Editing Simon Magus

{{Short description|Religious figure who confronted Peter}}
{{For|the film| Simon Magus (film)}}
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{{Gnosticism}}

'''Simon Magus''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] Σίμων ὁ μάγος, [[Latin]]: Simon Magus), also known as '''Simon the Sorcerer''' or '''Simon the Magician''', was a religious figure whose confrontation with [[Saint Peter|Peter]] is recorded in the [[Acts of the Apostles]].<ref>{{Bibleverse||Acts|8:9–8:24|1000|8:9–24}}</ref> The act of [[simony]], or paying for position, is named after Simon, who tried to buy his way into the power of the [[Apostles in the New Testament|Apostles]].

According to Acts, Simon was a [[Samaritans|Samaritan]] [[magus]] or religious figure of the 1st century AD and a convert to Christianity, baptised by [[Philip the Evangelist]]. Simon later clashed with Peter. Accounts of Simon by writers of the second century exist, but are not considered verifiable.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13797b.htm|title=Simon Magus|last1=Knight |first1=Kevin |date=2012 |website=newadvent.org |publisher=Catholic Encyclopedia |access-date=20 August 2016|quote=it is difficult or rather impossible to extract from them any historical fact the details of which are established with certainty}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Simon-Magus|title=Simon Magus {{!}} Samarian magician|newspaper=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-02-23|language=en}}</ref> Surviving traditions about Simon appear in orthodox texts, such as those of [[Irenaeus]], [[Justin Martyr]], [[Hippolytus of Rome|Hippolytus]], and [[Epiphanius of Salamis|Epiphanius]], where he is often described as the founder of [[Gnosticism]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103123.htm|title=CHURCH FATHERS: Against Heresies, I.23 (St. Irenaeus)|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ik9FAAAAYAAJ&q=simon+magus&pg=PA50|title=The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus, Bishop of Caesarea, in Palestine |author=Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea|date=5 May 1894|publisher=George Bell & Sons|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>Hippolytus: Refutation of All Heresies can be found in Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers (1919; reprint ed., Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1971), 5:74–81, for the part we need about Simon.</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eX3oFohttG8C&q=Epiphanius+of+Salamis+simon+magus&pg=PA45|title=Simon Magus in Patristic, Medieval And Early Modern Traditions|first=Alberto|last=Ferreiro|date=5 May 2018|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-9004144958|via=Google Books}}</ref> which has been accepted by some modern scholars,{{Sfn|Rudolph|1977|pp=312 ff}}{{sfn|Haar|2003|p=306}} while others reject claims that he was a Gnostic, maintaining that he was merely considered to be one by the [[Church Fathers]].<ref>Antonia Tripolitis ''Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age'' Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002 {{ISBN|9780802849137}} p. 125</ref><ref>Alberto Ferreiro ''Simon Magus in Patristic, Medieval And Early Modern Traditions'' BRILL, 2005 p. 53</ref>

Justin, who was himself 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 believed him to have been the founder of the sect of the [[Simonians]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13797b.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Simon Magus|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08580c.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Justin Martyr|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref><ref>''Dictionary of Christian Biography'', Vol. 4, p. 682.</ref><ref>''Hastings' Dictionary of the Apostolic Church'', Vol. 2, p. 496.</ref> Hippolytus quotes from a work he attributes to Simon or his followers the Simonians, [[Simonians#The Great Declaration|''Apophasis Megale'', or ''Great Declaration'']]. According to the early church [[Heresiology|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 [[apocrypha]]l works including the ''[[Acts of Peter]]'', [[Pseudo-Clementines]], and the ''[[Epistle of the Apostles]]'', Simon also appears as a formidable [[Magician (paranormal)|sorcerer]] with the ability to [[Levitation (paranormal)|levitate]] and fly at will. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bad Samaritan" due to his malevolent character.<ref>Mark J. Edwards "Portraits: Biographical Representation in the Greek and Latin Literature of the Roman Empire" Clarendon Press, Oxford (1997) page 69</ref> The ''[[Apostolic Constitutions]]'' also accuses him of "lawlessness" ([[antinomianism]]).<ref>[[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VII/Constitutions of the Holy Apostles/Book VI/Sec. IV|''Constitutions of the Holy Apostles'', vi. § 4, 16]].</ref>

==History==
===Acts of the Apostles===
[[File:Nucci, Avanzino - Petrus' Auseinandersetzung mit Simon Magus - 1620.jpg|thumb|''Peter's conflict with Simon Magus'' by [[Avanzino Nucci]], 1620. Simon is on the right, wearing black.]]

