22 Facts About Simon Magus

1.

The act of simony, or paying for position, is named after Simon who tried to buy his way into the power of the Apostles.

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2.

Simon Magus is sometimes referred to as "the Bad Samaritan" due to his malevolent character.

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3.

Some scholars have considered the two to be identical, although this is not generally accepted, as the Simon Magus of Josephus is a Jew rather than a Samaritan.

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4.

Justin Martyr and Irenaeus 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.

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5.

Simon Magus 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".

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6.

Epiphanius of Salamis makes Simon Magus speak in the first person in several places in his Panarion, and the implication is that he is quoting from a version of it, though perhaps not verbatim.

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7.

Also, Hippolytus demonstrates acquaintance with the folk tradition on Simon Magus which depicts him rather as a magician than Gnostic, and in constant conflict with Peter.

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8.

Epiphanius further charges Simon Magus with having tried to wrest the words of St Paul about the armour of God into agreement with his own identification of the Ennoia with Athena.

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9.

Simon Magus tells us that he gave barbaric names to the "principalities and powers, " and that he was the beginning of the Gnostics.

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10.

Cyril of Jerusalem 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 demons when Peter and Paul knelt down and prayed, and their prayers brought him to earth a mangled corpse.

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11.

Simon Magus is performing magic in the Forum, and in order to prove himself to be a god, he levitates up into the air above the Forum.

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12.

Simon Magus 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.

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13.

Simon Magus did not believe that the God who created the world was the highest, nor that the dead would rise.

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14.

Simon Magus denied Jerusalem, and introduced Mount Gerizim in its stead.

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15.

Simon Magus did indeed preach righteousness and judgment to come.

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16.

Simon Magus on coming back thought it better to dissemble, and, pretending friendship for Dositheus, accepted the second place.

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17.

Dositheus, when he perceived that Simon Magus was depreciating him, fearing lest his reputation among men might be obscured, moved with rage, when they met as usual at the school, seized a rod, and began to beat Simon Magus; but suddenly the rod seemed to pass through his body, as if it had been smoke.

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18.

The narrative goes on to say that Simon Magus, 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.

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19.

Simon Magus 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.

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20.

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.

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21.

Simon Magus is said to have come to the aid of the Druid Mog Ruith.

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22.

Opening story in Danilo Kis'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.

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