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AW: onias temple
>2) To the best of my knowledge, Philo (who, of course, lived in Egypt) does
not link Essenes (or the Therapeutae) with the Jewish temple in Egypt.
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Again correct. By the time he was writing the Essenes or Essaioi may have
split off from the group in Egypt.<
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Can someone remind us of the precise location of this "temple in Egypt", and
also of the precise centuries during which it was known to be attended and
functioning. Does Philo mention visiting it, for instance?
JRW, Providence
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It's history is given by Josephus in his Jewish War I,31-33,190 and VII,421-436, as well as in
his Jewish Antiquities XII ch 3, XIV ch 8, XX ch 10:
1) It was build by Onias who fled for the war against Judea by Antiochus Epiphanus (around 167 BC).
He build it with permission of Ptolemaeus Philometor (182-146BC).
2) It was built "near Leontopolis in the district of Helipolis, 33 km from Memfis"
[so the 'Leontopolis' is in Josephus, Robert, not a modern thing!]
3) The region was subsequently named Onias, and a garizon for jewish soldiers
garding the way between Pelusium and Memfis was stationned here, f.e. in 49 BC.
4) The tempel was destroyed in 73 AD, according to Josephus '343 years' after it had been build,
which is an obvisious miswrite for '243' years.
Philo (ca20 BC-ca50 AD) does not mention the temple, as far as my index to his collected
works goes.
Onias build it based on a [mis]interpretation of a prophecy of Isaiah. My German translation btw
has on this spot in Josephus 'Esaias' , which apparantly was Josephus' Greek 'translation'
of the hebrew name [anybody having the Loeb Greek text?]. So now I at least understand
a bit were that 'Isaiah/Essene' thread came from :)
A.K. Eyma