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

{{blockquote|But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime 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 the great power [Gr. ''Dynamis Megale''] of God."<ref>"[[Geburah]], or ''[[wikt:δύναμις|Dynamis]]'', was an appellative or metonym of "The Divine Glory" among the apocalypticists, and with this very meaning entered the Gospels in the famous passage: 'You shall see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Dynamis [Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62].' Although in rabbinic sources of the first and second centuries the name ''Dynamis'' was widely used as a synonym for God Himself, the esoteric use continued in the circles of the [[Merkabah mysticism|Merkabah mystics]]. ... This term must have had wide usage, since according to the Acts of the Apostles 8:10 even the Samaritan Simon Magus claimed to be the Great Dynamis: ἡ δύναμις τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ καλουμένη μεγάλη." Scholem, p. 67.</ref> And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. 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 himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and [[John the Apostle|John]]: who, when they were come 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 laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, 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 may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought [Gr. ''Epinoia'']<ref>"LÜDEMANN (1989: 96-98) has raised the question whether, on the basis of Luke's own knowledge of the tradition, Luke had made some ironic allusion to Helen as Simon's ἐπίνοια in his reference to the state of Simon's heart: ἡ ἐπίνοια τῆς καρδίας (8:22). If so, as LÜDEMANN argued, the two essential elements of Gnostic Simonian religion are already found in Acts: 'the god Simon and his syzygos, ἐπίνοια.'" Haar 2003, p. 82.</ref> of thine heart may be forgiven thee, for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." Then answered Simon, and said, "Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me."|Acts 8:9–24<ref>{{Bibleverse||Acts|8:9–24|1000}}</ref>}}

===Josephus===
[[Josephus]] mentions a magician named [[Atomus]] (Simon in [[Latin]] manuscripts)<ref>Josephus, ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'', 20:7, §2.</ref> as being involved with the [[Antonius Felix|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 to be identical,<ref>Hilgenfeld, ''Ketzergeschichte,'' p. 170; Albert, ''Die Ersten Fünfzehn Jahre der Christlichen Kirche,'' p. 114, Münster, 1900; Waitz, in ''Zeitschrift für Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft,'' v. 128; Price 2012.</ref> 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 main source) and Irenaeus (''[[On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis|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'',<ref name=EB1911/> "To Simon the Holy God" ([[s:Ante-Nicene Christian Library/The First Apology of Justin Martyr#29|''First Apology'', XXVI]]). However, in the 16th century, a statue was unearthed on the island in question, inscribed to [[Semo Sancus]], a [[Sabine]] deity,<ref>''Semoni Sanco Deo''. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3ohDAAAAcAAJ&q=semoni+sanco+deo+fidio Gruter, vol. 1, p. 95, n. 5.]</ref> leading some scholars to conclude that Justin Martyr confused ''Semoni Sancus'' with Simon.

====Myth of Simon and Helen====
Justin and Irenaeus are the first to recount the myth of Simon and Helen, which became the center of Simonian doctrine.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}} [[Epiphanius of Salamis]] also makes Simon speak in the first person in several places in his ''[[Panarion]]'', and the implication is that he is quoting from a version of{{clarify|date=December 2022}} it, though perhaps not verbatim.<ref name=EB1911/>

As described by Epiphanius, in the beginning God had his first thought, his ''[[Ennoia]]'', which was female, and that thought was to create the [[angels]]. The First Thought then descended into the lower regions and created the angels. But the angels rebelled against her out of jealousy and created the world as her prison, imprisoning her in a female body. Thereafter, she was reincarnated many times, each time being shamed. Her many reincarnations included [[Helen of Troy]], among others, and she finally was reincarnated as Helen, a slave and prostitute in the [[Phoenicia]]n city of [[Tyre (Lebanon)|Tyre]]. God then descended in the form of Simon Magus, to rescue his ''Ennoia'', and to confer salvation upon men through knowledge of himself.<ref name=EB1911/>

