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Topic:
Persons Of The Bible -- Simon
The name "Simon" is from the Greek form of the Hebrew name
שִׁמְעוֹן (Shim'on)
which meant "hearkening" or "listening". The name is
an abbreviated form of Simeon.
There are numerous persons in the scripture with the name
"Simon."
(1.) One of the twelve apostles, called the Canaanite (Matt. 10:4; Mark
3:18). This word "Canaanite" does not mean a native of Canaan,
but is derived from the Syriac word Kanean or Kaneniah, which was the name
of a Jewish sect. The Revised Version has "Cananaean;" marg.,
"or Zealot" He is also called "Zelotes" (Luke 6:15;
Acts 1:13; R.V., "the Zealot"), because previous to his call to
the apostleship he had been a member of the fanatical sect of the Zealots.
There is no record regarding him.
(2.) The father of Judas Iscariot (John 6:71; 13:2, 26).
(3.) One of the brothers of our Lord (Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3). The only
undoubted notice of this Simon occurs in (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3) He has
been identified by some writers with Simon the Canaanite, and still more
generally with Symeon who became bishop of Jerusalem after the death of
James, A.D. 62. The former of these opinions rests on no evidence
whatever, nor is the later without its difficulties.
(4.) A Pharisee in whose house "a woman of the city which was a
sinner" anointed our Lord's feet with ointment (Luke 7:36-38).
(5.) A leper of Bethany, in whose house Mary anointed our Lord's head with
ointment "as he sat at meat" (Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9). It is
not improbable that he had been miraculously cured by Jesus.
(6.) A Jew of Cyrene, in North Africa, then a province of Libya. A hundred
thousand Jews from Palestine had been settled in this province by Ptolemy
Soter (B.C. 323-285), where by this time they had greatly increased in
number. They had a synagogue in Jerusalem for such of their number as went
thither to the annual feasts. Simon was seized by the soldiers as the
procession wended its way to the place of crucifixion as he was passing
by, and the heavy cross which Christ from failing strength could no longer
bear was laid on his shoulders. Perhaps they seized him because he showed
sympathy with Jesus. He was the "father of Alexander and Rufus"
(Matt. 27:32). Possibly this Simon may have been one of the "men of
Cyrene" who preached the word to the Greeks (Acts 11:20).
(7.) Simon Magus, a Samaritan living in the apostolic age, distinguished
as a sorcerer or "magician," from his practice of magical arts.
(Acts 8:9) According to ecclesiastical writers he was born at Gitton, a
village of Samaria, and was probably educated at Alexandria in the tenets
of the Gnostic school. He is first introduced to us as practicing magical
arts in a city of Samaria, perhaps Sychar, (Acts 8:5) comp. John 4:5 And
with such success that he was pronounced to be "the power of God
which is called great." (Acts 8:10) The preaching and miracles of
Philip having excited his observation, he became one of his disciples, and
received baptism at his hands, A.D. 36,37. Subsequently he witnessed the
effect produced by the imposition of hands, as practiced by the apostles
Peter and John, and, being desirous of acquiring a similar power for
himself, he offered a sum of money for it. His object evidently was to
apply the power to the prosecution of magical arts. The motive and the
means were equally to be reprobated; and his proposition met with a severe
denunciation from Peter, followed by a petition on the part of Simon, the
tenor of which bespeaks terror, but not penitence. (Acts 8:9-24) The
memory of his peculiar guilt has been perpetuated in the word simony, as
applied to all traffic in spiritual offices. Simon's history, subsequent
to his meeting with Peter, is involved in difficulties. Early Church
historians depict him as the pertinacious foe of the apostle Peter, whose
movements he followed for the purpose of seeking encounters, in which he
was signally defeated. He is said to have followed the apostle to Rome.
His death is associated with this meeting. According to Hippolytus, the
earliest authority on the subject, Simon was buried alive at his own
request, in the confident assurance that he would rise on the third day.
(8.) A Christian at Joppa, a tanner by trade, with whom Peter on one
occasion lodged (Acts 9:43).
(9.) Simon Peter (Matt. 4:18).
(10.) A "governor of the temple" in the time of Seleucus
Philopator, whose information as to the treasures of the temple led to the
sacrilegious attach of Heliordorus. 2 Macc. 3:4, etc. (B.C. 175.)
(11.) Son of Onias the high priest, whose eulogy closes the "praise
of famous men" in the book of Ecclesiasticus, ch. 4. (B.C. 302-293.)
Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries
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