The Koine Bible

But Simon, the one mentioned before, having become an informer about the money and the country, was slandering Onias, as though he himself had shaken up Heliodorus and had become the author of the evils.

and he dared to call the benefactor of the city and the guardian of the kinsmen and zealot of the laws an enemy of the affairs

But the enmity advancing to such a degree that even murders were being carried out by one of those approved by Simon

But Onias, seeing the harshness of the rivalry and Apollonius son of Menestheus, the governor of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, increasing the wickedness of Simon,

He was conveyed to the king, not becoming an accuser of the citizens, but considering what was expedient in common and privately for all the multitude

For he saw that without royal foresight it was impossible to obtain peace, since still the affairs and Simon would not receive a cessation from his folly

And when Seleucus had changed life and Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, had taken the kingdom, Jason, the brother of Onias, undermined the high priesthood

having promised the king, through an interview, sixty talents of silver in addition to the three hundred, and eighty talents of some other revenue

And in addition to these things he promised to contribute another fifty for each hundred, if permission were granted through his authority to establish for himself a gymnasium and a place for the youth, and to enroll the people in Jerusalem as Antiochenes

And when the king had nodded assent and had gained control of the office, at once he transferred his fellow countrymen to the Greek way of life.

and the things lying before, benevolent to the Jews, royal, through John the father of Eupolemus, who made the embassy for friendship and alliance to the Romans, he rejected, and, while abolishing the lawful civic institutions, he introduced unlawful customs anew

For gladly, under the very citadel he established a gymnasium, and bringing the best of the youths under the hat, he brought them under subjection.

And there was thus a certain peak of Hellenism and an increase of foreign ways because of the excessive godlessness of Jason, the ungodly man and not high priest

so that no longer were the priests eager for the services of the altar, but despising the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, they hastened to share in the unlawful provision of the palaestra after the call of the discus

and setting at nothing the ancestral honors, but considering the Greek glories the most beautiful

for which reason a grievous distress also surrounded them, and those whose ways they envied and to whom they wanted in every way to be made like, these they had as enemies and avengers

For to act impiously toward the divine laws is not easy, but the following time will make these things clear

And when the quinquennial contest was being held in Tyre and the king was present

Jason the impure sent men as spectators, as being Antiochenes from Jerusalem, carrying three hundred drachmas of silver for the sacrifice of Heracles, which also those who had carried them requested not to use for sacrifice, because it was not fitting, but to deposit for another expense

So these things fell out because of the one who had sent for the sacrifice of Heracles, and because of those who were conveying them for the fitting out of the triremes

And when Apollonius son of Menestheus had been sent to Egypt because of the first honors of King Philometor, Antiochus, having learned that he had become estranged from his affairs, was concerned about his own safety; wherefore, coming to Joppa, he came down to Jerusalem

But having been received magnificently by Jason and the city, with torchlight and shouting, he was welcomed; then thus he encamped in Phoenicia

But after three years Jason sent Menelaus, the brother of Simon who had been mentioned above, to carry the money to the king and to complete memoranda concerning necessary matters

But he, having been introduced to the king and having glorified him by the show of authority, obtained the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver

And when he had received the royal commands, he came bringing nothing worthy of the high priesthood, but having the passions of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a barbarous beast.

And Jason, the one who had supplanted his own brother, having been supplanted by another, was driven as a fugitive into the land of the Ammonites

But Menelaus was in control of the office, but of the money promised to the king he was not arranging any at all

And while the demand was being made, Sostratus, the governor of the citadel, for to him was the handling of the revenues, for which cause the two were summoned by the king

And Menelaus indeed left Lysimachus, his brother, as successor to the high priesthood, and Sostratus left Crates, the one over the Cyprians.

And when such things had come together, it happened that the men of Tarsus and those of Mallos were in revolt because Antiochis, the king’s concubine, had been given as a gift.

So the king came quickly to calm the affairs, leaving Andronicus, who succeeded him, of those lying in office.

But Menelaus, thinking that he had found a favorable time, having embezzled some of the gold vessels of the sanctuary, gave them as a gift to Andronicus, and was also by chance selling others in Tyre and the cities round about

which also Onias, having clearly recognized, was rebuking, having withdrawn into an asylum place at Daphne, which lies toward Antioch

Therefore Menelaus, taking Andronicus privately, kept urging him to lay hands on Onias; and he, having come to Onias and being persuaded by deceit and having given his right hand with oaths, though he lay under suspicion, persuaded him to come out from the asylum, whom he also immediately shut out, not respecting justice

For which reason not only many Jews but also of the other nations were grievously pained and were distressed at the man’s unjust murder

But when the king had returned from the places in Cilicia, the Jews in the city were, along with the Greeks, meeting him, being ill-affected, on account of Onias having been killed contrary to reason.

So Antiochus, being grieved in spirit and turned to pity and weeping because of the moderation and great good order of the one who had been changed,

And being inflamed with rage, at once taking off the purple cloak of Andronikos and tearing off his tunics, and leading him around through the whole city, to that very place where he had acted impiously against Onias, there he stripped the bloodstained man of the worthy punishment from the Lord, when he had repaid him a fitting punishment

And when many sacrileges had taken place in the city by Lysimachus with the approval of Menelaus, and the report had spread abroad, the multitude was gathered against Lysimachus, when many gold vessels had already been carried away

But when the crowds were being stirred up and were being filled with anger, Lysimachus, having armed about three thousand, began acts of injustice, some Auranus having led the way, advanced in age, but no less also in folly.

But when they saw the attack of Lysimachus, some snatching up stones, others thick pieces of wood, and some seizing from the nearby ashes, they hurled them in confusion at those around Lysimachus.

For which reason they made many of them wounded, and some also they threw down, and they drove all into flight; and they mastered the very sacrilegious man near the treasury.

And concerning these things there arose a judgment against Menelaus

And when the king had come to Tyre, the three men sent by the council made their defense before him.

But Menelaus, who had already been left behind, promised sufficient money to Ptolemy son of Dorymenes in order to persuade the king

Therefore Ptolemy, taking him aside into a certain colonnade as if to refresh the king, moved him there

And Menelaus, the cause of all the wickedness, he released from the accusations, but on the wretched men, who even if they were said to have been released among the Scythians, were blameless, on these he pronounced death.

So the ones who had brought charges about the city and the peoples and the sacred vessels quickly suffered the unjust penalty.

For which reason also the Tyrians, hating evil, lavishly provided what belonged to their burial.

But Menelaus, because of the greed of the rulers, remained in office, growing in evil, having become a great plotter against the citizens.