The Land of Onias (Koinē Greek: Ὀνίας)[1] is the name given in Hellenistic Egyptian, Jewish, and Roman sources to an area in ancient Egypt's Nile Delta where a large number of Jews settled.
The Land of Onias, which included the city of Leontopolis (Λεόντων πόλις), was located in the Heliopolite Nome (Hebrew: אֹן ʾOn "Heliopolis).
The establishment of a central sanctuary in Egypt was probably undertaken in response, in part, to the disorders that arose in Judea under Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the desecration of the Second Temple under his reign, the supplanting of the legitimate family of priests by the installation of Alcimus, the personal ambition of Onias IV, and the vast extent of the Jewish diaspora in Egypt that created a demand for a sanctuary of this nature.
[6] Josephus' account in the Antiquities is considered by some to be more probable, namely, that the builder of the temple was a son of the murdered Onias III and that, a mere youth at the time of his father's death, he had fled to the court of Alexandria in consequence of the Syrian persecutions, perhaps because he thought that salvation would come to his people from Egypt.
[10] Notably, Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Commentary on the Psalms 54(55) rejects the Maccabean narrative and states that Onias III fled to Egypt.
Theodore seems to consider 2 Maccabees to be less reliable because he lived in the area where the alleged murder took place, and there is a lack of evidence suggesting that the city was aware of the event.
[15] Lupus died in the process of carrying out the order, and the task of stripping the temple of its treasures, barring access to it, and removing all traces of divine worship at the site was completed by his successor, Gaius Valerius Paulinus,[14] which dates the event to c. March–August 73.
His assertion that a central sanctuary is necessary because a multiplicity of temples causes dissension among the Jews evidences imperfect knowledge of the Jewish religious life; and, finally, his request for the ruined temple of the goddess Bubastis because a sufficient supply of wood and sacrificial animals would be found there, seems unwise and improbable for a suppliant who must first obtain compliance with his principal request.
In the second letter, it seems strange that the pagan king points out to the Jewish priest that the proposed temple building is contrary to the law and that he consents only given Isaiah's prophecy.
[22] The rededication of native Egyptian shrines for use by foreign soldiers near where they settled was a common practice in the Ptolemaic era as well, as it increased security against uprisings, which provides context and precedent for Onias and Ptolemy's decisions in the matter,[24] with Onias following standard government procedure as the leader of a group of foreign mercenaries by finding an abandoned or ruined shrine to Bubastis, and requesting he be allowed to establish a temple there – though, in his case, not to a pagan deity, but to his God.
This is a conclusion supported by Josephus stating that Onias III belonged to a pro-Ptolemaic faction in Jerusalem during a time that overlaps with the Sixth Syrian War.
10, § 2 of Onias' argument that by building this temple, the Jewish nation would be brought to turn from the Syrians to the Ptolemies seems very plausible and may have given rise to the assertion made in the letters that there were disputes among the Jews.
This episode is the imprisonment and threat of genocide carried out against Jews in the Hippodrome near Alexandria, halted either by divine miracle or Onias and his troops.
[45] There is also a section (7:20) possibly referencing royal permission being granted to build a temple, with word choices similar to letters allegedly written between Onias and a Ptolemy.
[47] Other works of possible Oniad authorship include the Testament of Job, 2 Enoch, Ezekiel the Tragedian (Exagoge), and the “Tale of the Tobiads.”[37] Many of the Jewish settlers in the Land of Onias were military colonists who served in the army of the Ptolemeid kings.