Land of Onias

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Land of Onias 1

Land of Onias

The Land of Onias (Greek: )[1] is the name given in Hellenistic Egyptian, Jewish, and Roman sources to an

area in Ancient Egypt's Nile delta where a large number of Jews settled. The Land of Onias, which included the city

of Leontopolis ( ), was located in the nome of Heliopolis. While accounts differ on the details, it is

known that the Jews ofLeontopolis had a functioning Temple, presided over by kohanim of the family of Onias IV

(for whom the "Land of Onias" is named). Like its predecessor the Jewish Temple at Elephantine (destroyed in the

4th century BCE), the Temple at Leontopolis was the only Jewish sanctuary outside of Jerusalem where sacrifices

were offered. Aside from a somewhat uncertain allusion of the Hellenist Artapanus,[2] only Josephus gives

information about this temple.[3] The Talmudic accounts are internally contradictory. The establishment of a central

sanctuary in Egypt was probably undertaken in response, in part, to the disorders that arose in Palestine under

Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the desecration of the Temple at Jerusalem under his reign, the supplanting of the

legitimate family of priests by the installation of Alcimus, the personal ambition of Onias IV, and the vast extent of

the Jewish diaspora in Egypt that created demand for a sanctuary of this nature.

Jewish temple at Leontopolis

The account of Josephus in the The Wars of the Jews,[4] refers to the Onias who built the Temple at Leontopolis as

"the son of Simon", implying that it was Onias III, and not his son, who fled to Egypt and built the Temple. This

account, however, is contradicted by the story that Onias III was murdered at Antioch in 171 BCE.[5] Josephus'

account in the Antiquities is therefore more probable, namely, that the builder of the temple was a son of the

murdered Onias III, and that, a mere youth at the time of his father's death, he had fled to the court of Alexandria in

consequence of the Syrian persecutions, perhaps because he thought that salvation would come to his people from

Egypt.[6] Ptolemy VI was King of Egypt at that time. He probably had not yet given up his claims to Coele-Syria and

Judea, and gladly gave refuge to such a prominent personage of the neighboring country. Onias now requested the

king and his sister-wife, Cleopatra, to allow him to build a sanctuary in Egypt similar to the one at Jerusalem, wherehe would employ Levites and priests of his own clan;[7] and he referred to the prediction of the prophet Isaiah[8] that

a Jewish temple would be erected in Egypt.[9]

According to Josephus, the temple of Leontopolis existed for 343 years,[10] though the general opinion is that this

number must be changed to 243. He relates that the Roman emperor Vespasian feared that through this temple Egypt

might become a new center for Jewish rebellion and therefore ordered the governor of Egypt, Lupus, to demolish

it.[11] Lupus died in the process of carrying out the order; and the task of stripping the temple of its treasures, barring

access to it, and removing all traces of divine worship at the site was completed by his successor, Paulinus,[12] which

dates the event to c. March - August 73.[13]

In his dig at Tell al-Yahudi in 1905/6, Flinders Petrie identified the remains of this temple. [14][15]

Onias' letters

Josephus quotes two documents: Onias' letter to the royal couple, and the king's answer to Onias.[16] Both of these,

however, appear spurious, on the following grounds: Onias refers in his letter to his military exploits in Coele-Syria

and Phoenicia, although it is not certain that the general Onias and the priest Onias are identical. His assertion that a

central sanctuary is necessary because a multiplicity of temples causes dissension among the Jews evidences

imperfect knowledge of the Jewish religious life; and, finally, his request for the ruined temple of the goddess

Bubastis, because a sufficient supply of wood and sacrificial animals would be found there, seems unwise and

improbable for a suppliant who must first obtain compliance with his principal request. It seems strange,

furthermore, that in the second letter the pagan king points out to the Jewish priest that the proposed building of atemple is contrary to the law, and that he consents only in view of Isaiah's prophecy. Both letters were apparently
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written by a Hellenistic Jew.

Layout of the Temple

Only this can be stated as a fact, that the temple of Leontopolis was built on the site of a ruined temple of Bubastis,

in imitation of the temple at Jerusalem, though smaller and less elaborate.[17] The statement in Wars of the Jews vii.

