Monobaz II

Monobaz II or Monobaz bar Monobaz was the son of Queen Helena of Adiabene and King Monobaz I. Like his younger brother Izates bar Monobaz and his mother, Monobaz became a convert to Judaism. He ruled as king of Adiabene after the death of his brother Izates around 55 CE. The date of his death is unknown but he is known to have been alive and on the throne during the First Jewish-Roman War, when he gave aid to the Jewish rebels against the Roman Empire. Two "kinsmen" of Monobaz, Monobazus and Cenedaeus, fought on the side of the Jews in the battle against Cestius,[1] and "sons and brothers of King Izates" were taken hostage to Rome after the war.[2] The Talmud relates that Monobaz "dissipated all his own hoards and the hordes of his fathers in years of scarcity. His bothers and his father's household came in a delegation to him and said, 'Your father saved money and added to the treasures of his fathers, and you are squandering them.' He replied, 'My fathers stored up below and I am storing up above... My fathers stored in a place which can be tampered with, but I have stored in a place which cannot be tampered with… My fathers gathered treasures of money and I have gathered treasures of souls...'[3] King Monobaz also donated handsome gifts to the Temple in Jerusalem. "King Monobaz had all the handles of all the vessels used on Yom Kippur made of gold… He also made of gold the base of the vessels, the rims of the vessels, the handles of the vessels, and the handles of the knives...[4]

Queen Helena of Adiabene was also said to be the wife of King Abgarus of Edessa and thus the queen of Edessa too.[5] This implies that Monobaz II became the king of Edessa, as well as of Adiabene. Moses of Chorene confirms that this Queen Helena of Edessa was also the queen of Adiabene when he says:

"The chief of King Abgar’s wives, who was named Helena ... Helena went away to Jerusalem in the time of Claudius, during the famine which Agabus had predicted. Spending all her treasures she bought an immense amount of grain in Egypt, which she distributed to the poor, to which Josephus bears witness. Her famous mausoleum stands before the gate at Jerusalem to this very day."[6]


Notes

  1. ↑ Josephus, War, p. 175
  2. ↑ Josephus, War. p 366
  3. ↑ Baba Batra 11a.
  4. ↑ Yoma 37a,b.
  5. ↑ The Sociology of MMT and the Conversions of King Abgarus and Queen Helena of Adiabene, Professor Robert Eisenman.
  6. ↑ Moses of Chorene, History of the Armenians 2:35

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/18/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.