Heliodorus (minister)

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Gerard de Lairesse, Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple

Heliodorus was a minister of Seleucus IV Philopator ca. [187 BC - 175 BC]. According to some historical sources he is said to have assassinated Seleucus.

In the Apocrypha

Around 178 BC Seleucus sent Heliodorus to Jerusalem to collect money to pay the Romans. There may be a reference to this in Daniel 11:20, "He will send out a tax collector to maintain the royal splendor". 2 Maccabees 3:21-28 reports that Heliodorus entered the Temple in Jerusalem in order to take its treasure, but was turned back by three spiritual beings who manifested themselves as human beings .

2 Maccabees 3:34-36 records that Heliodorus received "orders from God" to "proclaim to all men the majesty of God's power" .

Since you have been scourged by God, proclaim to all men the majesty of God's power - 2 Maccabees 3:34

Historical Background

Heliodorus Stele in Israel Museum

It is believed that on his return from Jerusalem, he killed the king and seized the throne for himself; but it was not long before Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the brother of the late king, with the help of the Pergamon monarch, Eumenes II, recovered it. [1]

The Heliodorus stele, a Greek-language inscription of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, is dated to 178 BCE. In this stele, Seleucus informs Heliodorus that he appoints a certain Olympiodoros in charge of the temples of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia. While this part of the inscription comes from the trade of antiquities, in 2005 was found an additional fragment from the same inscription in an underground basement of an Hellenistic house in Maresha.

Heliodorus in the Arts

During the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the episode of the The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple was taken in Roman Catholic apologetics as a symbol of the inviolability of Church property.[2] For some time, it became a popular subject in works of artists, such as:

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Notes

  1. ↑ George Rawlinson, Ancient History, 256
  2. ↑ Gabriele Boccaccini, Portraits of Middle Judaism in Scholarship and Arts (Turin: Zamorani, 1992).
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