HELIODORUS he lĭ ə dôr’ əs (̔Ηλιόδωρος, gift of Helios [the sun god]). The chief minister of King Seleucus IV, Philopator (187-175 b.c.). He tried unsuccessfully to plunder the treasury of the Temple in Jerusalem (2 Macc 3). A Jew named Simon had a disagreement with the high priest, Onias, and because he could not have his way decided in revenge to tell Apollonius, the governor of Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, that there were vast treasures in the Temple in Jerusalem which could easily come into the possession of Seleucus, the king of Syria, who was then in control of Pal. When Apollonius reported to the king what Simon had told him, the king immediately sent Heliodorus, his chief minister, to take possession of the money. When he arrived, the Jews told him that the money belonged mostly to widows and orphans, who had deposited it there for safekeeping, and that it would be sacrilegious to take it. When Heliodorus entered the treasury with a bodyguard, there appeared to him a great apparition, a rider on a magnificently caparisoned horse, and two young men, strong and splendidly dressed. The horse struck Heliodorus with its hoofs and the young men scourged him mercilessly. His men carried him out on a stretcher sorely wounded and pled with Onias to spare his life. The high priest prayed for him and he recovered. After offering a sacrifice and making grateful vows to God, he returned to Syria.

Fourth Maccabees 4 tells the same story, but with the important difference that Seleucus does not send Heliodorus, but Apollonius, to plunder the Temple.

Although Heliodorus was reared with Seleucus when they were boys, in 175 b.c. he murdered him and attempted to seize the throne, but he was driven out by Eumenes of Pergamus and his brother Attalus; and Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), the brother of Seleucus, ascended the throne. It was this Antiochus whose attempt to Hellenize the Jews led to the Maccabean war, which ended with deliverance from Syrian control.