Simon Magus Series

Simon Magnus

Simon and Peter were intense rivals until Simon challenged Peter's authority and fell out of the sky.

Simon magus, also known as Simon the Sorcerer or the Magician, was a religious figure whose confrontation with Peter is recorded in Acts 8:9–24. The act of simony, or paying for the position, is named after Simon, who tried to buy his way into the power of the Apostles.

According to Acts, Simon was a Samaritan magus or religious figure of the 1st century A.D. and a convert to Christianity, baptized by Philip the Evangelist. Simon later clashed with Peter. Accounts of Simon by writers of the second century exist but are not considered verifiable. Surviving traditions about Simon appear in orthodox texts, such as Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Hippolytus, and Epiphanius. He is often described as the founder of Gnosticism which some modern scholars have accepted. In contrast, others reject that he was a Gnostic, just designated as one by the Church Fathers.

Justin, a 2nd-century native of Samaria, wrote that nearly all the Samaritans in his time were adherents of a certain Simon of Gitta, a village not far from Flavia Neapolis. Irenaeus held him as the founder of the sect of the Simonians. Hippolytus quotes from work he attributes to Simon or his followers, the Simonians, Apophasis Megale, or the Great Declaration. According to the early church heresiologists, Simon is also supposed to have written several lost treatises, two of which bear the titles The Four Quarters of the World and The Sermons of the Refuter.

In apocryphal works, including the Acts of Peter, Pseudo-Clementines, and the Epistle of the Apostles, Simon also appears as a formidable sorcerer with the ability to levitate and fly at will. He is sometimes referred to as - the Bad Samaritan" due to his malevolent character. The Apostolic Constitutions also accuse him of "lawlessness" (antinomianism).

Simon Magus

Religion Gnosticism

Nationality Samaritan

Known for Simony

Founder of Gnosticism

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Acts of the Apostles

The canonical Acts of the Apostles features a short narrative about Simon Magus; this is his only appearance in the New Testament.

However, there was a confident man called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is a great power [Gr. Dynamis Megale] of God." Moreover, they regarded him because he had bewitched them with sorceries for a long time. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon believed also: when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they came down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then they laid their hands on them and received the Holy Ghost. Moreover, when Simon saw that the Holy Ghost was given by laying on the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost." But Peter said unto him, "Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God might be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Therefore, repent of this wickedness, and pray to God if perhaps the thought [Gr. Epinoia,] of thine heart, may be forgiven thee, for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity." Then Simon answered, "Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me."

—?Acts 8:9–24

Josephus

Josephus mentions a magician named [Atomus] (Simon in Latin manuscripts) as being involved with the procurator Felix, King Agrippa II, and his sister Drusilla, where Felix has Simon convince Drusilla to marry him instead of the man she was engaged to. Some scholars have considered the two identical, although this is not generally accepted, as the Simon of Josephus is a Jew rather than a Samaritan.

Justin Martyr and Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (in his Apologies and in a lost work against heresies, which Irenaeus used as his primary source) and Irenaeus (Adversus Haereses) record that after being cast out by the Apostles, Simon Magus came to Rome where, having joined to himself a profligate woman of the name of Helen, he gave out that it was he who appeared among the Jews as the Son, in Samaria as the Father and among other nations as the Holy Spirit. He performed such signs by magic acts during the reign of Claudius that he was regarded as a god and honored with a statue on the island in the Tiber, which the two bridges cross, with the inscription Simoni Deo Sancto "To Simon the Holy God" (First Apology, XXVI). However, in the 16th century, a statue was unearthed on the island in question, inscribed to Semo Sancus, a Sabine deity, leading some scholars to believe that Justin Martyr confused Semoni Sancus with Simon.