Matthias

Who is Matthias?

Matthias was an ethnic Jew living in Jerusalem.

Matthias came from a wealthy, aristocratic 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. He was the first-born son of Matthias and his wife, an unnamed Jewish noblewoman. He was the full blooded and the older brother of the Roman-Jewish Historian Josephus. The mother of Matthias was an aristocratic woman who descended royalty and of the former ruling Hasmonean Dynasty.

His paternal grandparents were Josephus and his wife, an unnamed Jewish noblewoman. The paternal grandparents of Matthias were distant relatives as they were both direct descendants of Simon Psellus. Through his father, Matthias was a descendant 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 born and raised in Jerusalem. Matthias was educated alongside Josephus.

Matthias; his parents and Josephus’ first wife were alive during the First Jewish–Roman War. The war occurred from 66 until 73.