St. George William Joseph Stock

“ So far we have had nothing that is inconsistent with Simon of Gitta, and little but what we are already familiar with in connexion either with him or his disciple Menander. But in what follows the identification of this Simon with the Simon of Acts has led the novelist to give play to his fancy. It may be well to premise that in the view of the writer of the Homilies, “All things are double one against another.” ”

“ A description is given 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.
The Samaritans were evidently strong in magic. In all the accounts given us of Simon of Gitta magic is a marked feature, as also in the case of his pupil Menander. We cannot, therefore, agree with Dr Salmon’s remark that the only reason why Justin attributed magic to Simon of Gitta was because of his identifying him with Simon Magus. ”

“ For works were not just by nature, but only by convention, in accordance with the enactments of the world-creating Angels, who by precepts of this kind sought to bring men into slavery. Wherefore he promised that the world should be dissolved, and that those who were his should be freed from the dominion of the world-creators. Irenaeus concludes his account by saying that this Antinomian teaching had its logical consequence in his followers, who lived licentious lives and practised every kind of magic. ”

“ It would be futile to maintain that that passage is not aimed at Paul. It does not identify Paul with Simon Magus, but it serves to reveal an animus which would render the identification easy. In the 17th Homily the identification is effected. Simon 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 Him in person. His reason for this strange assertion is that visions are superior to waking reality, as divine is superior to human (xvii. 5, 14) . ”

“ In a list of heretics Marcion, Valentine and Apelles are followed by Hebion and Simon, whom we may take as standing respectively for Jewish and Samaritan types of Christian heresy (De praescr. 10) . But the important passage is the account of his doctrine in De anima, 34, which is evidently derived from the same source as that of Irenaeus. The pseudo-Tertullian in the short treatise Against all Heresies lets us know that the being whom the Most High God came down to seek was Wisdom. This is important as bearing upon the connexion between Simon and Valentinus. ”

“ That a learned man like Hippolytus should refer a work which contains quotations from the Epistles and Gospels to Simon Magus, who was probably older than Jesus Christ, shows the extent to which men can be blinded by religious bigotry. ”

“ B is the common text, which is followed in the English Apocrypha. Nevertheless n is fuller, except in ch. iv., and more intelligible; it is also more Semitic than B. The two must have behind them a common original, for they throw light upon one another, and the full meaning of a passage is sometimes only to be got from a combination of both. The fullness of א often runs into superfluities, which are retrenched in B. The third Greek text is only a partial one (vi. 9-xiii. 8) . ”

“ But in Palestine there are very few, and in the rest of the world, in which he wished to spread his own glory, his name is nowhere mentioned. If it is, this is due to the Acts of the Apostles. It is the Christians who say what is said about him, and it has become plain as daylight (ἡ ἐνάργεια ἐμαρτύρησεν) that Simon was nothing divine” (Origen, Cont. Cels. i. 57) . ”

“ In this way every good thing has its evil forerunner.
According to the Homilies, the manner of his entering on his career of impiety was as follows. There was one John, a Hemerobaptist, who was the forerunner of our Lord Jesus in accordance with the law of parity; [11] and as the Lord 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. ”

“ These six roots are also called six powers. Commingled with them all was the great power, the “power without end.” This was that “which stands, which stood and yet shall stand.” It existed potentially in every child of man, and might be developed in each to its own immensity. The small might become great, the point be enlarged to infinity (iv. 51, v. 9, vi. 14) . ”

“ Jerome’s version is from the Aramaic, or, as it used to be called, the Chaldee. It cost the saint one day’s work. He describes in his preface the method of its production. He procured the services of a man who was familiar with Chaldee and Hebrew. This man translated to him out of Chaldee into Hebrew, while Jerome dictated to a shorthand writer his own translation into Latin. The work was done at the request of two Christian bishops, Chromatius and Heliodorus. Jerome does not mention the Italo, but it is plain that he was indebted to it. The Syriac text is said to be based on a Greek version. ”

“ For as the angels were mismanaging the world, owing to their individual lust for rule, he had come to set things straight, and had descended under a changed form, likening himself to the Principalities and Powers through whom he passed, so that among men he appeared as a man, though he was not a man, and was thought to have suffered in Judaea, though he had not suffered. ”

