Matthias I Ephlias ( el, Ματθίας ό Ήφλίον, ''Ήφλίον'' ''Ephlias'' was his Greek epithet, flourished second half of the 2nd century BC and the first half of the 1st century BC) was an ethnic

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

living in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. The meaning of Matthias' epithet is obscure. His epithet could mean ‘Handsome’ from the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

or ‘son of Ephesus’ from the Greek language, as he was sometimes known as ‘Matthias of Ephesus’. For Matthias to obtain his epithet reveals he may have been a distinguished Jew. Matthias was one of the nine children born to Simon Psellus. Matthias came from a wealthy family of priestly descent. His father served as a priest in the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jeru ...

. Through his father, Matthias belonged to the priestly order of the Jehoiarib, which was the first of the twenty four-orders of Priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. Matthias became a Priest serving in the Temple in Jerusalem and married the daughter of High Priest Jonathon. There is a possibility that Jonathon may have been

Alexander Jannaeus Alexander Jannaeus ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξανδρος Ἰανναῖος ; he, ''Yannaʾy''; born Jonathan ) was the second king of the Hasmonean dynasty, who ruled over an expanding kingdom of Judea from 103 to 76 BCE. A son of John Hyrcanus, ...

, the High Priest and Hasmonean ruler who governed

Judea Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous sou ...

from 103 BC-76 BC who was the second husband of

Salome Alexandra Salome Alexandra, or Shlomtzion ( grc-gre, Σαλώμη Ἀλεξάνδρα; he, , ''Šəlōmṣīyyōn''; 141–67 BCE), was one of three women to rule over Judea, the other two being Athaliah and Devora. The wife of Aristobulus I, and ...

. Alexander Jannaeus was also known as Jonathon. His unnamed Jewish wife bore him a son, Matthias Curtus. Through his son, Matthias was an ancestor of the Roman Jewish Historian of the 1st century,

Flavius Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

.Josephus, ''Flavius Josephus: translation and commentary''

References

Sources

* M. Fergus, S. Emil & V. Geza, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C. - A.D. 135), Continuum International Publishing Group, 1973 * Reader’s Digest: Jesus and His Times, The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. Printed by Fourth Printing USA, July 1990 * F. Josephus & S. Mason, Flavius Josephus: translation and commentary, BRILL, 2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ephlias, Matthias Jewish priests People from Jerusalem Hasmonean dynasty 2nd-century BCE Jews 2nd-century BC clergy 1st-century BCE Jews 1st-century BC clergy