10, 2 of Onias' argument that by the building of this temple the whole Jewish nation would be brought to turn fromthe Syrians to the Ptolemies seems very plausible, and may have given rise to the assertion made in the letters that

there were dissensions among the Jews. The "fortress" () of the temple of Bubastis may be explained by the

statement, which seems credible, that Onias built a fortress () around the temple in order to protect the

surrounding territory, which now received the designation "Oneion".[18]

The Onias temple was not exactly similar to the Temple at Jerusalem, being more in the form of a high tower; and as

regards the interior arrangement, it had not a candelabrum, but a hanging lamp. The building had a court ()

which was surrounded by a brick wall with stone gates. The king endowed the temple with large revenuesa fact

that may have suggested to the writer of the letters mentioned above the wealth of wood and sacrificial animals.[19]

Legitimacy of its sacrificial cult

The reputation which the temple of Onias enjoyed is indicated by the fact that the Septuagint changes the phrase

"city of destruction"[20] to "city of righteousness" ( ). The Egyptian Jews sacrificed frequently in the

temple of Leontopolis, although at the same time they fulfilled their duty toward the Temple at Jerusalem, as Philo

narrates that he himself did.[21] The Temple at Leontopolis never gained the popularity of that of Jerusalem; while

the Alexandrine Jews might like having a subordinate temple close to home support for the Temple of Onias never

was seen to replace the need to send tithes and pilgrims to Jerusalem. Indeed, the Leontopolist temple site seems

never to have achieved even the importance of the synagogue in Alexandria's Jewish quarter.[22]

In the Talmud the origin of the temple of Onias is narrated with legendary additions, there being two versions of the

account.

[23]

Here also Onias is mentioned as the son of Simon, and that Isaiah's prophecy is referred to. In regard tothe Law the temple of Onias (Beit Honio, or "House of Onias", handed down in the name of Saadia Gaon as Beit

Honi) was looked upon as forbidden, though there is a question as to whether idolatry was done there or not.[24] The

possibility of the priests of Onias being admitted to officiate at Jerusalem was explicitly stated, while one passage

even expresses the view that sacrificial worship was permissible in the temple of Onias, however, this view was

rejected, and is based on the view that idolatry was not performed there. [25] The opinion was prevalent among the

Rabbis that the temple of Onias was situated at Alexandriaan error that is repeated by all the chroniclers of the

Middle Ages. This temple is also sometimes confounded with the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim.[26]

Military service

Many of the Jewish settlers in the Land of Onias were military colonists who served in the army of the Ptolemeid

kings. Ananias and Chelkias, the sons of Onias IV, both served as generals in the army of Cleopatra III (r.117-81

BCE).

Notes

[1] Wars of the Jews vii. 10, 3.

[2] In Eusebius,Prparatio Evangelica, ix. 23

[3] More explicitly in hisJewish Antiquities (xiii.1-3) than in his The Wars of the Jews (vii.2-4).

[4] Wari. 1, 1; vii. 10, 2.

[5] II Maccabees iv. 33.

[6] Ant. xii. 5, 1; ib. 9, 7.[7] Ant. xiii. 3, 1.

[8] Isaiah xix. 19.
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[9] Ant. xiii. 3, 1.

[10] Wars of the Jews vii. 10, 4



[13][13] According to E. Mary Smallwood, Lupus is last attested in office by dated Egyptian documents in March 73, whilst Paulinus is first attested

before the end of August 73 ("Josephus: The Jewish War", p. 460, note 58; ISBN 0-14-044420-3).

[14] Petrie and BSAE excavations and finds (http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/sitesindex.html#TellelYahudiya)

[15] Ebers, "Durch Gosen zum Sinai," pp. 497 et seq.

[16] Ant. xiii.1-2

[17] Ant. xiii. 3, 3.



[20][20] Isaiah xix. 18

[21][21] "De Providentia," in Eusebius, l.c. viii. 14, 64.

[22][22] Kuenen 183.

[23] Menahot 109b.

[24] Menahot 109a; Tosefta, Menahot xiii. 12-14

[25][25] Megillah 10a.

[26] Yuhasin, ed. London, pp. 11b, 13b; Azariah dei Rossi,Me'or 'Enayim, ed. Mantua, xxi. 89a; Gans, Tzemah Dawid, ed. Offenbach, ii. 10;

Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot, ed. Warsaw, 1891, i. 116.

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Jewish Encyclopedia. 19011906.

Gottheil, Richard and Samuel Krauss. "Leontopolis." (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.

jsp?artid=206&letter=L&search=Leontopolis)Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-1906, which

cites:

Heinriech Grtz, Gesch. 4th ed., iii. 27 et seq.;

Weiss,Dor, i. 130;

Willrich,Juden und Griechen, pp. 146-150;

Schrer, Gesch. 3d ed., iii. 97;

Bchler, Tobiaden und Oniaden, pp. 239-276, Vienna, 1899 (this author's opinion, that originally a Samaritan

temple was referred to, is not tenable)

Kuenen, Abraham and Alfred Heath May. The Religion of Israel to the Fall of the Jewish State, Volume 3.

London: Williams and Norgate, 1883.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heinriech_Gr%C3%A4tzhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jewish_Encyclopediahttp://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=206&letter=L&search=Leontopolishttp://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=206&letter=L&search=Leontopolishttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jewish_Encyclopediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Public_domainhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:PD-icon.svghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seder_ha-Dorothttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Azariah_dei_Rossihttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abraham_Zacutohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Toseftahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Menahothttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wars_of_the_Jewshttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/sitesindex.html#TellelYahudiya


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