Helkai the Pharisee
This is at his house that Jesus utters the famous apostrophe: "Woe to you, Pharisees!"[1]
He is a powerful figure in the Sanhedrin: he is the treasurer of the Temple. His religious practice is strict:"Everything complies with the 613 precepts," he says of his house: water basins without designs, furniture without ornaments, nothing like carved vessels... "So it is in my house as in my garments and those of my household."[2]The portrait painted by Maria Valtorta is unsympathetic: "Cold phlegm of a venomous serpent"[3], "Voice of a serpent"[4]. He pretends to be eager for the words of Jesus to better trap him. Jesus is not fooled and warns him:
"You also have an unconfessed hunger, O Elchias, and your friends too. This food will also be given to you... It will corrupt you inside as sour figs corrupt the entrails."[5]To trap Jesus, he invites him to a Banquet, but rushes him to the table without allowing him the ritual ablutions. The Banquet, cold and brief, ends quickly: Jesus utters his great condemnation of Phariseeism and leaves. The Sanhedrin then decides to get rid of Jesus.[6]
From this Banquet, hostility turns into conspiracy. It remains only to spy on every move: Judas takes charge, promised glory and money.[7]
Elchias is absolute in his pursuit: he does not hesitate to recommend murder—not only for Jesus, but for anyone who bothers him, like Simon, the parricide turned mad.[8]
He sets another trap with Judas' complicity: that of Sidonia, the naturally mute who was healed on a Shabbat.[9] The trap fails, Sidonia did not see the one who healed her, nor did her parents: she cannot testify.[10] Elchias increasingly pressures Judas to find an opportunity to bring Jesus down.[11]
Jesus goes to Beteron, a priestly town of Ephraim where Elchias is native. He heals a member of his Family but receives no recognition. He warns the inhabitants of the woes that hardened hearts attract.[12]
As treasurer, it is Elchias who gives the thirty pieces of silver to Judas, the paltry price of a day's laborer's wage for a month.[13]
Amid the chaos following the earthquake accompanying the death of Jesus[14], he crosses paths with Joseph of Arimathea returning from the holy sepulcher. He threatens him:"Do not think you can take away the Body. We have taken measures so the game ends."Joseph replies:
"You are regaining courage. A moment ago you fled in terror. Is what you had not enough yet? Is not one of your houses burned? Tremble! The punishment is not finished. It is coming, on the contrary." [15]Elchias soon meets the Virgin Mary supported by John. He utters "a horrible insult." John lunges at his throat threatening:
"Ask her forgiveness or I will strangle you, demon!"Elchias complies before being arrested by the Romans for disturbing public order.
He is probably the one spreading the rumor about the theft of the body of the Christ by his Apostles at the Resurrection.[16]
This active and cunning architect of Jesus' condemnation has his condemnation confirmed by Daniel, his relative, to whom Jesus appears on Easter day.[17]
His name
Helkias or Hilqyiyya means "God (Ya') is my portion" – Historical reference: many characters bear this name.
Where is he mentioned in the work?
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Learn more about this character
Extracts from the Dictionary of Gospel Characters, Salton Maria Valtorta (Msgr. René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère, Éditions Salvator, 2012):Helchias was of the Phiabi Family from which several Sanhedrists and High Priests originated. He was the keeper of the Temple treasury. Flavius Josephus calls him Helcias the Great. He and other important men of his Family met Petronius, legate of Syria, to dissuade Emperor Caligula from placing his own statue in the Temple (Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, XX, 8, 4-11).He could be one of the brothers of Ismael ben Phiabi II with whom he took part in the delegation sent to Nero in 62 AD to arbitrate the maintenance of a Temple wall regarded as sacred (Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, XX, 7).
This Family left traces of its harshness: "Woe to me because of the house of Ishmael ben Piakhi (Phiabi), woe to me because of their fists. For all were high priests, their sons were treasurers, their grandsons were chamberlains, and their servants struck us with their staffs" (Mishna, Tractate Pessahim 57a).
Notes and references
Note: Quotations from the work of Maria Valtorta on this page currently use machine-translated text and will gradually be replaced by the official English translation. Until then, the official translation may be consulted through the reference link provided with each quotation.