Editing Simon Magus (section)

==Apocrypha==
===''Acts of Peter''===
The [[apocrypha]]l ''[[Acts of Peter]]'' gives a more elaborate tale of Simon Magus' death. Simon is performing [[Magic (paranormal)|magic]] in the [[Roman Forum|Forum]], and, in order to prove himself to be a god, he levitates into the air above the Forum.  The apostle [[Saint Peter|Peter]] prays to God to stop his flying, and he stops mid-air and falls into a place called "the ''Sacra Via''" (meaning "Holy Way" in [[Latin language|Latin]]), breaking his legs "in three parts". The previously non-hostile crowd then [[Stoning|stones]] him. Now gravely injured, he has some people carry him on a bed at night from Rome to [[Ariccia]], and is brought from there to [[Terracina]] to a person named Castor, who has been banished from Rome, on account of accusations of sorcery levelled against him. The Acts then continue to say that he died "while being sorely cut by two physicians".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/actspeter.html|title=The Acts of Peter|website=www.earlychristianwritings.com}}</ref>

===''Acts of Peter and Paul''===
Another apocryphal document, the ''[[Acts of Peter and Paul]]'' gives a slightly different version of the above incident, which was shown in the context of a debate in front of the Emperor [[Nero]]. In this version, Paul the Apostle is present along with Peter, Simon levitates from a high wooden tower made upon his request, and dies "divided into four parts" due to the fall. Peter and Paul are then imprisoned by Nero, who further orders that Simon's body be kept carefully for three days, in case, Christ-like, the magician should [[Resurrection|rise again]].<ref>''[[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Apocrypha of the New Testament/Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul/Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul|Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul]]''.</ref>

===Pseudo-Clementine literature===
The Pseudo-Clementine ''Recognitions'' and ''Homilies'' give an account of Simon Magus and some of his teachings in regards to the Simonians. They are of uncertain date and authorship, and seem to have been worked over by several hands in the interest of diverse forms of belief.<ref name=EB1911/>

Simon was a Samaritan, and a native of Gitta. The name of his father was Antonius, that of his mother Rachel.<ref>''Recognitions'', Book 2.</ref> He studied [[Greek literature]] in [[Alexandria]], and, having in addition to this great power in magic, became so ambitious that he wished to be considered a highest power, higher even than the God who created the world. And sometimes he "darkly hinted" that he himself was [[Christ]], calling himself the Standing One. Which name he used to indicate that he would stand for ever, and had no cause in him for bodily decay. He did not believe that the God who created the world was the highest, nor that the dead would rise. He denied [[Jerusalem]], and introduced [[Mount Gerizim]] in its stead. In place of the Christ of the Christians he proclaimed himself; and the Law he allegorized in accordance with his own preconceptions. He did indeed preach righteousness and judgment to come.<ref name=EB1911/>

There was one [[John the Baptist]], who was the forerunner of [[Jesus]] in accordance with the [[law of parity]]; and as Jesus had twelve Apostles, bearing the number of the twelve solar months, so had he thirty leading men, making up the monthly tale of the moon. One of these thirty leading men was a woman called Helen, and the first and most esteemed by John was Simon. But on the [[Beheading of St. John the Baptist|death of John]], he was away in [[Egypt]] for the practice of magic, and one [[Dositheos (Samaritan)|Dositheus]], by spreading a false report of Simon's death, succeeded in installing himself as head of the sect. Simon on coming back thought it better to dissemble, and, pretending friendship for Dositheus, accepted the second place. Soon, however, he began to hint to the thirty that Dositheus was not as well acquainted as he might be with the doctrines of the school.<ref>[[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily II/Chapter 23|Clementine ''Homilies'', ii. 23]].</ref><ref name=EB1911/>

{{blockquote|Dositheus, when he perceived that Simon was depreciating him, fearing lest his reputation among men might be obscured (for he himself was supposed to be the Standing One), moved with rage, when they met as usual at the school, seized a rod, and began to beat Simon; but suddenly the rod seemed to pass through his body, as if it had been smoke. On which Dositheus, being astonished, says to him, "Tell me if thou art the Standing One, that I may adore thee." And when Simon answered that he was, then Dositheus, perceiving that he himself was not the Standing One, fell down and worshipped him, and gave up his own place as chief to Simon, ordering all the rank of thirty men to obey him; himself taking the inferior place which Simon formerly occupied. Not long after this he{{clarify |date=December 2019}} died.<ref name=Dositheus>[[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Recognitions of Clement/Book II/Chapter 11|Clementine ''Recognitions'', ii. 11]].</ref>}}

