Onias Receives Permission to Build a Temple

But then the son of Onias the high priest, who bore the same name as his father, having fled to King Ptolemy—the one who was called Philometor—was residing in Alexandria, as I mentioned earlier. When he saw that Judaea was being oppressed by the Macedonians and their kings, out of a desire to acquire eternal glory and fame for himself, he decided to send word to King Ptolemy and Queen Cleopatra to request their permission to build a temple in Egypt resembling the one in Jerusalem and to ordain Levites and priests from his own people. In his desire to do this, he mainly took encouragement from the prophet Isaiah, who had lived more than six hundred years earlier and foretold that there would certainly be a temple in Egypt built to Almighty God by a Jewish man. Onias, therefore, having been stirred up by this prediction, wrote the following letter to Ptolemy and Cleopatra:

“Having performed many great services for you in the affairs of the war with the help of God, while I was in Coele-Syria and Phoenicia and came at length with the Jews to Leontopolis in the city of Heliopolis, as well as to other places belonging to your nation, I discovered that most of your people have temples contrary to proper standards, and for this reason they bear ill-will against one another. This has also taken place among the Egyptians due to the multitude of their temples as well as their differences of opinion concerning religious worship. Now I have found quite a suitable place in a stronghold named after Bubastis-of-the-Fields, a place abounding in materials of several sorts and full of sacred animals. I ask that you grant me permission to purify this holy place, which has no owner and is fallen down, and to build there a temple to Almighty God according to the pattern of the one in Jerusalem and of the same dimensions, for your benefit and that of your wife and children, so that the Jews who dwell in Egypt may have a place where they can come and meet together in mutual harmony and serve your interests. For the prophet Isaiah foretold that there should be an altar in Egypt to the Lord God (Isaiah 19:19), and he also prophesied many other such things relating to that place.”

Regarding these affairs, then, Onias wrote to King Ptolemy. One might observe his [Ptolemy’s] piety, as well as that of his sister and wife Cleopatra, by the letter they wrote in response, for they blamed the sin and transgression of the law on Onias, responding as follows:

“King Ptolemy and Queen Cleopatra to Onias: Greetings. We have read your petition, wherein you request permission to clear away the fallen temple at Leontopolis, in the nome of Heliopolis, which is named Bubastis-of-the-Fields. We cannot but wonder whether it will please the god to have a temple consecrated in a place so impure and so full of sacred animals. But since you claim the prophet Isaiah foretold this long ago, we grant you permission to do it, if it is done according to your law, so that we may not appear to have offended God in any way.”

So Onias took possession of the place and built a temple, along with an altar to God similar to the one in Jerusalem, yet smaller and poorer in quality. But it seems improper to me to describe its dimensions or its vessels here, since they have already been described in my seventh book of The Jewish War. Onias, however, did find other Jews similar to himself, together with priests and Levites, who performed religious services there. But I have already written enough about this temple.