The Temple of Onias at Leontopolis

According to Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities, Onias IV founded a temple at Leontopolis, in Lower Egypt, with the permission of King Ptolemy VI Philometer in about 145 BCE. He established this rival sanctuary once it was clear that he would never be high priest in Jerusalem, having been usurped by a more Hellenized candidate with Seleucid support. Josephus offers a somewhat different account in The Jewish War, which seems to attribute the building of the temple to Onias III, although the account in Jewish Antiquities is considered more accurate. Onias’ temple likely served a military colony of Jewish troops who fought for Ptolemy, as Onias’ sons served as generals in the Egyptian army. The Leontopolis temple is never mentioned in Judeo-Egyptian sources, including Philo, which suggests that Egyptian Jewry remained committed to and supportive of the Jerusalem Temple over that of Onias. The Onias temple was destroyed by the Romans in 73 CE.

Rabbinic sources display some ambivalence toward the temple of Onias, although they clearly regard the Jerusalem Temple as the proper place of worship. The Mishnah, followed by the Gemara, states that one who vows to offer a sacrifice at the temple of Onias and does so has fulfilled the vow, although it is preferable to offer the sacrifice in Jerusalem. The Mishnah goes on to state that a priest who serves at the temple of Onias is barred from serving at the Jerusalem Temple but may still eat the priestly dues (terumah). A baraita quoted in the Gemara offers two alternative accounts of the temple’s founding, which suggest different answers to the question of whether it was a place of idolatry or worship of God. These accounts mistakenly state that the temple was in Alexandria.