It was the Samaritans who brought Aramaic to Yehudah, and Zoroastrianism too most likely, the latter not having a significant impact until the time of Jesus, the former becoming the national tongue and reducing Yehudit to a language exclusively of prayer and study (cf Nehemiah 13:24).
Simon was a Samaritan who converted to Christianity, baptised by Philip the Evangelist, though only after a falling-out with Peter that is recorded in Acts 8:9–24:
"But there was a certain man called Simon, who earlier in the same city had used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, 'This man is great with the power of God.' And for him they had regard, because for a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip's preaching of 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 baptised he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done."
The sin of Simony, which is the act of paying for position and influence in the church, is allegedly named for this Simon, though there is no evidence that he ever did such a thing. Nevertheless the "Constitutions of the Holy Apostles", a collection of treatises dating from 375 to 380 CE and written in Antioch, accuse him outright of lawlessness, while Clement of Alexandria in his "Recognitions" makes no mention of the matter, though he appears to have enough knowledge about Simon, or Simeon, or Shim'on, to name his parents as Antonius and Rachel.
Simon's name appears in numerous texts, including those of Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Hippolytus, and Epiphanius, with descriptions of him placing him even higher than Judas Iscariot in the ranks of those who are the source of all evil in the world, particularly heresy.
Justin, for example, claimed that virtually the entire Samaritan nation were followers of this man who he called "Simon of Gitta", Gitta being a neighbouring village of Shechem, notorious in Biblical terms for the rape of Dinah and the revenge of another Simeon, this one the son of Ya'akov (Jacob), with his brother Levi; just as a side-note, in Jesus' time Shechem had been renamed by the Romans as Flavia Neapolis, "the new city of the Flavian Emperors", somewhat of a rival to Tiberias, which was the new city of the Flavians' predecessor, the Emperor Tiberius; it was from Flavia Neapolis that the modern name, Nablus, originated; somewhat bizarrely in fact, since it was the Flavia and not the Neapolis that was the significant part of the name.
But back to our subject... in his book, Irenaeus honoured him, though with the intention of dishonouring him, as one of the founders of Gnosticism, and specifically of the sect called the Simonians.
Hippolytus quotes from a work that he attributes either to Simon or his followers, the "Apophasis Megale", or "Great Declaration".
Simon himself is also credited with writing several treatises, alas lost along with his Gospel, one beautifully named "The Four Quarters of the World", another "The Sermons of the Refuter".
So there are his works, and there are the works about him by those who knew, or claimed they knew. And finally, as always, there are the legends, which make up those really exciting parts of the story that were not in the original, and think that in this manner they are improving them; a trick much practiced in Hollywood. These works include "The Acts of Peter", a charming work known either as "Clementina" or the "Pseudo-Clementines", and the wonderfully and assonantly alliterative "Epistle of the Apostles", which works even better in its Latin original, "Epistula Apostolorum" though it falls down with the others when it insists on making Simon the Magus into Harry Potter, accrediting him with formidable powers of sorcery, and the ability to levitate and fly at will.
Copyright © 2020 David Prashker
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The Argaman Press
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