Throughout its history, the Christian Church has had to deal with its own ever-developing understanding of aspects of its own faith as various thinkers raised questions that had yet to be answered. Disputes over those answers could lead to forms of schism and heresy.
While it may be difficult to identify the first ‘Christian’ - John the Baptist, St. Peter, Andrew Protokletos (the ‘first-called) or a group including all of the disciples and other early followers of Jesus of Nazareth, early Christian literary traditions did identify who they considered to be the first Christian heretic: Simon Magus – ‘Simon the Magician’.
He appears in the Book of Acts as a magician in Samaria, who used his skills to convince people that he was "the Power of God that is Great." The Biblical story sees Philip the Evangelist arrive in the city, causing many to convert and accept baptism through his preaching of God's Gospel. These converts seemingly included Simon Magus himself, “who was astounded by Philip's miracle, which were truly divine, not manipulations of magic” (Ehrman (2003), 165; Act 8: 9-13).
The Christian converts in Samaria, including Simon, were then treated to a visit by the apostles Peter and John, who provided the converts with the gift of the Spirit through the laying on of hands (Acts 8: 14-17). The magus was impressed, perhaps too much so as he soon allowed his manipulative nature to take over. He tried to bribe Peter and John to bring him into their apostolic inner circle – “Give me also this power, that any one on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:19). Peter reproached Simon, sending him away, “urging him to repent of his wickedness. In humility, Simon asked that the apostles pray for him” (Ehrman (2003), 165; Eusebius, EH II.14.2-3).
This is where the Biblical story of Simon Magus ends, but as the Christian literary tradition grew throughout the late first/early second century, so did the role of the magician. Simon became a Samaritan from the city of Gitta; his parents became Antonius and Rachel and is thought to have studied Greek literature at Alexandria. More importantly, Simon became portrayed as being unrepentant and determined to persuade people that he had supernatural powers (Ps-Clement, Recognitions II).
This determination saw him move from the Middle East to the imperial capital of Rome itself, although it may be more appropriate to talk about him being transplanted there in order to set the magician up as an opponent for ‘the rock upon which the Church was built’, St. Peter, who had also moved to Rome.
Christian literature presents Simon as being highly successful in persuading Romans that he was divine. Justin Martyr, a mid-second century Christian apologist resident in Rome, records that people in Rome even set up an altar to Simon on Tiber Island, site of the Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island since 998. It was reputedly inscribed with the dedication “Simoni Deo Sancto” – “To Simon, the Holy God” (Justin Martyr, Apol. I.26).
There was seemingly no physical evidence of this inscribed altar, which made Justin's claim suspect. However, in July 1574, an altar with an inscription was found which fits Justin's description… with one slight and important addition. When the uncovered inscription was inspected, it read ‘Semoni Sanco Sancto Deo.’ “What a difference a word makes!” (Ehrman (2003), 165)
This ‘Sanco’ changes the identification of this altar from potentially being for Simon Magus to definitely being for the pagan god of trust called Semo Sanctus, who had been worshipped in Rome for centuries, having been brought there by the Sabines.
This misinterpreted inscription, now in the Vatican Musuem, was not the only shrine to Semo Sancus in Rome. The Sabines built a shrine on the Quirinal Hill (Dion. Hal. II.49.2), the foundations of which were discovered under the convent of San Silvestro al Quirinale in March 1881. It was a “strange coincidence” (Lanciani (1893), 105) that, despite there being no clear connection to the excavations at San Silvestro, a life-sized statue and inscribed pedestal of Semo Sancus appeared on the market around the same time.
The inscription has some similarities to that of Tiber Island…
SEMONI SANCO DEO FIDIO SACRUM DECURIA SACER- DOT[UM] BIDENTALIUM
(Lanciani (1893), 105-106)
The question should be asked as to how and why Justin Martyr came to make this misidentification. It might be immediately assumed that he is using faulty sources or has misunderstood the source he was using; however, Justin resided in Rome so his source is more than likely to have been his own eyes. Has he made a fundamental mistake in equating Simon with Semo Sancus? Did he so hurriedly glance at the inscription that he took it up incorrectly? Or has he been intentionally dishonest in order to build up Simon Magus so as to make his eventual defeat all the more spectacular? We might never be sure.
While archaeology has undermined the extent of Simon’s popularity or at least the extent to which the inhabitants of Rome were willing to reward it on Tiber Island, the success he was having led to the intervention of St. Peter, a story continued in some of the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles – those which for various reasons were not incorporated into the final canon of the New Testament.
One of the earliest was the Acts of Peter, which, as well as being the first text to record the tradition that St. Peter was crucified upside-down, records Peter and Simon going head-to-head before the assembled members of the Roman Senate. Peter challenged the magician to support his views, declaring “I believe in the living God, through whom I shall destroy your magic arts.” Simon responded by attacking some of the central tenets of Christianity – “You have the impudence to speak of Jesus the Nazarene, the son of a carpenter, himself a carpenter, whose family is from Judaea. Listen, Peter. The Romans have understanding. They are no fools.” Turning to the crowd, Simon proclaimed “Men of Rome, is a God born? Is he crucified? Whoever has a Lord is no God” (Acts of Peter 23).
