he had come to Jerusalem and had been courteously received by the high priest of the city, he told him about the information which had been given, and declared why he had come; and he enquired if in truth these things were so. 10 The high priest explained to him that there were in the treasury deposits of widows and orphans, 11 and moreover some money belonging to Hyrcanus the son of Tobias, a man in very high place, not as that impious Simon falsely alleged; and that in all there were four hundred talents of silver and two hundred of gold, 12 and that it was altogether impossible that wrong should be done to those who had put trust in the holiness of the place, and in the majesty and inviolable sanctity of the temple, honoured over all the world. 13 But Heliodorus, because of the king’s command given him, said that in any case this money must be confiscated for the king’s treasury.
14 So having appointed a day, he entered in to direct the enquiry concerning these matters; and there was no small distress throughout the whole city. 15 The priests, prostrating themselves before the altar in their priestly garments, and called towards heaven upon him who gave the law concerning deposits, that he should preserve these treasures safe for those who had deposited them. 16 Whoever saw the appearance of the high priest was wounded in mind; for his countenance and the change of his colour betrayed the distress of his soul. 17 For a terror and a shuddering of the body had come over the man, by which the pain that was in his heart was plainly shown to those who looked at him. 18 Those who were in the houses rushed out in crowds to make a universal supplication, because the place was about to come into dishonour. 19 The women, girded with sackcloth under their breasts, thronged the streets. The virgins who were kept indoors ran together, some to the gates, others to the walls, and some looked out through the windows. 20 All, stretching out their hands towards heaven, made their solemn supplication. 21 Then it was pitiful to see the multitude prostrating themselves all mixed together, and the anxiety of the high priest in his great distress.
22 While therefore they called upon the Almighty Lord to keep the things entrusted to them ‡ safe and secure for those who had entrusted them, 23 Heliodorus went on to execute that which had been decreed. 24 But when he was already present there with his guards near the treasury, the Sovereign of spirits and of all authority caused a great manifestation, so that all who had presumed to come with him, stricken with dismay at the power of God, fainted in terror. 25 For they saw a horse with a frightening rider, adorned with beautiful trappings, and he rushed fiercely and struck at Heliodorus with his forefeet. It seemed like he who sat on the horse had complete armour of gold. 26 Two others also appeared to him, young men notable in their strength, and beautiful in their glory, and splendid in their apparel, who stood by him on either side, and scourged him unceasingly, inflicting on him many sore stripes. 27 When he had fallen suddenly to the ground, and great darkness had come over him, his guards picked him up and put him on a stretcher, 28 and carried him—this man who had just now entered with a great retinue and all his guard into the aforesaid treasury, himself now brought to utter helplessness, manifestly made to recognise the sovereignty of God. 29 So, while he, through the working of God, speechless and bereft of all hope and deliverance, lay prostrate, 30 they blessed the Lord who acted marvellously for his own place. The temple, which a little before was full of terror and alarm, was filled with joy and gladness after the Almighty Lord appeared.
31 But quickly some of Heliodorus’s familiar friends implored Onias to call upon the Most High to grant life to him who lay quite at the last gasp. 32 The high priest, secretly fearing lest the king might come to think that some treachery towards Heliodorus had been perpetrated by the Jews, brought a sacrifice for the recovery of the man. 33 But as the high priest was making the atoning sacrifice, the same young men appeared again to Heliodorus, arrayed in the same garments. They stood and said, “Give Onias the high priest great thanks, for for his sake the Lord has granted you life. 34 See that you, since you have been scourged from heaven, proclaim to all men the sovereign majesty of God.” When they had spoken these words, they vanished out of sight. 35 So Heliodorus, having offered a sacrifice to the Lord and vowed §great vows to him who had saved his life, and having bidden Onias farewell, returned with his army to the king. 36 He testified to all men the works of the greatest God, which he had seen with his eyes.
37 When the king asked Heliodorus what sort of man was fit to be sent yet once again to Jerusalem, he said, 38 “If you have any enemy or conspirator against the state, send him there, and you will receive him back well scourged, if he even escapes with his life; because truly there is some power of God in that place. 39 For he who has his dwelling in heaven himself has his eyes on that place and helps it. Those who come to hurt it, he strikes and destroys.”
40 This was the history of Heliodorus and the keeping of the treasury.
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1 The previously mentioned Simon, who had given information about the money against his country, slandered Onias, saying that it was he who had incited Heliodorus and had been the real cause of these evils. 2 He dared to call him a conspirator against the state who was actually the benefactor of the city, the guardian of his fellow countrymen, and a zealot for the laws. 3 When his hatred grew so great that even murders were perpetrated through one of Simon’s approved agents, 4 Onias, seeing the danger of the contention, and that †Apollonius the son of Menestheus, the governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, was increasing Simon’s malice, 5 appealed to the king, not to be an accuser of his fellow-citizens, but looking to the good of all the‡ people, both public and private; 6 for he saw that without the king’s involvement it was impossible for the state to obtain peace any more, and that Simon would not cease from his madness.
7 When Seleucus was deceased, and Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, succeeded to the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias supplanted his brother in the high priesthood, 8 having promised to the king at an audience three hundred and sixty talents of silver, and out of another fund eighty talents. 9 In addition to this, he undertook to assign one hundred and fifty more, if it might be allowed him §through the king’s authority to set him up a gymnasium and a body of youths to be trained in it, and to register the inhabitants of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch. 10 When the king had assented, and Jason had taken possession of the office, he immediately shifted those of his own race to the Greek way of life. 11 Setting aside the royal ordinances of special favour to the Jews, granted by the means of John the father of Eupolemus, who went on the mission to the Romans to establish friendship and alliance, and seeking to overthrow the lawful ways of living, he brought in new customs forbidden by the law. 12 For he eagerly established a gymnasium under the citadel itself, and caused the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat. 13 Thus there was an extreme of hellenization, and an advance of a foreign religion, by reason of the exceeding profaneness of Jason, who was an ungodly man and not a high priest; 14 so that the priests had no more any zeal for the services of the altar; but despising the sanctuary and neglecting the sacrifices, they hastened to enjoy that which was unlawfully provided in the wrestling arena, after the summons to the discus-throwing. 15 They despised the honours of their fathers, and valued the prestige of the Greeks best of all. 16 For this reason, severe calamity overtook them. The men whose ways of living they earnestly followed, and to whom they desired to be made like in all things, these became their enemies and punished them. 17 For it is not a light thing to show irreverence to God’s laws, but later events will make this clear.
18 Now when certain games that came every fifth year were kept at Tyre, and the king was present, 19 the vile Jason sent sacred envoys,† as being Antiochians of Jerusalem, bearing three hundred drachmas of silver to the sacrifice of Hercules, which even the bearers thereof thought not right to use for any sacrifice, because it was not fit, but to spend it for another purpose. 20 Although the intended purpose of the sender this money was for the sacrifice of Hercules, yet on account of ‡present circumstances it went to the construction of trireme warships.
21 Now when Apollonius the son of Menestheus was sent into Egypt for the § enthronement of Philometor as king, Antiochus, learning that Philometor had shown himself hostile towards the government, took