Helena of Adiabene

Helena was queen of Adiabene, converted to Judaism, and became famous for helping people in Jerusalem during a famine.

Helena was queen of Adiabene and mother of Izates II and Monobazus II. Josephus describes her conversion to Jewish religious practice and her devotion to the Jewish community in Jerusalem. During a severe famine in Judea, she purchased grain in Alexandria and dried figs in Cyprus and arranged for food to be distributed to people in need. Her son Izates also sent money to Jerusalem. Helena's actions made her an important benefactor remembered in Jewish tradition. Josephus says she commissioned monumental tombs near Jerusalem. After Izates died, Helena returned to Adiabene and died not long afterward. Monobazus II arranged for the remains of Helena and Izates to be brought to Jerusalem for burial. Her story offers a valuable example of the connections between Jewish communities in Judea and the wider eastern world during the first century AD. The famine mentioned by Josephus belongs to the same broad era as the famine relief described in Acts, but the two accounts do not identify the same participants.

Helena is one of the best-documented royal converts to Judaism in the first century AD. Her famine relief, support for Jerusalem, and monumental tombs illustrate the links between Judea and the Parthian east.

Helena marries Monobazus I. She becomes the mother of Monobazus II and Izates II. She adopts Jewish religious practice. She organizes famine relief for Jerusalem. She sponsors monumental tombs near the city. Her remains are eventually buried in Jerusalem.

Helena is not named in the New Testament. Her famine relief took place in the first-century world also described in Acts 11. Her conversion to Judaism shows the attraction of Jewish religious life beyond Judea, while her charity illustrates the close ties between Jerusalem and Jewish sympathizers in the eastern kingdoms.

Acts 11:27–30 (contemporary famine-relief context; Helena is not named)

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 20.2–4; Josephus, Jewish War 5.4.2; rabbinic traditions concerning Queen Helena.

Josephus reports that Helena died after Izates II and that Monobazus II sent their remains to Jerusalem for burial in the tombs she had built.