{{blockquote|"And on her account", he says, "did I come down; for this is that which is written in the Gospel 'the [[Parable of the Lost Sheep|lost sheep]]'."|Epiphanius, ''Panarion'', 21.3.5<ref>[http://www.gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/grsm_simon_magus.htm#FNanchor_48 Epiphanius, ''Panarion'', 21.3.5]</ref><ref>Williams, vol. 1, p. 60.</ref>}}

For as the angels were mismanaging the world, owing to their individual lust for rule, he had come to set things straight, and had descended under a changed form, likening himself to the Principalities and Powers through whom he passed, so that among men he appeared as a man, though he was not a man, and was thought to have suffered in Judaea, though he had not suffered.<ref name=EB1911/>

{{blockquote|"But in each heaven I changed my form," says he, "in accordance with the form of those who were in each heaven, that I might escape the notice of my angelic powers and come down to the Thought, who is none other than her who is also called [[Sophia (Gnosticism)#Prunikos|Prunikos]] and Holy Ghost, through whom I created the angels, while the angels created the world and men."|Epiphanius, ''Panarion'', 21.2.4<ref>[http://www.gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/grsm_simon_magus.htm#FNanchor_45 Epiphanius, ''Panarion'', 21.2.4]</ref><ref>Williams, vol. 1, p. 58.</ref>}}

But the prophets had delivered their prophecies under the inspiration of the world-creating angels: wherefore those who had their hope in him and in Helen minded them no more, and, as being free, did what they pleased; for men were saved according to his grace, but not according to just works. For works were not just by nature, but only by convention, in accordance with the enactments of the world-creating angels, who by precepts of this kind sought to bring men into slavery. Wherefore he promised that the world should be dissolved, and that those who were his should be freed from the dominion of the world-creators.<ref name=EB1911/>

In this account of Simon there is a large portion common to almost all forms of [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] myths, together with something special to this form. They have in common the place in the work of creation assigned to the female principle, the conception of the Deity; the ignorance of the rulers of this lower world with regard to the Supreme Power; the descent of the female ([[Sophia (Gnosticism)|Sophia]]) into the lower regions, and her inability to return. Special to the Simonian tale is the identification of Simon himself with the Supreme, and of his consort Helena with the female principle.<ref name=WaceBio/>

===Hippolytus===
In ''[[Refutation of All Heresies|Philosophumena]]'', [[Hippolytus of Rome|Hippolytus]] retells the narrative on Simon written by Irenaeus (who in his turn based it on the lost ''Syntagma'' of Justin). Upon the story of "the lost sheep", Hippolytus comments as follows:<ref name=EB1911/>

{{blockquote|But the liar was enamoured of this wench, whose name was Helen, and had bought her and had her to wife, and it was out of respect for his disciples that he invented this fairy-tale.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050106.htm Hippolytus], ''[[Refutation of all Heresies]]'',  6, 19.</ref>}}

Also, Hippolytus demonstrates acquaintance with the folk tradition on Simon which depicts him rather as a magician than Gnostic, and in constant conflict with Peter (also present in the apocrypha and [[Clementine literature|Pseudo-Clementine literature]]). Reduced to despair by the curse laid upon him by Peter in the Acts, Simon soon abjured the faith and embarked on the career of a sorcerer:<ref name=EB1911/>

{{blockquote|Until he came to Rome also and fell foul of the Apostles. Peter withstood him on many occasions. At last he came&nbsp;... and began to teach sitting under a plane tree. When he was on the point of being shown up, he said, in order to gain time, that if he were buried alive he would rise again on the third day. So he bade that a tomb should be dug by his disciples and that he should be buried in it. Now they did what they were ordered, but he remained there until now: for he was not the Christ.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050106.htm Hippolytus], ''[[Refutation of all Heresies]]'', 6, 15.</ref>}}

