Why does Onias intercede for the officer sent to remove the deposits?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Onias defends entrusted deposits, and after Heliodorus’s collapse intercedes while considering the king’s possible suspicion of Jewish wrongdoing.

Chapter breakdown

The holy city enjoys peace and well-kept laws, which the account connects to high priest Onias’s godliness and hatred of evil. Kings and princes honor the temple with great gifts, and Seleucus, king of Asia, meets the sacrificial ministry’s expenses from his revenues. The edition identifies him as Antiochus the Great’s son and Antiochus Epiphanes’s elder brother.

Simon of Benjamin, the temple overseer, opposes Onias to bring about an unjust thing in the city. Unable to overcome him, Simon goes to Apollonius son of Tharseas, governor of Celesyria and Phenicia. He reports immense treasury sums and a common store outside the sacrificial account, saying they can be brought into the king’s hands. Apollonius tells the king, who commissions Heliodorus, the officer in charge of his affairs. Heliodorus travels under cover of visiting the cities, actually to fulfill that purpose.

Onias courteously receives Heliodorus in Jerusalem. Heliodorus states the report, explains his mission and asks whether it is true. Onias explains that the money consists of deposits and provision for widows and the fatherless; some belongs to Hircanus son of Tobias, a man of great dignity. The whole is four hundred talents of silver and two hundred of gold, not a separate sum entirely owned by Hircanus. Defrauding people who trusted the temple’s reverence and holiness is unacceptable. Heliodorus insists his royal orders require the money’s removal.

On the appointed day Heliodorus enters to carry out the matter, spreading terror through the city. Priests in vestments prostrate before the altar, asking the heavenly lawgiver concerning deposits to preserve them for their owners. Onias’s changing color, sadness and bodily horror reveal inward sorrow and move observers. People gather from houses in public prayer, fearing contempt for the place. Women wear haircloth about their breasts in the streets; secluded virgins come out, some to Onias, some to the walls, while others look from windows. All raise hands to heaven. The account describes the multitude’s expectation and the high priest’s agony as pitiable. They ask God to keep entrusted things safe for their depositors.

Heliodorus proceeds with his guard at the treasury. The account attributes a manifestation to Almighty God’s spirit, striking those who obeyed Heliodorus with fainting and dread. A horse with a terrible rider and rich covering appears, runs fiercely and strikes Heliodorus with its forefeet. The rider seems to have gold armor. Two beautiful, strong, bright young men in comely clothing stand on either side and scourge him repeatedly. Heliodorus falls, covered with great darkness, and is carried out on a litter. No one can help him; he lies speechless, without hope of recovery. The temple’s fear turns to joy and praise for the Lord’s glorification of the place. The text does not specify a stallion, pavement or a guard retreat.

Friends of Heliodorus beg Onias to pray for his threatened life. Considering that the king might suspect the Jews of harming him, Onias offers a sacrifice of health for his recovery. While Onias prays, the same young men reappear and tell Heliodorus to thank Onias, for whose sake the Lord granted life, and to declare God’s great works and power. They disappear. Heliodorus offers a sacrifice to God, makes great vows, thanks Onias and returns with his troops to the king; the city of return is unnamed. He testifies publicly to what he saw.

Asked whom to send to Jerusalem again, Heliodorus advises sending an enemy or traitor, who would return scourged if he escaped. He says that divine power is in the place and that heaven’s dweller visits and protects it, striking and destroying those who come to do evil. This is his reported warning, not a new guarantee applied to all charitable funds or a claim that the king abandoned further confiscation. The chapter closes its account of Heliodorus and the treasury’s keeping.

The story inside

Simon’s report reaches the king and brings a confiscation commission. Onias distinguishes entrusted provision and privately owned deposits from a disposable royal store. Public supplication precedes the narrated apparition; Onias’s later intercession responds to the officer’s friends and a stated political concern. Heliodorus’s testimony and warning conclude the episode.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The four hundred silver and two hundred gold talents describe the whole; Hircanus owns some part.
2
The horse strikes with its forefeet; the rider seems to have gold armor, and two young men scourge the officer.
3
Onias considers possible royal suspicion; no certain reprisal, named return city or later deterrence is supplied.

Test your recall

What possible suspicion does Onias consider before offering the sacrifice of health?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 108260–108278
3:9. And when he was come to Jerusalem, and had been courteously received in the city by the high priest, he told him what information had been given concerning the money: and declared the cause for which he was come: and asked if these things were so indeed. 3:10. Then the high priest told him that these were sums deposited, and provisions for the subsistence of the widows and the fatherless: 3:11. And that some part of that which wicked Simon had given intelligence of belonged to Hircanus, son of Tobias, a man of great dignity; and that the whole was four hundred talents of silver, and two hundred of gold. 3:12. But that to deceive them who had trusted to the place and temple which is honoured throughout the whole world, for the reverence and holiness of it, was a thing which could not by any means be done. 3:13. But he, by reason of the orders he had received from the king, said, that by all means the money must be carried to the king.
Lines 108345–108380
3:31. Then some of the friends of Heliodorus forthwith begged of Onias, that he would call upon the Most High to grant him his life, who was ready to give up the ghost. 3:32. So the high priest, considering that the king might perhaps suspect that some mischief had been done to Heliodorus by the Jews, offered a sacrifice of health for the recovery of the man. 3:33. And when the high priest was praying, the same young men in the same clothing stood by Heliodorus, and said to him: Give thanks to Onias the priest: because for his sake the Lord hath granted thee life. 3:34. And thou having been scourged by God, declare unto all men the great works and the power of God. And having spoken thus, they appeared no more. 3:35. So Heliodorus, after he had offered a sacrifice to God, and made great vows to him, that had granted him life, and given thanks to Onias, taking his troops with him, returned to the king. 3:36. And he testified to all men the works of the great God, which he had seen with his own eyes. 3:37. And when the king asked Heliodorus, who might be a fit man to be sent yet once more to Jerusalem, he said: 3:38. If thou hast any enemy, or traitor to thy kingdom, send him thither, and thou shalt receive him again scourged, if so be he escape: for there is undoubtedly in that place a certain power of God. 3:39. For he that hath his dwelling in the heavens, is the visitor and protector of that place, and he striketh and destroyeth them that come to do evil to it. 3:40. And the things concerning Heliodorus, and the keeping of the treasury, fell out in this manner.