifering to forsake their national laws and customs, and to adopt those of the Greeks. The build- ing of a gymnasium at Jerusalem for the use of these apostate Jews, and their endeavor to conceal their cir- cumcision when stripped for the games (1 ]Macc. i, 14, 15 ; 2 Mace, iv, 12-15 ; Joseph. A nt. xii. 5, 1), show the length to which this spirit was carried. The acceptance of the spurious priesthood of the temple of Onion from Ptole- my Philometor by Onias (the son of Onias the high- priest), who would have been the legitimate high-iiriest on the death of ilenelaus, his uncle, is another striking indication of the same degeneracy. By this flight of Onias into Egypt the succession of high-priests in the family of Jozadak ceased; for although the Syro-Greek kings had introduced much uncertainty into the succes- sion, by deposing at their will obnoxious persons, and appointing whom they pleased, yet the dignity had nev- er gone out of the one family. Alcimus, whose Hebrew name was Jakim (I Chron. xxiv, 12), or perhajis Jachin (1 Chron. ix, 10 ; xxiv, 17), or, according to Kuifinus (ap.
I Selden), Joachim, and who v/as made high-priest by An- ! tiochus Eupator on Menelaus being put to death by him, was the first who was of a different family. One, says Josephus, that " was indeed of the stock of Aaron, but not of this family" of Jozadak.