SIMON MAGUS. — A Samaritan, contemporary of the Apostles (Act. 8:9–24). S. Justin (Apol., I: PG 6, 3–68) says that he was a native of Gitton (Πττων); when the deacon Philip evangelized Samaria, he found S. there, a man who had acquired extraordinary fame for his magical arts (μαγεών), so much so that the crowds of Samaria acclaimed him: «This man is the Power of God, the one called Great» (Act. 8:9–10).
The Acts of the Apostles recount his baptism, Peter (v.) and his infamous offer to him (ibid. 8:9 ff.). He is also mentioned by Justin, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus, Eusebius, the pseudo-Clementines Peter (v.).
Justin reports (Apol., I, 26; Dial. cum Tryph., 120) that S., on his travels, was accompanied by a certain Helena, formerly a prostitute, who was said to be «the primordial idea» (έννυα) proceeding from him, «the great power of God» (notions of distinctly Gnostic character); he also relates that S. came to Rome under the emperor Claudius, continued his magical practices there, and received divine honors, with a statue on the Tiber Island bearing the inscription «Simoni Deo Santo» (the inscription, on the base of the statue discovered there in 1574, actually read: «Semoni Sanco Deo Fidio», and referred to the Sabine divinity Semo Sancus).
S. Jerome attributes these words to S.: «ego sum Sermo Dei, ego sum Speciosus, ego Paraclitus, ego Omnipotens, ego Omnia Dei» (In Matth., XXIV, 5: PL 26, 183), which appears to be an amplification of Act. 8:9–10. Irenaeus presents S. as the source of all heresies (Adv.
hner., I, 23, 2; 27, 4), that is, of the Gnostic heresies, which he has principally in mind. In Justin’s brief accounts, which are the most reliable, one can discern the doctrinal germs underlying Gnosticism. Nevertheless, because of the scarcity of secure and precise data, it is difficult to reconstruct Simonian Gnosticism. According to Hippolytus (Philosoph., VI, 7, 20), S. is said to have written a work entitled Ἀπόρσος μετφίλ, «Great Declaration». It is probable, however, that this writing originated among S.’s followers, called Simonians, a Gnostic sect that still persisted in the 4th century, as we learn from Eusebius (Hist. eccl., II, 13). The accounts in the apocryphal Acts of Peter and the pseudo-Clementines (Homil., 2, 22 ff.; 4, 4 ff.; Recognit., 1, 72; 2, 7 ff.; 3, 12 ff.) concerning the Peter (v.) in Rome or Syria, and the challenge to fly, followed by his fall as a result of the Apostle’s prayers, are legendary. The opinion of Ch. Baur, who, on the tenuous foundation of the pseudo-Clementine homilies, saw in Simon Magus the representative of the struggle between Paulinism and Petrinism, is entirely outdated.