====Simonians====
{{Main|Simonians}}
[[Image:Simonian Aeonology.jpg|thumb|right|Illustration of the Simonian philosophy]]

Hippolytus gives a much more doctrinally detailed account of [[Simonianism]], including a system of divine emanations and interpretations of [[Old Testament|the Old Testament]], with extensive quotations from the ''[[Simonianism#The Great Declaration|Apophasis Megale]]''. Some believe that Hippolytus' account is of a later, more developed form of Simonianism, and that the original doctrines of the group were simpler, close to the account given by Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (this account however is also included in Hippolytus' work).{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

Hippolytus says the [[free love]] doctrine was held by them in its purest form, and speaks in language similar to that of Irenaeus about the variety of magic arts practiced by the Simonians, and also of their having images of Simon and Helen under the forms of [[Zeus]] and [[Athena]]. But he also adds, "if any one, on seeing the images either of Simon or Helen, shall call them by those names, he is cast out, as showing ignorance of the mysteries."<ref name=EB1911/>

===Epiphanius===
Epiphanius writes that there were some Simonians still in existence in his day (c. AD 367), but he speaks of them as almost extinct. Gitta, he says, had sunk from a town into a village. Epiphanius further charges Simon with having tried to wrest the words of [[Saint Paul|St. Paul]] about the [[armour of God]]<ref>({{Bibleverse|Ephesians|6:14–16}})</ref> into agreement with his own identification of the {{Transliteration|grc|Ennoia}} with Athena. He tells us also that he gave [[barbaric name]]s to the "principalities and powers", and that he was the beginning of the Gnostics. The Law, according to him, was not of God, but of "the sinister power". The same was the case with the prophets, and it was death to believe in the Old Testament.<ref name=EB1911/>

===Cyril of Jerusalem===
[[Image:Death of simon magus.jpg|thumb|right|The death of Simon Magus, from the [[Nuremberg Chronicle]]]]

[[Cyril of Jerusalem]] (346 AD) in the sixth of his Catechetical Lectures prefaces his history of the [[Manichaeans]] by a brief account of earlier heresies: Simon Magus, he says, had given out that he was going to be translated to heaven, and was actually careening through the air in a [[chariot]] drawn by [[demon]]s when Peter and Paul knelt down and prayed, and their prayers brought him to earth a mangled corpse.<ref>[[s:Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VII/S. Cyril/Lecture 6|Cyril of Jerusalem, ''Catechetical Lectures'', vi. 15]].</ref><ref name=EB1911/>

==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>

== Druidism ==
In Irish legend, Simon Magus came to be associated with [[Druidism]].  He is said to have come to the aid of the Druid [[Mog Ruith]].  The fierce denunciation of Christianity by Irish Druids appears to have resulted in Simon Magus being associated with Druidism.  The word Druid was sometimes translated into Latin as ''magus'', and Simon Magus was also known in Ireland as "Simon the Druid".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain|last=Spence|first=Lewis|author-link=Lewis Spence|year=1999|page=36|publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=9780486404479|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UViEbWQOSd0C&q=simon+druid&pg=PA36}}</ref>

==Medieval legends, later interpretations==
The church of [[Santa Francesca Romana, Rome]], is claimed to have been built on the spot where Simon fell. Within the Church is a dented slab of marble that purports to bear the imprints of the knees of Peter and Paul during their prayer. The fantastic stories of Simon the Sorcerer persisted into the later [[Middle Ages]],<ref>Sometimes with [[Mug Ruith]]. MacKillop, p. 337.</ref> becoming a possible inspiration for the ''[[Faustbuch]]''  and [[Goethe's Faust]].<ref>"Surely few admirers of Marlowe's and Goethe's plays have an inkling that their hero is the descendant of a gnostic sectary, and that the beautiful Helen called up by his art was once the fallen Thought of God through whose raising mankind was to be saved." Jonas, p. 111.</ref>

