Practitioner of magic arts, who appears in Samaria c.37, well known for his sorceries. With Peter's condemnation of his offer to buy the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Simon's submission, the narrative of Acts (8.924) leaves him. Later Christian authors bring him to Rome and make him the author of heresies. The term simony derives from his name.
Simon Magus, also known as Simon the Sorcerer and Simon of Gitta, is the name used by the ancient Christian Orthodoxy to refer to a person identified as a Samaritan proto-Gnostic.
Christian legends
The figure appeared prominently in several highly legendary apocryphal accounts by early Christian authors, who regarded him as the first heretic. The sin of simony, or paying for position and influence in the church, is named for Simon.
According to reports by ancient Christian Orthodoxy, the Gnostic sect of Simonianism believed that Simon Magus was God in human form. Almost all of the surviving sources for the life and thought of Simon Magus are contained in works from the ancient Christian Orthodoxy: in the Acts of the Apostles, in patristic works (Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Hippolytus) and in the apocryphal Acts of Peter, and the early Clementine literature. Simon is specifically said to have possessed the ability to levitate and fly at will. There were accusations that he was a demon in human form, with the story of Simon the wizard as the cultural equivalent of Merlin during the Middle Ages.
The apocryphal Acts of Peter gives a legendary tale of Simon Magus' death. Simon is performing magic in the forum, and in order to prove himself to be a god, he flies up into the air. The church of Santa Francesca Romana claims to have been built on the spot in question (thus claiming that Simon Magus could indeed fly), claims that Saint Paul was also present, and that a dented slab of marble that it contains bears the imprints of the knees of Peter and Paul during their prayer.
Conflicting points of view
The different sources for information on Simon contain quite different pictures of him, so much so that it has been questioned whether they all refer to the same person.
Writings of Justin and Irenaeus
Justin Martyr (in his Apologies, and in a lost work against heresies, which Irenaeus used as his main source) and Irenaeus (Adversus Haereses) recount the myth of Simon and Helene. According to this myth, which was the center of Simonian religion, in the beginning God had his first thought, his Ennoia (see Sophia), which was female, and that thought was to create the angels. God then descended in the form of Simon Magus, to rescue his Ennoia.
Justin and Irenaeus record several other pieces of information, including: that Simon came from the Samaritan village of Gitta and that the Simonians worshipped Simon in the form of Zeus and Helene in the form of Athena. They also say that a statue to Simon was erected by Claudius Caesar on the island in the Tiber which the two bridges cross, with the inscription Simoni Deo Sancto, "To Simon the Holy God". However, in the 1500s, a statue was unearthed on the island in question, inscribed to Semo Sancus, a Sabine deity, leading most scholars to believe that Justin Martyr confused Semoni Sancus with Simon.
Writings of Hippolytus
Hippolytus (in his Philosophumena) gives a much more doctrinally detailed account of Simonianism, including a system of divine emanations and interpretations of the Old Testament.
Modern interpretation
According to some academics (Detering being the most significant to have recently argued this), Simon Magus may in fact be a cypher for Paul of Tarsus, with Paul originally been detested by the church, and the name changed when Paul was rehabilitated by virtue of forged Epistles correcting the genuine ones. Though at first glance this suggestion appears completely radical, Simon Magus is sometimes described in apocryphal legends in terms that could fit Paul. Furthermore while the Christian Orthodoxy frequently portrayed the major gnostic leader Marcion as having been a follower of Simon Magus, Marcion nowhere mentions even the existence of Simon, and instead identifies himself as a follower of Paul.
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