Dositheus

1. A Jew representing himself as a priest and Levite. He delivered a letter from Mordecai concerning the Feast of Purim (possibly containing the book of Esther) to Ptolemy and Cleopatra in the fourth year of their reign (Add Est 11:1).

2. One of Judas Maccabeus’s captains. With Sosipater he captured and destroyed a stronghold of 10,000 soldiers left behind by Timothy, one of Antiochus IV Epiphanes’ governors (2 Macc 12:19).

3. One of Bacenor’s men. This Dositheus was a horseman with great strength. His attempt to capture Gorgias (one of Ptolemy’s generals) was unsuccessful (2 Macc 12:35).

4. Drimylus’s son and an apostate. A general of the Seleucids, he prevented the assassination of Ptolemy (ruler of the Seleucid Empire) by Theodotus (3 Macc 1:3).