Page 317 - Bible History

290 GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE IN CAPTIVITY
2. THE JEWS ARE RULED BY THE SY ANS
When Alexander died, his empire was divided into four parts, each part being given to one of his generals to rule. At rst Palestine was under the same king who ruled Egypt, but later on, Jerusalem came under the power of Atiochus the Great, the Greek king of
Syria. It was under one of his S Ccessors, Seleucus = IV, that the following incident took place.
He
the and evil. While he was in o ce, there was peace in
Onias, the high priest, was a holy man and hated sin Jerusalem and the laws were very well kept.
Tem e
Seleucus admired Onias and sought to co-operate with him in keeping the Te le holy and in preserving the beauty of the divine worship. He defrayed the cost of l the Jewish sacri ces out of his own revenue.
A mm named Simon, who belonged to the tribe of Benjamin and who had been appointed an overseer in the Temple, was jealous of Onias and tried to under­ mine his in uence. He approached Apollonius, the son of the governor of the province, and informed him that there ere immense sums of money in the treasury at Jerusalem. He told him that this money was not necessary for the sacri ces, and that it might be pos­
sible to turn it all over to the king.
The governor immediately noti ed the king. The
greed of Seleucus was aroused, and he sent Heliodorus, one of his o cers, to bring the treasure to him.
Pretending that he was about to visit the cities of the provinces, Heliodorus set out for Jerusalem. The high priest received him with great courtesy and it