12 Facts About Onias IV

Onias IV was the son of Onias III and the heir of the Zadokite line of High Priests of Israel.

Onias IV built a new Jewish temple at Leontopolis in Ptolemaic Egypt where he reigned as a rival High Priest to the hierarchy in Jerusalem.

However, in 175 BCE, Onias IV III was dismissed from the High Priesthood and his brother Jason was given the role instead.

Onias IV III fled to the Seleucid capital Antioch, perhaps hoping to petition King Antiochus IV to restore him, where he was killed by his enemies while attempting to claim sanctuary at the shrine to Apollo and Artemis.

Presumably Onias IV hoped from afar for a victory by the rebel forces of Judas Maccabeus.

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In Onias IV's preferred scenario, the Maccabees would win, then invite Onias IV to take the office of his fathers.

Onias IV left Judea for Ptolemaic Egypt at some unknown point, most likely around the time of Alcimus's appointment as High Priest.

Onias IV was not invited back to Judea to take his family line's position, and Onias's personal expectations of the Hasmoneans presumably darkened.

The exact date is unknown, but with the permission of Ptolemy VI Philometor, Onias IV arranged the construction of a temple at Leontopolis.

Onias IV possibly expected that after the upheavals in Jerusalem by the Syrians and the Maccabees the Egyptian temple would be regarded as the new legitimate one.

Onias IV, who enjoyed the favor of the Egyptian court, did succeed in elevating Egyptian Judaism to a position of dignity and importance.

The Temple of Onias IV was closed in 73 CE by order of Vespasian in the aftermath of the First Jewish-Roman War.