Heliodorus

Jason of Cyrene had told all this in five books, and the writer says he will try to shorten them into one. He could see what a jumble of numbers there was, and how hard it is to find a way into a history when there is so much of it. So he has taken care that people who choose to read it will be drawn in, that those who wish him well will find it easy to remember, and that every reader will gain something.

Shortening it is no easy job, he says. It takes sweat and sleepless nights, just as it is hard work to prepare a feast for the good of others. Still, many people will thank him, so he is glad to do the hard work. He leaves it to the historian to handle every detail exactly, and he doesn’t have the strength to fill in the outlines of his shorter book.

The master builder of a new house has to care for the whole building, he says, while the one who decorates and paints it has to look for what will make it beautiful. He thinks it is the same with his own work. It is right for the first writer of a history to cover all the ground, to talk things over at length and to look closely into every small detail. But someone who puts a book into a new form should be allowed to keep things short, and not work hard to tell everything in full.

So he begins the story here, adding only this much to what he has already said. It would be foolish, he says, to write a long introduction to a history and then cut the history itself short.

But there was a man named Simon, from the tribe of Benjamin, who had been made guardian of the temple. He disagreed with the high priest about how the city market should be run.

When Simon couldn’t get the better of Onias, he went to Apollonius of Tarsus, who was governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia at the time. He told Apollonius that the treasury in Jerusalem was full of huge sums of money, so much that no one could count it. The money wasn’t part of the accounts for the sacrifices, he said, and the king could take it.

When Apollonius met the king, he passed on what he had been told about the money. So the king chose Heliodorus, his chancellor and chief official, and sent him with orders to carry the money away.

Heliodorus set out at once. He made it look as if he were going to visit the cities of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, but in fact he was going to do what the king wanted.

The high priest explained that the treasury held money that widows and orphans had left there for safekeeping, and also some that belonged to Hyrcanus son of Tobias, a man in a very high position. Things were not the way that ungodly man Simon had falsely claimed. In all there were four hundred talents of silver and two hundred talents of gold. A talent weighed about 66 pounds.

It was completely impossible, he said, to do wrong to people who had put their trust in the holiness of this place. They had trusted in the majesty of the temple, which was honored all over the world, and in its holiness, which no one may dishonor.

But Heliodorus had his orders from the king. Whatever the case, he said, this money had to be seized for the king’s treasury.

The priests, in their priestly clothes, bowed down before the altar with their faces to the ground. They called out toward heaven to the one who had given the law about things left in someone’s keeping, and asked him to keep these treasures safe for the people who had left them there.

Anyone who saw how the high priest looked was deeply troubled. His face had changed color, and it showed the distress in his soul. Terror had come over him and his body trembled, and everyone who looked at him could plainly see the pain in his heart.

People rushed out of their houses in crowds so that everyone could pray together, because the temple was about to be dishonored. The women crowded the streets with sackcloth tied around them below the chest. The young unmarried women, who were usually kept indoors, came running together, some to the gates and others to the walls, and some looked out through the windows.

All of them stretched out their hands toward heaven and pleaded in prayer. It was pitiful to see the whole crowd, all mixed together, bowing down to the ground, and to see the high priest so anxious in his great distress.

He was already there with his guards, near the treasury, when the Ruler of spirits and of all authority made a great sight appear. All who had dared to come with him were so shaken by the power of God that they fainted in terror.

They saw a horse with a frightening rider. The horse was decked out beautifully, and it charged fiercely and struck at Heliodorus with its front feet. The one riding it seemed to be wearing a full suit of armor made of gold.

Two others appeared to Heliodorus too, young men of great strength, glorious and beautiful, and splendidly dressed. They stood one on each side of him and whipped him without stopping, giving him many painful lashes.

Heliodorus suddenly fell to the ground, and a great darkness came over him. His guards lifted him onto a stretcher and carried him off. A little while before, he had walked into that treasury with a large crowd of attendants and all his guards. Now he was utterly helpless, and he had plainly been made to recognize God’s supreme power.

Heliodorus lay on the ground. God had made him speechless, and he had no hope of rescue left. While he lay there, the people praised the Lord, who had done wonders for his own place. A little before, the temple had been full of terror and alarm. Now that the Almighty Lord had appeared, it was filled with joy and gladness.

The high priest was secretly afraid that the king might come to think the Jews had done something treacherous to Heliodorus. So he offered a sacrifice for the man’s recovery.

While the high priest was offering the sacrifice for atonement, the same young men appeared to Heliodorus again, dressed in the same clothes. They stood there and said, “Give great thanks to Onias the high priest, because it is for his sake that the Lord has let you live. You have been whipped from heaven, so make sure you tell everyone about the supreme majesty of God.” When they had said this, they vanished from sight.

Heliodorus offered the Lord a sacrifice and made great vows to the one who had saved his life. Then he said goodbye to Onias and went back to the king with his army. He told everyone what the greatest God had done, which he had seen with his own eyes.

“The one who lives in heaven keeps his own eyes on that place, and he helps it. He strikes and destroys those who come to harm it.”

That is the story of Heliodorus, and of how the treasury was kept safe.