Simon Psellus was an ethnic Jew

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 living in Jerusalem.

Simon’s ancestors were contemporary to the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty

Ptolemaic dynasty

The Ptolemaic dynasty, was a Macedonian Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC...

 and Seleucid dynasty

Seleucid dynasty

The Seleucid dynasty or the Seleucidae was a Greek Macedonian royal family, founded by Seleucus I Nicator , which ruled the Seleucid Kingdom centered in the Near East and regions of the Asian part of the earlier Achaemenid Persian Empire during the Hellenistic period.-History:Seleucus was an...

 over Judea. He was a wealthy man who served as a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem

Temple in Jerusalem

The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...

. Simon belonged to the first of the twenty-four orders of Priests in the Temple in Jerusalem which was the priestly order of the Jehoiarib

Jehoiarib

Jehoiarib was the head of a family of priests, which was made the first of the twenty-four priestly divisions organized by King David.- High Priest :...

. Simon was a contemporary to when the Hasmonean rulers, Simon Thassi (reigned 142 BC-135 BC) and his son John Hyrcanus I

John Hyrcanus

John Hyrcanus was a Hasmonean leader of the 2nd century BC.-Name:...

 (reigned 134 BC-104 BC) ruled over Judea.

Simon had nine children; among them was his son Matthias Ephlias

Matthias Ephlias

Matthias Ephlias was an ethnic Jew living in Jerusalem.The meaning of Matthias' epithet is obscure. His epithet could mean ‘Handsome’ from the Hebrew language or ‘son of Ephesus’ from the Greek language, as he was sometimes known as ‘Matthias of Ephesus’...

. Through his son, Simon was an ancestor of the Roman Jewish Historian

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 of the 1st century, Flavius Josephus

Josephus

Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...

. Josephus in his writings calls Simon the Patriarch of his family.

Sources

• M. Fergus, S. Emil & V. Geza, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 BC. - AD. 135), Continuum International Publishing Group, 1973
• F. Josephus & S. Mason, Flavius Josephus: translation and commentary, BRILL, 2001