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Bible Dictionaries
Menelaus
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or MENELAUS. Brother of Simon the Benjamite ( 2M Malachi 3:4 ), or, according to Josephus ( Ant . XII. v. 1), a younger brother of Jason and Onias. He purchased the office of high priest from Antiochus Epiphanes for the sum of 660 talents ( c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 172), thereby causing the deposition of Jason, who had obtained the office by similar corrupt means. Being unable, through lack of funds, to pay the required sum, he was cited to appear before the king, but, finding the latter absent on warfare, he plundered the Temple of sacred vessels and thereby found means to silence his enemies. Having secured the death of Onias III., who threatened to divulge the sacrilege ( 2Ma 4:27-34 ), he became so unpopular that Jason marched against him to recover the office he had lost ( 2Ma 5:5-10 ). After this attempt of Jason, which ended in failure, Menelaus is lost to sight for some years, but finally suffered death at the hands of Antiochus Eupator ( c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 163).
T. A. Moxon.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Menelaus'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/m/menelaus.html. 1909.