The opening story in [[Danilo Kiš]]'s 1983 collection ''[[The Encyclopedia of the Dead]]'', "Simon Magus", retells the confrontation between Simon and Peter agreeing with the account in the ''Acts of Peter'', and provides an additional alternative ending in which Simon asks to be buried alive in order to be resurrected three days later (after which his body is found putrefied).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/02/short-story-danilo-kis|title=A brief survey of the short story part 42: Danilo Kiš|last=Power|first=Chris|date=2 August 2012|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=16 December 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Benjamin|author-link=Benjamin Taylor (author)|title=Into the Open: Reflections on Genius and Modernity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uSYap2qVQMwC&pg=PA107|year=1995|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9780814782132|pages=107 n.1}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Apollonius of Tyana]]
* [[Elymas|Elymas Bar-Jesus]]
* [[Jesus of Nazareth]]
* [[John the Baptist]]
* [[List of messiah claimants]]
* [[List of people who have claimed to be Jesus]]
* [[Saints and levitation]]
* [[Simon Magus in popular culture]]

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== General and cited references ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |first=Markus|last=Bockmuehl|title=The Remembered Peter: In Ancient Reception and Modern Debate|year=2010|publisher=Mohr Siebeck}}
* {{cite journal|date=Fall 2005|first=David R.|last=Cartlidge|title=The Fall and Rise of Simon Magus|journal=Bible Review|volume= 21|number=4|pages=24–36}}
* {{cite book|title= Inscriptiones antiquae totius orbis romani, in absolutissimum corpus redactae|first=Janus|last=Gruter|year= 1707|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ohDAAAAcAAJ|publisher=Franciscus Halma|location=Amsterdam}}
* {{Cite book |first=Stephen Charles|last=Haar|title=Simon Magus: The First Gnostic?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qCs5PBDqRHUC|year=2003|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-017689-6}}
* {{cite book | last = Jonas | first = Hans | title = The Gnostic Religion | orig-year = 1958|year=2001|publisher=Beacon Press|location=Boston|isbn=0-8070-5801-7|edition=3rd}}
* {{cite book|first=Francis|last=Legge|title=Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, From 330 B.C. to 330 A.D.|url=https://archive.org/details/forerunnersrival00legg|url-access=registration|orig-year=1914|edition=Two volumes bound as one|publisher=University Books|location=New York|year=1964|lccn=64-24125}}
* {{cite book|last=Lüdemann|first=Gerd|title=Early Christianity according to the Traditions in Acts: A Commentary|year=1989|location=Minneapolis|publisher=Fortress Press}}
* {{cite book | last = MacKillop | first = James | title = A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology | year = 2004 | orig-year=1998|publisher = Oxford University Press |location=New York| isbn = 978-0-19-860967-4}}
* {{cite book|first=G.R.S.|last=Mead|author-link=G.R.S. Mead|url=http://www.gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/grsm_simon_magus.htm|title=Simon Magus|year=1892|publisher= Theosophical Publishing Society|location=London}}
* {{cite book|first=C. Marvin|last=Pate|title=The Reverse of the Curse: Paul, Wisdom, and the Law|year=2000}}
* {{cite book|author=Plotinus|title=Psychic and Physical Treatises: Comprising the Second and Third Enneads|volume=2|others=Stephen MacKenna|location=London|publisher=P.L. Warner, publisher to the Medici Society|year=1921}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Price|first1=Robert M.|title=The Amazing Colossal Apostle: The Search for the Historical Paul|date=2012|publisher=Signature Books|isbn= 978-1-56085-216-2}}
* {{Cite book|first=Kurt|last=Rudolph|title= Die Gnosis: Wesen u. Geschichte e. spätantiken Religion|year=1977|publisher=Koehler & Amelang|location=Leipzig}}
* {{cite book|title=Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition|first=Gershom|last=Scholem|publisher=Jewish Theological Seminary of America|year=1965}}
* {{Cite book |last=Verheyden|first=Jozef|chapter=Demonization of the Opponent|editor1-first=Theo L.|editor1-last=Hettema|editor2-first=Arie|editor2-last=van der Kooij|title=Religious Polemics in Context|year=2004}}
* {{cite book|last=Williams|first=Frank|title=The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis|year=1987|publisher=E.J. Brill|location=Leiden; New York; København; Köln|volume=2 volumes|isbn= 978-90-04-07926-7}}
{{refend}}

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