Ptolemy was the son of Abubus.
He was appointed governor of the Jericho region of Israel by the Seleucid king, Antiochus VII Sidetes, and married a daughter of Simon Maccabaeus, military commander of the Maccabees and founder of Israel's Hasmonean dynasty. He held a banquet for father-in-law Simon and two of Simon's sons, where he had them killed. He then attempted to have Simon's third son, John Hyrcanus, killed also, but failed.