After the martyrdom of James and the conquest of Jerusalem which immediately followed, it is said that those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord that were still living came together from all directions with those that were related to the Lord according to the flesh (for the majority of them also were still alive) to take counsel as to who was worthy to succeed James. They all with one consent pronounced Symeon, the son of Clopas, of whom the Gospel also makes mention; to be worthy of the episcopal throne of that parish. He was a cousin, as they say, of the Saviour. For Hegesippus records that Clopas was a brother of Joseph.[4]
According to Hegesippus. Simeon prevailed against Thebutis, whom the church fathers deemed a judaizingheresiarch,[5] and led most of the Christians to Pella before the outbreak of the Jewish War in 66 and the destruction of Herod's Temple in 70.
About the year 106 or 107 he was crucified under Trajan by the proconcul Atticus in Jerusalem or the vicinity.[6]
Identifications
Simeon of Jerusalem is identified with one of the prophets and teachers in Antioch named "Simeon, who was called Niger" in Acts 13:1. Simeon is sometimes identified with Simon, the "brother of the Lord", who is mentioned in passing in the Bible (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3), considering the "brothers" as "cousins"[7] and pointing to Hegesippus referring to him as the "second cousin" as bishop of Jerusalem. Other exegetes consider the brothers to be actual brothers and Hegesippus' wording as subsuming both James and Simeon under a more general term.[8]
