MENELAUS mĕn ə lā’ əs (Μενέλαος). A brother of Simon the Benjamite (2 Macc 4:23; 13:3-8), and according to Josephus, also of Jason and Onias III (Antiq. XII. v.), who was a usurping high priest of the Maccabean era. In the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, when he was sent by the high priest Jason (who had himself undermined Onias) to Antioch (171 b.c.), to carry promised tribute to the king; instead of executing his commission, he offered a higher bid for the high priesthood than Jason and was authorized to supplant Jason (2 Macc 4:23ff.).

Upon Menelaus’ return to Jerusalem, the high priest Jason fled. But Menelaus, failing to pay Antiochus the money, was called to account. Reporting to Antioch, he did more bribing. The not altogether trustworthy Maccabean account tells of Menelaus’ theft of Temple vessels which he offered to Antiochus’ deputy, Andronicus, to murder Onias who had condemned and exposed Menelaus for his sacrilege (2 Macc 4:31ff.). When details of the atrocity were reported to Antiochus, Andronicus was executed; but Menelaus came through unscathed.

The oppression of Lysimachus, a deputy left in Jerusalem by Menelaus, brought on a bloody riot, in which the deputy was mobbed. The news reached Antiochus when he was at Tyre; and the wily Menelaus bribed Ptolemy, an influential courtier, to gain favor for him with the king, the result being acquittal for Menelaus and execution for his accusers (2 Macc 4:39ff.).

The reported death of Antiochus in Egypt brought back the fugitive Jason with allies who forced Menelaus to flee. When the king returned he massacred Jerusalem’s citizens and plundered the Temple with the aid of the scoundrel Menelaus (2 Macc 5). In 162 b.c., apparently no longer high priest, he was condemned by Eupator, his death being as unique as his career was notorious; he was flung from the top of a tower into some ashes below.

Bibliography 2 Maccabees; R. H. Pfeiffer, History of NT Times (1949), 11; J. Bright, History of Israel (1959), 404.