A remarkable instance of the reverence with which the monarchs to whom the Jews were tributary often regarded the religion which those Jews professed, was shown by [Ptolemy Euergetes], in the year 245 b.c. On returning from a successful expedition, this king of a most idolatrous nation chose to take his way through Jerusalem, and there render thanks to the God of Israel for the victories he had obtained over Syria. We thus see that the light of truth, confided to the Jews, shed a partial radiance over the nations by which they were surrounded.
A young Jew, named Joseph, nephew of the high priest Onias, rose high in the favour of [Ptolemy Euergetes]. He was admitted to the office of receiver-general in the provinces of Cœle-Syria, Phœnicia, Judea, and Samaria; and, like his great countryman of the same name, acquitted himself with such wisdom and prudence, that he won and kept for many years the confidence of the king of Egypt.
In 216 b.c., Simon, second high priest of that name, succeeded his father Onias, who had been a weak and covetous old man, intent upon nothing so much as amassing treasure for himself. It was well that one of a nobler character had now entered upon so important an office, for a time of great difficulty was near, when the Jews would especially require courage and strong faith in their leader.
PTOLEMY PHILOPATER.
Ptolemy Philopater mounted the throne of his father. This young man was stained with the darkest crimes: he was the murderer of his mother and his brother, and subsequently proved himself a barbarous persecutor. He, however, appeared disposed in the earlier part of his reign, to render, as his father had done, honour to the great God of Israel. He visited Jerusalem, offered sacrifices to the Lord, and presented valuable gifts to the temple. Perhaps the conscience of this wicked prince was not altogether silent, and he thought by his oblations to appease that great Being who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
But [Ptolemy] was not contented with viewing the outside of the [beautiful temple] raised to Jehovah; he was resolved to visit the sanctuary, to tread that Holy of holies into which none but the [high priest] was permitted to enter, and that only on the day of atonement. This raised an outcry all through the city. Simon opposed the entrance of the profane king into the holy temple; he declared to him the law which forbade it; but Ptolemy was disposed to regard no law but that of his own capricious will. Disregarding the expostulations of the high priest, and the distress and horror expressed in the countenances of the Levites, he pressed into the inner court, and was about to enter the sanctuary, when the wicked king was suddenly struck with such a terror and confusion of mind, that he was utterly unable to proceed, and he was carried half dead out of the place which an invisible Power protected.
Rage and hatred swelled in the heart of the disappointed monarch. He had been conquered by fear, and he now sought to cover his mortification by revenge upon the worshippers of the omnipotent Jehovah. On his return to his capital—[Alexandria]—Ptolemy at once degraded all the Jews, who were living there in great numbers, and commanded that each should be branded with the mark of an ivy-leaf—the badge of Bacchus the god of wine, whom this miserable idolater worshipped. All who refused to receive this disgraceful mark were ordered to be put to death; but such as sacrificed to the false gods were to enjoy equal privileges with the Macedonians, the original founders of the city. Of the many thousands of Jews who were in Alexandria, only three hundred persons were found base enough to forsake their God to win the favour of the king.
Enraged at the firmness of the majority, Ptolemy resolved to punish not only the Jews in Alexandria, but those who dwelt in any part of his dominions. He sent orders that all who were in Egypt should be sent to the capital in chains. There, it is said, that a great multitude of victims being thus gathered together, the tyrant shut them up in the hippodrome, a large place without the city used for horse-races and games, and appointed a certain day in which they were all to be destroyed by elephants.