The two were then challenged by the Roman prefect to provide proof of their divine backing. A slave was brought into the arena and Simon was challenged to kill him through supernatural means, which he succeeded in doing just by whispering a single word in the slave’s ear. Peter was then challenged to raise the same slave from the dead. By doing so, Peter defeated Simon in the eyes of the spectators, who proclaimed “There is only one God, the God of Peter” (Acts of Peter 26).
Despite his defeat in the arena, Simon continued his public displays with Peter finding him using his powers to fly before a crowd on the Via Sacra. Simon taunted Peter with his divine powers, only for the apostle to pray to Jesus to bring the magician low in order to restore belief in Peter and his God. With that, Simon fell to the ground, breaking his leg in three places. The crowd then turned on him, pelting the injured magician with stones. He was carried away by his remaining supporters, but the heretical sorcerer later died of his injuries, perhaps encouraged on his journey into the afterlife by the efforts of two physicians (Acts of Peter 32).
The Acts of Peter and Paul, another of the apocryphal Acts, gives a slightly different version of Simon’s demise, with his flying taking place during a debate with Peter before the emperor Nero and with the apostle Paul present as well. After the fall kills Simon, Nero ordered Peter and Paul arrested and the body of the magician kept for three days in case he rose from the dead.
Beyond the apocryphal Acts, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, and his successors were a little more specific on the nature of Simon Magus’ heresy. To them, he was the first Gnostic, who used the basic layout of Christianity, but “taught the he was personally the divine redeemer sent from the heavenly realm to reveal the truths necessary for salvation” (Ehrman (2003), 165). This Gnostic Simon also claimed to have access to the ‘Primal Thought’; the first thing to emanate from God. This emanation reputedly became embodied in a woman called Helen. Opponents of Simon claimed that the magician had found Helen in a brothel, allowing them to claim that “Gnostics have prostituted themselves in more ways than one” (Ehrman (2003), 165; Irenaeus, Against Heresies I.23).
The fourth century churchman Eusebius of Caesarea compiled a ten-volume account of various Christian heretics. He took the stories of Acts, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and their successors to present Simon Magus as demonic agent, using black magic to persuade people that he was divine.
This all meant that as he could be connected to a variety of successive heretics - Menander, Saturninus, Basilides, identifying Simon Magus as fraudulent, demonic and the origin of all heresy was a useful tool, particularly with his various defeats by St. Peter. It meant that the “many-headed hydra” (Ehrman (2003), 192) of heresy was automatically built on foundations of sand, even before the light of orthodoxy was shone on their individual innovative heads.
The portrayal of Simon Magus as the first head of the heresy hydra may not have been the only use of the magician. It has been suggested that he has been used as a cipher for other early interpretations of Christian belief and practice which were later thought to be incorrect.
There are some hints of Marcionism in the portrayal of Simon in the writings of the Pseudo-Clement. This was the mid-second century dualist Christianity of Marcion of Sinope, which saw the God of the Old Testament as a different entity to the God of the New Testament (Ehrman (2003), 183; Ps-Clement, Homilies III.10, 38).
It would not be surprising for the Christian orthodox tradition to attack such a fundamentally different and indeed polytheistic version of their faith. However, it has also been suggested that Simon Magus is used by the Ps-Clementine literature as a cipher to attack Paul the Apostle. Or at least the Ps-Clementine writings were used by others, such as the fourth century sect of the Ebionites, to attack Paul, who they refused to recognise as an apostle. They pointed to the similarity between some of Simon’s claims and those of Paul, such as having had visions of the Lord. They also accentuated the seeming usurpation of apostolic seniority, highlighting how Simon and therefore Paul claimed to have better knowledge of Jesus’ teachings than the disciples. It has even been argued that the confrontation between Simon and Peter in Acts 8 has some basis in the conflict between Peter and Paul (Detering (1995); Price (2012)), although this has not been met with widespread acceptance.
Simon Magus fulfils several roles in the early traditions of the Christian Church: a Samaritan magician who was converted by the powers of the apostles; the unrepentant first heretic who wanted to share in apostolic authority; the original Gnostic, who had Christian writers incorrectly suggesting that inhabitants of Rome viewed him as the divine being he portrayed himself as and the levitating cipher used to promote the actions of St. Peter and to attack other heretics and even Paul the Apostle. Perhaps Simon will have been happy with that kind of varied and lasting legacy, even if lost archaeology proved that there was no inscription dedicated to him on Tiber Island.
Bibliography
Ehrman, B. Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. Oxford (2003)
Detering, H. The Fabricated Paul: Early Christian Thought in Twilight. Mannheim (1995)
Grant, R.M. Greek Apologists of the Second Century. London (1988)
Lanciani, R. Pagan and Christian Rome. Cambridge (1893)
Price, R.M. The Amazing Colossal Apostle: The Search for the Historical Paul. Huddersfield (2012)
Cartlidge, D.R. ‘The Fall and Rise of Simon Magus,’ Bible Review 21 (2005), 24-36
This piece was originally written for the CANI blog and is reposted here with permission
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