The Missionary and The Magician

By Edward N Brown

The little-known true story of the life of Saint Peter – after the death and resurrection of Jesus – and his extraordinary battles with the heretical sorcerer Simon Magus – THE MAN WHO COULD FLY!

The later life of the man chosen to carry the future hope of the world on his shoulders – an uneducated working man – a simple villager and fisherman – but a holy man of incredible character – a man destined for greatness! His name was Simon, but he is known to history as Saint Peter. Here is what you’ve always wondered about – the rest of his story!

Already persecuted by Jewish traditionalists, gentile pagans, and imperial Roman authorities, the early Christians are now troubled by false messiahs, phony prophets, sham sorcerers, and mystery religions. And the greatest heretic is a man called Simon!
Strong in faith, will, and determination, and empowered by Jesus Christ with the ‘Keys to the Kingdom’, Peter takes on the challenge of his life, and proves to all the believers that he truly is the ‘Rock of the Church’.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edward N Brown
• Release date: Jun 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781736771273

Edward N Brown

Edward N Brown is a storyteller with a background in science, philosophy, ancient history, and theology. His technique is to blend the interesting nuggets of myth, saga, historical record, biography, romance, scientific fact, poetry, spirituality, and personal drama – all mixed together into an informative, but easy-reading, faith-based tale of wonder and awe. An educational background of three advanced degrees (PhD + two MS) has contributed to his insights on Christianity, Religion, Antiquity, Morality, and Human Nature. Classified as ancient religious history, his works represent a speculative fusion of style – facts and events in riveting story form – drama and delight that will inform, entertain, and inspire readers of all ages.

Book preview

Preface

This book takes up where the New Testament of the Bible leaves off. In the Bible, nothing is mentioned about Peter’s life after the events at the Council of Jerusalem in ~48-50 AD (see Acts 15). But there are other ancient writings that do report on his life activities right up until his death in Rome as a martyr in ~65-67 AD. However, this book is not just a historical compendium of those writings. Instead, it is a narrative tale that has all the elements typical to the genre of ‘story’. The names, places, dates, and events are all accurate to the ancient writings, and told in a logical progression. But many of the nitty-gritty details of everyday life have been extrapolated by the author using the best values and characteristics of a ‘good story’.

The characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution attributes of the story type are all present. The style is in the sense of a life-vs-death adventure story, but there is a strong temptation slant of the morality story, and a serious love-vs-hate slant of the romance story. What drives the story narrative is the value of human connection mixed with the value of ‘going beyond yourself to discover a larger purpose’ (evidenced by the conflict between good and evil).

The theme follows the classic age-old tragic adventure script: the good likeable hero – Peter, in this case – defeats the bad despicable monster – Simon, in this case – but the hero perishes in the end. However, it is also a morality story – temptation vs. virtue – and a faith-based story – belief in an invisible God vs. belief in visible idols. In the final analysis, it’s a love story – love of God, and His love for us, is the formula for everlasting happiness.

So, is the story fiction or non-fiction? All the major events are as accurate as we know them, but much of the dialogue is reconstructed from the sporadic and imperfect memory of ancient scholars and scribes. Certainty in documentation is rarely 100%, and the best double and triple-checking will still leave an element of doubt as to what really happened. In addition, not all historical details are even recorded, so a storyteller has to ‘fill-in-the-blanks’ as best that he can.

But in general, a story thread must be deterministic (not random, unless it’s a dream or fantasy setting) and that means the author must develop the narrative such that things are logical and tie together, just like they do in real life. This often necessitates some artful reasoning as to what was the most likely scenario or sequence of events, when concerned with small increments of time. And this thought process is manifested in the storyline herein. Note that there is no intention here to alter history – just to make it as believable and realistic as possible. So, in a generic story, Jane may have coffee for breakfast on a dark and dreary morning, rather than tea, which she actually may have had in reality. That’s just detailing for the sake of believability.

So, is the story fiction or non-fiction? It depends on who you talk to and what the venue is. To the scholarly academic community, it’s probably fiction. But in my opinion, it can be considered as non-fiction, albeit with the caveats mentioned above. The gist of the story is true to history. More-or-less, it actually played out in the past as described in the story. So, for all practical purposes, the story is non-fiction. In fact, the official category ascribed to this book is ‘Narrative Non-Fiction’. Whether Jane had coffee or tea for breakfast is irrelevant to the big picture. In addition, there are valuable ‘take-aways’ from the story that just don’t hold viability if it was fiction (inspiration and hope being the most powerful – if the real-live hero could do it, then I can do it also). When these subtle factors are taken into account, there is good reason for the reader to believe that the story is true – at least from the big-picture standpoint – the standpoint at which ‘take-aways’ matter.

