Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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Simon Accuses Onias
1 But Simon (mentioned earlier as
the one who informed Apollonius
about the money and brought
trouble on the nation) also lied about
Onias, claiming that he was responsible
for the attack on Heliodorus
and for the difficulties that followed.
2 He dared to accuse Onias of plotting
against the government—Onias
who not only had made donations to
Jerusalem and had protected the
Temple, but who was eager to see
that all our laws were obeyed.
3
4 Apollonius
son of Menestheus, the governor
of Greater Syria, encouraged
Simon in every evil thing he did, and
Simon's opposition finally grew so
strong that one of his trusted followers
committed several murders.
Onias realized how dangerous the
situation had become,
5 so he went
to the king, not for the purpose of
making accusations against his fellow
countrymen, but for the common
good of all Jews, both in their
private and public lives.
6 He realized
that without the king's cooperation
there was no hope for peace,
and Simon would keep on with his
foolishness.
Jason Introduces Greek Customs
7 Later, when King Seleucus died
and Antiochus (known as Epiphanes)
became king, Jason the brother
of Onias became High Priest by corrupt
means. note
8 He went to see note the
king and offered him 27,000 pounds
of silver with 6,000 more pounds to
be paid later.
9 Jason also offered
him an additional 11,250 pounds of
silver for the authority to establish a
stadium where young men could
train and to enroll the people of Jerusalem
as citizens of Antioch. note
10 The king gave his approval, and
just as soon as Jason took over the
office of High Priest, he made the
people of Jerusalem change to the
Greek way of life.
11 He began by
abolishing the favors that John had
secured for the Jews from previous
Syrian kings. (John was the father of
the Eupolemus who later went to
Rome to make an alliance and to establish
ties of friendship.) Jason also
did away with our Jewish customs
and introduced new customs that
were contrary to our Law. note
12 With
great enthusiasm he built a stadium
near the Temple hill and led our finest
young men to adopt the Greek
custom of participating in athletic
events.
13 Because of the unrivaled
wickedness of Jason, that ungodly
and illegitimate High Priest, the
craze for the Greek way of life and
for foreign customs reached such a
point
14 that even the priests lost all
interest in their sacred duties. They
lost interest in the Temple services
and neglected the sacrifices. Just as
soon as the signal was given, they
would rush off to take part in the
games that were forbidden by our
Law.
15 They did not care about anything
their ancestors had valued;
they prized only Greek honors.
16 And this turned out to be the
source of all their troubles, for the
very people whose ways they admired
and whose customs they tried
to imitate became their enemies and
oppressed them.
17 It is a serious
-- --
thing to disregard God's Law, as you
will see from the following events.
Jerusalem under Syrian Influence
18 Once when the king was present
for the athletic games that were held
every five note years in the city of Tyre,
19 that worthless Jason sent some
men there from Jerusalem, who
were also enrolled as citizens of Antioch,
to take 22,500 pounds of silver
to pay for a sacrifice to the god Hercules.
But even these men did not
think it was fitting to use such a
large sum of money for a sacrifice,
and
20 so the money originally intended
as a sacrifice to Hercules was
used for the construction of warships.
21 When Apollonius son of Menestheus
was sent to Egypt to attend
the crowning of Philometor as king,
Antiochus learned that Philometor
was opposed to his policies. Antiochus
became concerned about the
security of his own kingdom, so he
went to Joppa and then on to Jerusalem.
22 There he was welcomed with
great splendor by Jason and the people
of the city who went out to greet
him, shouting and carrying torches.
From Jerusalem Antiochus led his
army to Phoenicia.
Menelaus Becomes High Priest
23 Three years later, Jason sent
Menelaus (brother of the Simon note
mentioned earlier) to take some
money to the king and to get his decision
on several important matters.
24 But when he stood before the king,
Menelaus impressed him with his
show of authority and offered 22,500
pounds of silver more than Jason
had offered for his appointment to
the office of High Priest.
25 As a result
Menelaus returned to Jerusalem
with papers from the king, confirming
him as High Priest. But he possessed
no other qualifications; he
had the temper of a cruel tyrant and
could be as fierce as a wild animal.