The encounter between Dositheus and Simon Magus was the beginnings of the sect of Simonians. The narrative goes on to say that Simon, having fallen in love with Helen, took her about with him, saying that she had come down into the world from the highest heavens, and was his mistress, inasmuch as she was Sophia, the Mother of All. It was for her sake, he said, that the Greeks and Barbarians fought the [[Trojan War]], deluding themselves with an image of truth, for the real being was then present with the First God.<ref>Cf. [[s:Enneads/Against the Gnostics; or, Against Those that Affirm the Creator of the Cosmos and the Cosmos Itself to be Evil|Plotinus, ''Ennead'' II, 9, 10]]: "They first maintain that the Soul and a certain 'Wisdom' [Sophia] declined and entered this lower sphere ... Yet in the same breath, that very Soul which was the occasion of descent to the others is declared not to have descended. 'It knew no decline,' but merely illuminated the darkness in such a way that an image of it was formed upon the Matter. Then, they shape an image of that image somewhere below — through the medium of Matter or of Materiality ... and so they bring into being what they call the Creator or Demiurge, then this lower is severed from his Mother [Sophia] and becomes the author of the Cosmos down to the latest of the succession of images constituting it." MacKenna trans., p. 230.</ref><ref name=EB1911/> By such allegories Simon deceived many, while at the same time he astounded them by his magic. A description is given of how he made a [[familiar spirit]] for himself by conjuring the soul out of a boy and keeping his image in his bedroom, and many instances of his feats of magic are given.<ref name=EB1911/>

====Anti-Paulinism====
[[Image:Disputat.jpg|thumb|right|The Apostles Paul and Peter confront Simon Magus before Nero, as painted by [[Filippino Lippi]].]]

The Pseudo-Clementine writings were used in the 4th century by members of the [[Ebionite]] sect, one characteristic of which was hostility to Paul, whom they refused to recognize as an apostle.<ref>As the ''Peregrinations of Peter''. Epiphanius, ''Panarion'', 30.15.1. Williams, vol. 1, p. 131.</ref><ref name=WaceBio/> Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792–1860), founder of the Tübingen School, drew attention to the anti-Pauline characteristic in the Pseudo-Clementines, and pointed out that in the disputations between Simon and Peter, some of the claims Simon is represented as making (e.g. that of having seen the Lord, though not in his lifetime, yet subsequently in vision) were really the claims of Paul; and urged that Peter's refutation of Simon was in some places intended as a polemic against Paul.<ref name=WaceBio>{{WaceBio|wstitle=Simon Magus|first=George|last=Salmon|inline=1}}</ref> The enmity between Peter and Simon is clearly shown. Simon's magical powers are juxtaposed with Peter's powers in order to express Peter's authority over Simon through the power of prayer, and in the [[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XVII|17th ''Homily'']], the identification of Paul with Simon Magus is effected. Simon is there made to maintain that he has a better knowledge of the mind of Jesus than the disciples, who had seen and conversed with Jesus in person. His reason for this strange assertion is that visions are superior to waking reality, as divine is superior to human.<ref>[[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XVII/Chapter 5|Clementine ''Homilies'', xvii. 5]]; [[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XVII/Chapter 14|14]].</ref><ref name=EB1911/> Peter has much to say in reply to this, but the passage which mainly concerns us is as follows:<ref name=EB1911/>

{{blockquote|But can any one be educated for teaching by vision? And if you shall say, "It is possible," why did the Teacher remain and converse with waking men for a whole year? And how can we believe you even as to the fact that he appeared to you? And how can he have appeared to you seeing that your sentiments are opposed to his teaching? But if you were seen and taught by him for a single hour, and so became an apostle, then preach his words, expound his meaning, love his apostles, fight not with me who had converse with him. For it is against a solid rock, the foundation-stone of the Church, that you have opposed yourself in opposing me. If you were not an adversary, you would not be slandering me and reviling the preaching that is given through me, in order that, as I heard myself in person from the Lord, when I speak I may not be believed, as though forsooth it were I who was condemned and I who was reprobate. Or, if you call me condemned, you are accusing God who revealed the Christ to me, and are inveighing against Him who called me blessed on the ground of the revelation. But if indeed you truly wish to work along with the truth, learn first from us what we learnt from Him, and when you have become a disciple of truth, become our fellow-workman.<ref name=EB1911/>}}

