Meanwhile Seleucus IV. died of poison (175), and
Antiochus IV. Epiphanes did not confirm Onias in his dignity,
but detained him in Antioch, while he made over the office to his
brother Jason, who had offered a higher rent. Possibly the
Tobiadae also had something to do with this arrangement; at all
events, Menelaus was at the outset the right hand of the new high
priest. To secure still further the favour of the king, Jason held
himself out to be an enlightened friend of the Greeks, and begged
for leave to found in Jerusalem a gymnasium and an ephebeum, and to
be allowed to sell to the inhabitants there the rights of citizenship
in Antioch,--a request which was readily granted.
The malady which had long been incubating now reached its acute
phase. Just in proportion as Hellenism showed itself friendly did
it present elements of danger to Judaism. From the periphery it
slowly advanced towards the centre, from the diaspora to
Jerusalem, from mere matters of external fashion to matters of the
most profound conviction. /1/ Especially did the upper and cultivated
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