With that in mind, read on and see where it takes you.

Edward N Brown

Chicago, April 2022

Background

Samaria was both a region and a city in ancient Palestine that experienced many changes throughout biblical history. The hilly region extends for about 40 miles from north to south and 35 miles from east to west.¹ It is bounded by the region of Galilee to the north, Judaea to the south, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and the Jordan River to the east.²

Historical Overview

Before the Birth of Christ

Plentiful rainfall and fertile soil helped agriculture thrive in the region. Unfortunately, this prosperity brought in enemy raiders who swept in at harvest time and stole the crops. The Israelites who had settled there, prayed to God for help, and God sent an angel to visit a meek and humble man named Gideon.³ Sometime around 1175 BC, at Mount Gilboa in northern Samaria,⁴ God gave Gideon and his 300 men a stunning victory over the massive camel-riding armies of the Midianites and Amalekites (said to number about 135,000).⁵ However, after Gideon died, many people reverted to worshipping the pagan gods and idols of the Canaanites, something they were warned not to do by Joshua.⁶

During the reign of King David in the 10th century BC, part of the region was assigned to the tribe of Ephraim and part to the tribe of Manasseh.⁷ After the death of David’s successor King Solomon, around 931 BC, the northern Jewish tribes, including those of Samaria, established the separate kingdom of Israel, while the southern tribes formed the kingdom of Judah.⁸

Somewhere around 880-875 BC,⁹ the capital of Israel was established at the city of Samaria,¹⁰ which was then a new town with a palace on a hilltop,¹¹ close to the center of the region.¹² Although the northern kingdom enjoyed a measure of economic development, many of the people living there still worshipped Canaanite idols and were indifferent to God’s commandments.¹³

The account in the Bible focuses on the history of Judah and tends to neglect Israel, which was, however, a very powerful state. The populace lived in houses clustered on the slopes beneath the palace. The city was fully integrated into the international economic, political, and social workings – and there were several temples, including one for the Jewish God YHWH (

yahweh

) and another for the pagan god Ba’al.

Eventually, Israel was conquered by Assyria in 722 BC, the kingdom became a province of the Assyrian Empire, and much of its population was carried into captivity.¹⁴ Their lifestyle was changed, their faith was tested, and many Jews became pagans or quasi-pagans.¹⁵ This had all been forewarned by prophets at the time of Moses.¹⁶

For some time, the Assyrian Empire had been expanding beyond its base, in what is now Iraq. To feed its voracious appetite for power, goods, and lifestyle, it invaded neighboring countries and forced them to pay heavy tribute taxes. The Jewish nation of Israel (which included Samaria) was just another conquest.¹⁷

The inhabitants who had survived the siege were deported to the east – marched off in exile to cities scattered throughout the empire,¹⁸ where they were assimilated by the native populations (and became known as the ‘lost tribes of Israel’). To replace the deportees, the Assyrians sent their own pioneers and farmers (called Cuthaeans) into Israel to resettle and repopulate the land.¹⁹ These people intermarried with the remaining Israelites and introduced new religious ideas. Over time, this mingling of cultures produced the race of people called Samaritans.²⁰

The nation of Judah almost fell to the Assyrians in 701 BC, but the city of Jerusalem survived when a rat infestation with bubonic plague wiped out most of the invading Assyrian army.²¹

The Assyrian Empire was, in turn, conquered by the Medo-Babylonian Empire in the early seventh century BC (626 – 609 BC).²² At that time, Judah briefly embarked upon an aggressive northern policy, trying to root out all pagan influence in the former kingdom of Israel. King Josiah of Judah had some success,²³ but the pharaoh of Egypt, Necho II, decided to help the emperor of Assyria and led an army marching to the Euphrates River. Josiah tried to stop the Egyptian army at the Battle of Megiddo in 609 BC, but his army was defeated and he was killed in battle.

The Egyptian rule did not last long. The Babylonians, who had overthrown the Assyrians in 609 BC, defeated the Egyptians at Karchemish,²⁴ near the Euphrates River, and occupied the western provinces of the former Assyrian empire. Samaria was now a minor capital in the empire of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (reigned 605-562 BC). In short order, they started making military incursions into the Jewish lands, and in 586 BC, the city of Jerusalem finally fell to the foreign invaders.²⁵ The city was destroyed, burned, and pillaged under orders of the army captain Nebuzaradan – and King Zedekiah was captured, tortured, and killed, along with the top army officers.²⁶ At this point, the former kingdom of Judah ceased to exist as an independent nation. It was simply added to Samaria, and all the Jewish lands were now under an occupying force. Many defenders were slaughtered, and many of the lucky survivors were taken captive to Babylon during the following 16 years, over a 1000-mile march into exile.²⁷,²⁸

Judah was an adjunct of Samaria until the Persian king Cyrus the Great (reigned 559-530 BC) captured Babylon and overthrew the Babylonian Empire. In 536 BC, Cyrus issued a decree that freed all political prisoners – refugees who had been deported from their conquered homelands – and told them to go home, rebuild their temples, and say a prayer of thanks to him every day. The Jews were allowed to return to their homeland, and many (but not all) did so. However, Samaria remained loyal to the Persian government. There was even an army garrison stationed there used once to suppress a rebellion in Judah.

