Ezekias

High priest mentioned by Josephus, who relates that among those who accompanied Ptolemy to Egypt after the battle of Gaza (320 B.C.) was Ezekias, then sixty-six years of age, a man skilled in oratory and in affairs of government. He is said to have become acquainted with Hekatæus, and to have explained to him and to some other friends the differences between the peoples whose homes and constitutions he had noted. The existence of Ezekias is questionable, for Josephus states elsewhere that Jaddua was succeeded by Onias I., who was in turn succeeded by Simeon I., which leaves no room for Ezekias.

Bibliography:

  * Josephus, Contra Ap. i. § 22;
  * Reinach, Fontes Rerum Judaicarum, i. 229;
  * Willrich, Judaica, pp. 91, 106;
  * Schürer, Gesch. 3d ed., i. 348.



G. S. Kr.