26 So Jason, who had cheated his
own brother out of the office of High
Priest, was now forced to flee to the
land of Ammon.
27 Menelaus continued
to be High Priest, but he never
paid any of the money he had promised
the king.
28 However, Sostratus,
the captain of the fort in Jerusalem,
kept demanding the money, since it
was his responsibility to collect it.
So finally, the two men were summoned
to appear before the king
concerning the matter.
29 Menelaus
left his brother Lysimachus as acting
High Priest, while Sostratus left
the fort under the command of
Crates, the commander of the mercenary
troops from Cyprus.
The Murder of Onias
30 Meanwhile, there was a revolt in
the Cilician cities of Tarsus and Mallus,
because the king had given
those cities to Antiochis, his mistress.
31 So the king left Andronicus,
one of his high officials, in command,
while he hurried off to Cilicia
to restore order.
32 Menelaus took
advantage of this opportunity and
presented Andronicus with some of
the gold objects he had removed
from the Temple in Jerusalem. He
had already sold some of them to the
city of Tyre and to other nearby
cities.
33 When Onias heard about
this, he fled for safety to a temple at
Daphne near the city of Antioch and
openly accused Menelaus.
34 Then
Menelaus secretly persuaded Andronicus
to kill Onias. So Andronicus
went to Onias and deceived him
with a friendly greeting and with
promises of safety. Although Onias
was suspicious, Andronicus finally
lured him away from the safety of
the temple and immediately murdered
him in cold blood. note
Andronicus Is Punished
35 The Jews and Gentiles were
very angry because Onias had been
murdered.
36 So when the king returned
from the territory of Cilicia,
the Jews of Antioch went to him and
-- --
protested against this senseless killing.
Many Gentiles felt the same
way about the crime.
37 King Antiochus
was deeply grieved and was so
filled with sorrow that he was
moved to tears when he recalled the
wisdom and self-control that Onias
had shown throughout his life.
38 Antiochus
became so angry that he tore
off Andronicus' royal robe, stripped
him naked, and marched him around
the city to the very spot where Onias
had been murdered. Then Antiochus
had this bloodthirsty murderer put
to death. This was how the Lord
gave him the punishment he deserved.
Lysimachus Is Killed
39 Meanwhile, with the support of
his brother Menelaus, Lysimachus
had on numerous occasions robbed
the Jerusalem Temple and had taken
many of its gold objects. When word
of this spread around, crowds began
to gather in protest against Lysimachus.
40 Finally, the crowds were becoming
dangerous and were beginning
to get out of control, so
Lysimachus sent 3,000 armed men
to attack them. They were led by
Auranus, a man as stupid as he was
old.
41 When the Jews in the Temple
courtyard realized what was happening,
they picked up rocks, pieces
of wood, or simply handfuls of ashes
from the altar and threw them at Lysimachus
and his men in the confusion.
42 They killed a few of Lysimachus'
men, wounded many of them,
and all the rest ran for their lives.
Lysimachus himself, that temple
robber, was killed near the Temple
treasury.
Menelaus Is Brought to Trial
43 Because of this incident Menelaus
was brought to trial.
44 When
the king came to the city of Tyre, the
Jewish authorities in Jerusalem sent
three men to bring charges against
Menelaus.
45 When Menelaus saw
that he was losing the case, he offered
Ptolemy son of Dorymenes a
large bribe to persuade the king to
decide in his favor.
46 Ptolemy then
asked the king to go outside the
courtroom with him, as though to
get some fresh air, and there he persuaded
him to change his mind
47 and declare Menelaus innocent of
the charges against him. So Menelaus
was set free, although he had
caused the trouble; but the three
men, whom even the cruel Scythians
would have declared innocent, were
sentenced to death.
48 The three men
had spoken in defense of Jerusalem,
its people, note and the sacred objects
stolen from the Temple, but they
were quickly and unjustly executed.
49 Some of the people of Tyre, however,
showed their disgust with this
crime and their respect for these
men by giving them a splendid funeral.
50 Menelaus stayed on in his
position because of the greed of
those in power. He grew more evil
every day and became the worst
enemy of his own people.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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