Simon Psellus
Simon Psellus was an ethnic Jew living in Jerusalem.
Simon's ancestors were contemporary to the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty and Seleucid dynasty over Judea. He was a wealthy man who served as a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem. Simon belonged to the priestly order of the Jehoiarib, the first of the twenty-four orders of Priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. Simon lived when the Hasmonean rulers Simon Thassi and his son John Hyrcanus I ruled over Judea.
Simon had nine children; among them was his son Matthias Ephlias. Through his son, Simon was an ancestor of the Roman Jewish Historian of the 1st century, Flavius Josephus. Josephus in his writings calls Simon the Patriarch of his family.
