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Case file s1299 · Scripture and the ancient world · 175 BCE
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175 BCE
The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple.: The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple.
The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple.. Raphael. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
175 BC (Seleucus IV, killed in Heliodorus's plot)
Place
Jerusalem; Maresha, Israel; Antioch, Turkey
Field
temple treasury deposits · Royalty and nobility on the timeline
Legal tradition
Seleucid royal control of temple funds; the Temple as depository for widows and orphans · Royal and church law
Historical event
Seleucid debt to Rome after the Treaty of Apamea (188 BC)
Scripture and the ancient worldAncient worldMiddle EastTurkey

Second Maccabees says a king's minister came to seize the widows' and orphans' deposits in the Jerusalem Temple; a stele pieced together in 2005 and 2006 names the minister and a royal order on temple funds

2 Maccabees 3 says Simon, captain of the Jerusalem Temple, fell out with the high priest Onias and told the Seleucid governor that the Temple treasury held "untold sums of money." The king sent his minister Heliodorus to remove it. Onias told him the money was deposits for widows and orphans, and the funds of Hyrcanus son of Tobias: 400 talents of silver and 200 of gold. Heliodorus said it must go to the royal treasury and set a day. The priests prayed and people filled the streets. As Heliodorus entered the treasury, the text says, a horse with a terrifying rider charged him and two young men flogged him. He was carried out on a stretcher and returned to the king without the money. A stone stele dated 178 BC, assembled from five fragments in 2005 and 2006 at Maresha, records a royal order of Seleucus IV to Heliodorus appointing Olympiodorus to oversee the temples of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia. Scholars link the order to the king's need for money to pay Rome. Appian records that Seleucus IV was killed in a plot by Heliodorus, who tried to seize the throne; the king's brother Antiochus IV took it instead. The stele is in the Israel Museum.

What the law took from it

Funds deposited with an institution are only as safe as that institution's standing with the ruler.

Record vs. record

The stele names Olympiodorus, not Heliodorus, as overseer of the temples; scholars suggest either unrest required Heliodorus himself, or the author of 2 Maccabees used the better-known name:

Wikipedia (English)
Sources
  1. biblegateway.comPress
  2. attalus.orgPress
  3. livius.orgPress
  4. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia
  5. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Second Maccabees says a king's minister came to seize the widows' and orphans' deposits in the Jerusalem Temple; a stele pieced together in 2005 and 2006 names the minister and a royal order on temple funds,” story s1299, https://www.celebrity.estate/heliodorus-temple-deposits-175-bc, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Scripture and the ancient worldAncient worldMiddle EastRoyal and church lawTurkey