גביהה בן פסיסא

Geviah ben Pasisah was a great sage in the days of Shimon HaTzaddik and he overcame the people of Africa, the children of Yishmael, the children of Keturah, and Egypt before Alexander the Macedonian [(see Part 1, Year 538). And due to the passage of time, he had a curvature in his back. In the section [(21)] he provided a reason for the resurrection of the dead, from what does not exist, what exists is certainly not less.

And in Bereishit Rabbah, Parashat Chayei Sarah, section 61, Geviah ben Kosem is mentioned, as well as in the Aruch under the entry for Geviah. And some say Geviah was tall and upright and was a guardian of the Temple, and Geviah ben Kosem is mentioned there as a sage [(Yichus in Seder HaDorot with Shimon HaTzaddik). And in Shekalim (page 112) it is stated that the Canaanites came before the king to inquire about the land of Canaan that Yehoshua conquered, and the Yishmaelites to dispute the birthright, and the Egyptians to ask about the spoils and the plunder that the children of Israel took from Egypt, and all of them were answered by Geviah ben Pasisah, a common priest, and they fled before the king.

Thus far.] I do not know from where it is known that he was a common priest, and perhaps this arose from what is stated there in the section that Geviah said to the sages, 'I will go, and if they defeat me, you will say that a commoner’s son has been defeated.' And according to the aforementioned genealogy, that he was a guardian of the Temple, there is no proof that he was a priest, for the priests guard in three places and the Levites in twenty-one places, as it is stated in the beginning of Middot.]