Onias I

Onias I (Hebrew: Honiyya or Honio ben Jaddua) was the son of the Jaddua mentioned in Nehemiah.^[1] According to Josephus, this Jaddua is said to have been a contemporary of Alexander the Great.^[2] I Maccabees regards Onias as a contemporary of the Spartan king Areus I (309-265 BCE).^[3]

Simon the Just extolled in the Wisdom of Sirach^[4] (according to the Hebrew text the son of Jonathan, but according to the Greek text the son of Onias) and in legend was probably the son of Onias I or, according to some, of the latter's grandson Onias II.

References

1. Nehemiah xii. 11
2. Jewish Antiquities xi. 8, § 7
3. I Macc. xii. 7, 8, 20
4. Sirach Chapter 50

Resources

• Gottheil, Richard and Samuel Krauss. "Onias." Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901–1906, which cites to the following bibliography:

• H. P. Chajes, Beiträge zur Nordsemitischen Onomatologie, p. 23, Vienna, 1900 (on the name);
• Herzfeld, Gesch. des Volkes Jisrael, i. 185-189, 201-206;
• Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. 2d ed., ii. 236;
• Emil Schürer, Gesch. 3d ed., i. 182, 194-196; iii. 97-100;
• Niese, in Hermes, xxxv. 509;
• Wellhausen, I. J. G. 4th ed., p. 248, Berlin, 1901;
• Willrich, Juden und Griechen vor der Makkabäischen Erhebung, pp. 77, 109, Göttingen, 1895;
• Adolf Büchler, Die Tobiaden und die Oniaden, pp. 166, 240, 275, 353, Vienna, 1899;
• J. P. Mahaffy, The Empire of the Ptolemies, pp. 217, 353, London, 1895;
• Gelzer, Sextus Julius Africanus, ii. 170-176, Leipsic, 1885;
• Isaac Hirsch Weiss, Dor, i. 130 (on the halakic view of the temple of Onias).

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906.