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MENELAUS

(Gk. Menélaos)

High priest (ca. 172 to 162 b.c.e.) during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. A Hellenist extremist firmly against the Zadokite interpretation of Judaism, Menelaus was from a new priestly line rather than from the legitimate ancestral line of the Zadokite priesthood. Although 2 Maccabees states that Menelaus was from the tribe of Benjamin, some Old Latin and Armenian manuscripts indicate he was from the house of Bilgah, a priestly family (cf. Neh. 10:8[MT 9]). Josephus records that Menelaus was the brother of Jason and son of Onias III (Ant. 12.237-39), but here Josephus is unreliable.

When Jason, the high priest, sent Menelaus to Antiochus IV with large sums of money for business purposes, Menelaus, who had no qualifications for the high priesthood, nevertheless flattered and bribed Antiochus, thereby securing the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by 300 silver talents (2 Macc. 4:23-24). When Menelaus removed gold vessels from the temple, he aroused the bitter opposition of Jewish traditionalists. According to 2 Macc. 2:32-34, when Onias III, a former Zadokite high priest, denounced Menelaus for the theft of the temple vessels, Menelaus bribed Andronicus, a deputy of Antiochus, urging Andronicus to murder Onias. In 167, presumably under the ill-advised counsel of Menelaus, who advocated the overthrow of the Torah as the civil constitution, Antiochus persecuted Jews who resisted enforced Hellenism. In addition, in an endeavor to unify his empire, Antiochus imposed a syncretistic cult, perceived by traditional Jews as a desecration of the temple. While some Jews became martyrs and others acquiesced, Mattathias and his sons, with the support of the Hasidim, rose to challenge the process of Hellenization, thus beginning the Maccabean Revolt and the rise of the Hasmonean dynasty. In 164 Judas Maccabeus took control of Jerusalem. The temple was rededicated, the persecutions ended, and it became clear that the Torah would remain the civil constitution. Menelaus tried unsuccessfully to reestablish his authority in Jerusalem. Lysias, guardian of the young Antiochus, blamed Menelaus for his unwise advice to Antiochus and the resulting civil war. In 163/2 Menelaus was taken to Beroea, where he was put to death by submersion in ashes (2 Macc. 13:3-8). After the death of Menelaus, Alcimus became high priest (Ant. 12.385-87).

Bibliography. E. Bickerman, The God of the Maccabees. SJLA 32 (Leiden, 1979); L. L. Grabbe, Judaism from Cyrus to Hadrian, 2 vols. (Minneapolis, 1992); M. Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1974); E. Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (125 b.c.–a.d. 135), rev. ed., 4 vols. (Edinburgh, 1973-1987); V. Tcherikover, Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews (1959, repr. New York, 1970).

Lynne Alcott Kogel

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MENELAUS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)