RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Leontius of Neapolis JJeprosy
lution of the first difficulty. If Onias III. was the builder, 170-163 must be the period of erection; if Onias IV., then c. 154 must be accepted. The statement in Ant., VII., x. 4 that the temple was open for 343 years is usually regarded as a mistake for 243, which would place the founding of the structure c. 170 b.c. But this calculation may be bound up with Josephus' evident confusion as to the person of the founder, and the later date may be regarded as correct. (3) The site is by the statements of Josephus and all earlier indications left a matter of doubt. Ant., XIII., iii. 2 seems to fix it definitely at " Leontopolis, in the nome of Heliopolis named from the country Bubastis."
This can not be the well-known Leontopolis, which was the capital of a province north of that of Heliopolis. Moreover, in War, VII., x. 3 the location is given as 180 stadia (about twenty miles) from Memphis. But a Leontopolis is not known in the region, apart from the capital already mentioned.
In the Itinerarium Antonini (ed. G. Parthey and M. Pinder, Berlin, 1848) appears mention of a Vicus Judceorum, which is placed thirty-four Roman miles northeast of Heliopolis. E. Naville finds that in this neighborhood a temple to Bast (the lion-headed goddess from whom Leontopolis took its name) once stood, and that near by is a Tel al-Yehudiyeh, " Mound of the The Jew," though at the time he investi- Temple gated (1887) he found no traces of a Found. Jewish temple there (The Academy, Feb. 25, 1888, pp. 140-141; Egypt Exploration Fund, Seventh Memoir, pp. 20, 22). Another place of the same name is found farther south, where a sepulchral inscription, Onion "pater, was discovered (The Academy, 1888, pp. 49-50, 140- 142, 193-194; Egypt Exploration Fund, ut sup.). The Notitia dignitatum orientis, chap, xxv (ed. E. Booking, Bonn, 1839) , knows a Castra Judceorum, possibly identical with the more southern of the two places. Finally, in 1905, near the station Shibin al-Kanater, 20 miles from Cairo (Baedeker's Egypt, p. 166, 1908), investigation at a mound called Tel al-Yehudiyeh (20 miles from Cairo) found the traces of the temple in question. The ground showed a settlement roughly in the shape of a triangle, on the east side a wall of stone 767 feet long, with the entrance to the enclosure at the west acute angle, while the temple ruins were at the south point. The entire enclosure covered between three and four acres. The temple showed a structure of which the inner court was sixtythree feet long by thirty-two to twenty-seven feet wide, and an outer court forty-four feet long by twenty-seven to twenty-one feet wide; the architecture was Corinthian in style with Syrian features; the area was proportioned like that of the temple at Jerusalem. The traces of sacrifice were present in the shape of huge sunken cylinders of pottery which show that they were used for sacrifice, alternate layers of earth and burnt material showing that fresh earth was thrown on each sacrifice of fire so as to deaden it. The pottery of the mound outside the old town belongs to the second century b.c, the coins are of the period of Ptolemy Philometor, and sherds show Jewish names.
These data, reconciling differences and agreeing with the conditions required, set finally at rest the question of the fact and the place of this interesting episode of Jewish history. Geo. W Gilmoee.
Bibliography: Egyptian Research Account, vol. xii., W. M. Flinders Petrie, Hyksos and Israelite Cities, London, 1906; Schurer, Geschichte, iii. 97-100, Eng. transl., II., ii. 286-288 (contains older literature); A. Biichler, Die Tobiaden und die Oniaden in II. Makkabaerbuch, Vienna, 1899; Jews' College Jubilee Volume, pp. 39-77, London, 1906 (collects discussions of the Onias Temple); C. H. H. Wright, Light from Egyptian Papyri before Christ, ib. 1908; J. G. Duncan, Exploration of Egypt and the O T New York, 1909; EB, iii. 3507-11.