“ They also, he adds, worshipped images of Simon under the form of Zeus, and of Helen under that of Athena. They were called Simoniani, and were the introducers of “knowledge falsely so called.” In the next chapter Irenaeus speaks of Menander, who was also a Samaritan, as the successor of Simon, and as having, like him, attained to the highest pitch of magic. His doctrine is represented, as being the same as that of Simon, only that it was he this time who was the saviour of the world. ”

“ That the homo quidam inimicus of the Recognitions (i. 70) is intended for Paul is plain, but then, as Schmiedel points out in a note, he is not identified with Simon. “Even the style of Paul," Schmiedel assures us, “is plainly imitated in a mocking way." The reference is to the recantation in Horn. xx. 19, which is like the rest of the treatise and quite unlike Paul, but Schmiedel's familiarity with Paul's writings enables him to collect phrases therefrom which occur also in the Homilies. ”

“ The reader who is not familiar with the eccentricities of the Tübingen school will doubtless be surprised to learn that the Paul who thus quietly slips in at the close of the drama was himself all along the disguised villain of the plot, the very Simon Magus whom he comes to assist Peter in destroying (see below) .
Epiphanius (c. A.D. 367) is a writer who has nothing but his learning to recommend him. It seems that there were some Simonians still in exisstence in his day, but he speaks of them as Epiphanius. almost extinct. Gitta, he says, had sunk from a town into a village. ”

“ As to the place of composition Persia, Egypt and Palestine have each had advocates. One thing only appears fairly certain, namely, that the Greek versions were composed in Egypt. This conclusion could, we think, be established by an examination of the language, especially of some technical terms of administration. ”

“ But he is there as the companion and friend of man, which is Aryan and not Semitic. So alien indeed is this from the Semitic mind that in the Aramaic and Hebrew versions the dog does not appear. Even in א, the more Semitic of the two Greek versions, the dog has evidently been found an offence. ”

“ According to Neubauer, it is the very text which was used by Jerome, after allowance has been made for the arbitrary methods of the Rabbis and of Jerome himself. But the Aramaic version has Greek birthmarks (see especially p. 7, line 18) , which other scholars than its editor have thought decisive against its originality. It was held by Robertson Smith (after Noldeke) to be “ in the highest degree probable that the Greek text is original.” But the Greek text appears to be itself a translation from some Semitic source. Was this source Hebrew or Aramaic? ”

“ In his First Apology, written in A.D. 138 or 139, he tells us that one Simon, a Samaritan, from a village called Gitta or Gittae (see Ency. Bibl. iv. col. 4538) , performed such miracles by magic acts in Rome during the reign of Claudius, that he was regarded Justin.as a god and honoured with a statue “in the river Tiber, between the two bridges, having an inscription in Latin as follows: Simoni Deo Sancto.” “And almost all the Samaritans,” he goes on to say, “and a few among the other nations, acknowledge and adore him as the first God. ”

“ Of the Latin there are two chief forms, the old translation, sometimes called the Itala, and that of Jerome in the Vulgate. The Itala was published by Pierre Sabatier at Paris in 1751, and is reproduced in the Book of Tobit by Neubauer (Clarendon Press, 1878) . ”

“ When once this identification has been made by Justin, it was taken for granted by almost all subsequent writers. The temptation to trace all heresy to one who had been condemned by Peter was too strong for the Fathers. [1] Dr George Salmon brought light into darkness by distinguishing between Simon of Gitta and the original Simon Magus. What has not perhaps been so clearly perceived is the consequence that all that is told about Helen refers to the later Simon. ”

“ He studied Greek literature in Alexandria, and, having in addition to this great power in magic, was so puffed up by his attainments that he wished to be considered a Homilies.highest power, higher even than the God who created the world. ”

“ There is a desire manifested to bring in Aḥiķar wherever possible (i. 21, 22; ii. 10; xi. 18; xiv. 10) . The intention evidently is to bestow authority upon the fiction by connecting it with a story already known. ”

“ P. W. Schmiedel in Encyc. Bibl. (St. G. S.)
↑ Clement of Alexandria (Strom, vii. § 107) alone seems to have an inkling that there was something wrong. He puts Simon after Marcion, and yet refers in the same breath to his acceptance of Peter's preaching. ↑ The account given by Irenaeus should be compared with what is said of Simon Magus in the Clementine Homilies, ii. 22, where the rivalry between Jews and Samaritans becomes evident (cf. Recognitions, i. 57) . ↑ On this see Epiph. xxi. 3. ↑ Hippolytus says the free love doctrine was held by them in its frankest form. ”