The anti-Pauline context of the Pseudo-Clementines is recognised, but the association with Simon Magus is surprising, according to Jozef Verheyden, since they have little in common.<ref>"The decision [in the Pseudo-Clementines] to associate Paul with Simon Magus is surprising since they have little in common. It is generally accepted that this association represents a later stage in the development of Ps.-Clem. and was an attempt to do away with or adapt some of the criticisms that had been aimed at Paul." Verheyden, p. 333.</ref> However the majority of scholars accept Baur's identification,<ref>"Baur's view that Simon is Paul has occasionally been questioned&nbsp;..." Bockmuehl, p. 102.</ref> though others, including [[Joseph Barber Lightfoot|Lightfoot]], argued extensively that the "Simon Magus" of the Pseudo-Clementines was not meant to stand for Paul.<ref>"...&nbsp;letters (beginning of the second century AD, which give no evidence of strife between Peter and Paul) were spurious and late&nbsp;... The idea of a revival of Baur's thesis appears to be quite self-conscious and explicit". Pate, p. 439.</ref> More recently, Berlin pastor Hermann Detering (1995) has made the case that the veiled anti-Pauline stance of the Pseudo-Clementines has historical roots, that the Acts 8 encounter between Simon the magician and Peter is itself based on the conflict between Peter and Paul.<ref>[http://depts.drew.edu/jhc/detering.html Hermann Detering], The Dutch Radical Approach to the Pauline Epistles</ref> Detering's belief has not found general support among scholars, but [[Robert M. Price]] argues much the same case in ''The Amazing Colossal Apostle:The Search for the Historical Paul'' (2012).{{sfn|Price|2012}}

===Identification of Simon as the Apostle Paul===
Since Ferdinand Christian Baur in the 19th century, scholars including Hermann Detering and Margaret Barket have concluded that the attacks on "Simon Magus" in the 4th-century [[Pseudo-Clementines]] may be attacks on Paul. Detering takes the attacks of the Pseudo-Clementines as literal and historical, and suggests that the attacks of the Pseudo-Clementines are correct in identifying "Simon Magus" as a [[Wiktionary:proxy|proxy]] for [[Paul of Tarsus]],<ref>[http://depts.drew.edu/jhc/detering.html Hermann Detering, The Dutch Radical Approach to the Pauline Epistles<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> with Simon-Paul originally having been detested by the church, and the name changed to Paul when he was rehabilitated by virtue of [[Authorship of the Pauline Epistles|forged Epistles]] ''correcting'' the genuine ones.<ref>See also: [[Ferdinand Christian Baur|F C Baur]]; A. Hilgenfeld; Hermann Detering, "The Falsified Paul: Early Christianity in the Twilight" - 1995 (translated [http://www.egodeath.com/TheFabricatedPaul.htm into English in 2003]); and J.R.Porter, ''The Lost Bible'', pg 230.</ref> Robert Price has stated his agreement with this assertion.

====Anti-Marcionism====
There are other features in the portrait which are reminiscent of [[Marcion]]. The first thing mentioned in the ''Homilies'' about Simon's opinions is that he denied that God was just.<ref>[[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily II/Chapter 14|Clementine ''Homilies'', ii. 14]].</ref> By "God" he meant the creator god. But he undertakes to prove from the Jewish scriptures that there is a higher god, who really possesses the perfections which are falsely ascribed to the lower god.<ref>[[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily III/Chapter 10|Clementine ''Homilies'', iii. 10]]; [[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily III/Chapter 38|38]].</ref> On these grounds Peter complains that, when he was setting out for the gentiles to convert them from their worship of ''many gods upon earth'', [[Satan]] had sent Simon before him to make them believe that there were ''many gods in heaven''.<ref>E.g. [[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily III/Chapter 3|Clementine ''Homilies'', iii. 3]]; [[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily III/Chapter 9|9]]; [[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily III/Chapter 59|59]].</ref><ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Simon Magus|volume=25|pages=126–130|inline=1}}</ref>