Josephus (grandfather of Josephus)

Josephus (Greek: Ἰώσηπος; flourished 1st century BC and 1st century, born about 30 BC) was an ethnic Jew living in Jerusalem.

Josephus was the son born to Matthias Curtus and his unnamed Jewish wife. He came from a wealthy family and through his father he descended from the priestly order of the Jehoiarib, which was the first of the twenty four-orders of Priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. His paternal grandparents were Matthias Ephlias and the daughter of the High Priest Jonathon. Jonathon may have been Alexander Jannaeus, the High Priest and Hasmonean ruler who governed Judea from 103 BC-76 BC.

He was a contemporary to the King Herod the Great and the Herodian Dynasty governing Judea and the surrounding territories. Josephus followed his paternal ancestors and served as a Priest in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Josephus married an unnamed Jewish noblewoman. The wife of Josephus was a distant paternal relative of his, as she was a descendant of his paternal great-grandfather Simon Psellus. His wife bore him a son, Matthias. Through his son, he would be the paternal grandfather of the Roman Jewish Historian of the 1st century, Flavius Josephus.

Sources

• Josephus’ Lineage
• 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
• F. Josephus & S. Mason, Flavius Josephus: translation and commentary, BRILL, 2001