Simon Magus part 2

by John Thomas Lowe
(Woodruff, S.C.)

part 2
Simonians
Hippolytus gives a much more doctrinally detailed account of Simonianism, including a system of divine emanations and interpretations of the Old Testament, with extensive quotations from the 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 more straightforward, close to the account given by Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (this account, however, is also included in Hippolytus' work)
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 their images of Simon and Helen under the forms of Zeus and Athena. However, he also adds, "if anyone, 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."
Epiphanius
Epiphanius writes that some Simonians are 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 St. Paul about the armor of God (Ephesians 6:14–16) into an agreement with his identification of the Ennoia with Athena. He also tells us that he gave barbaric names 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 believing in the Old Testament was death
Cyril of Jerusalem

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 with a brief account of earlier heresies: Simon Magus, he says, had given out that he was going to be translated to heaven and was careening through the air in a chariot drawn by demons when Peter and Paul knelt and prayed, and their prayers brought him to earth a mangled corpse.
Apocrypha
Acts of Peter
The apocryphal Acts of Peter gives a more elaborate tale of Simon Magus' death. Simon is performing magic in the Forum, and to prove himself to be a god; he levitates up into the air above the Forum. The apostle 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), breaking his legs "in three parts.". Now gravely injured, he had some people carry him on a bed at night from Rome to Ariccia and was brought from there to Terracina to a person named Castor, who, on accusations of sorcery, was banished from Rome. The previously non-hostile crowd then stones him. The Acts then continue to say that he died "while being sorely cut by two physicians."
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 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. Nero put Peter and Paul in prison while ordering Simon's body be kept carefully for three days (thinking he would rise again).
Pseudo-Clementine literature
The Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions and Homilies give an account of Simon Magus and some of his teachings regarding 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.
Simon was a Samaritan and a native of Gitta. The name of his Father was Antonius, and that of his mother, Rachel. 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 the highest power, higher even than the God who created the world. Moreover, sometimes he "darkly hinted" that he was Christ, calling himself the Standing One. Which name he used to indicate that he would stand forever 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 by his preconceptions. He did indeed preach righteousness and judgment to come.
There was one John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of Jesus by 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. However, on the death of John, he was away in Egypt for the practice of magic, and one 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 school's doctrines.
Dositheus, when he perceived that Simon was depreciating him, fearing lest his reputation among men might be obscured (for he 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. However, suddenly the rod seemed to pass through his body as if it had been smoking. On which Dositheus, being astonished, says to him, 'Tell me if thou art the Standing One, that I may adore thee.' Moreover, when Simon answered that he was, then Dositheus, perceiving that he was not the Standing One, fell and worshipped him and gave up his 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 died.
The encounter between Dositheus and Simon Magus began 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 since she was Sophia, the Mother of All. He said it was for her sake that the Greeks and Barbarians fought the Trojan War, deluding themselves with an image of truth, for the objective being was then present with the First God. By such allegories, Simon deceived many, while at the same time, he astounded them with his magic. A description 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.