In the first half of the 5th century BC, the Samaritan temple was built at Mount Gerizim (the sacred place where they believe Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac ²⁹– a place more sacred than the rival Jewish temple in Jerusalem), and this resulted in the Samaritans and Jews growing further apart. Both groups considered their temple to be the true focal point of sacred and divine religious practice (worship and interaction with the God of Abraham). By the early 4th century BC, the two communities had developed distinctive practices and communal separation.

The relations between the powerful administrative capital of Samaria and the mostly monotheistic religious center of Jerusalem further deteriorated when the Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great, appeared on the scene in 332 BC. After the defeat of his main opponent, Darius III Codomannus, in the battle of Issus,³⁰ he needed local allies to supply his forces with provisions during the siege of Tyre.

The Samaritan leader Sanballat was the first to respond, and immediately asked Alexander’s permission to build a temple near Shechem on Mount Gerizim, a few miles east of the city of Samaria. It should be noted that for the previous few years there had been some heated discord among the priests of Jerusalem, and several members of the order had left the city and settled in Samaria – where they were allowed to build a temple of their own. This incident marked the origin of the Jewish religious community in Samaria. From this point on,

yahweh

had two competing temples, two ideological movements, and two collections of sacred scripture.³¹

When Alexander the Great's campaign marched on to Egypt, the Samaritans revolted, brashly thinking that it was a window of opportunity for throwing off the yoke of the foreign oppressor. However, in the spring of 330 BC, Alexander returned and the Samaritans quickly surrendered. From then on, there was a Macedonian garrison in the city, which was to remain something of a European settlement in the land of Israel.

After the death of Alexander in 323 BC in Babylon, Samaria was the most important city in the region. But it was destined to become a pawn in a series of wars lasting almost a century between two of Alexander’s successor states, the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid empires.

In 312 BC under Seleucus I Nicator, the Seleucid Empire rose to power in the region as the successor state to Alexander the Great’s Macedonian Empire. And in 200 BC, the Seleucids finally conquered Samaria and Judah.

From 175 to 163 BC, Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes’ was on the throne of the Seleucid Empire.³² His policy was to adopt Greek culture and religion throughout his entire kingdom (a process called ‘Hellenization’) – and standardize religious observances. He instigated many practices that tried to abolish the Jewish traditional ways.³³ He even proclaimed himself to be the incarnation of the Greek god Zeus, and mandated death to anyone who refused to worship him.³⁴

In 168 BC, Antiochus invaded Jerusalem and defiled the Holy of Holies in the temple. In 167 BC, he rededicated the temple to the Olympian god Zeus. Naturally, many of the Jews in Judah found this behavior intolerable, and in the 2nd century BC, a series of events led to a revolution by a faction of Judaeans, led by the Maccabee family, against Antiochus IV (known as the Maccabean revolt).³⁵ During this time, Samaria was largely an autonomous state nominally dependent on the Seleucid Empire.

In the line of fire, both figuratively and physically, by Seleucid forces occupying their land, the Samaritans were strongarmed into repudiating all connection and kinship with the southern Jews. This was the cause for the final breach between the two groups.³⁶

In 165 BC, Judah liberated itself from the Seleucid rule, and a new independent state came into being, ruled by high priests from the Maccabee Hasmonaean dynasty.³⁷ One of them was John Hyrcanus,³⁸ who greatly expanded the Jewish state, captured Samaria between 113 and 108 BC, and destroyed the Samaritan temple at Mount Gerizim.³⁹ For the first time since the legendary age of David and Solomon, the two kingdoms were united - one capital, one temple, one God. There was also one leader, and John Hyrcanus’ successor, Alexander Jannaeus, assumed the royal title.

Samaria’s situation changed when the Roman general ‘Pompey the Great’ captured Jerusalem in 63 BC and transformed the country, now called Judaea, into a Roman protectorate. The city of Samaria and the surrounding country became independent again, although the temple on Mount Gerizim was not restored.

In 31 BC, the Roman commander Gaius Octavius (or Octavian) gave Samaria to the new king of Judaea, Herod I (known as ‘Herod the Great’).⁴⁰ When Octavian changed his name to Augustus (to be known as Caesar Augustus), Herod changed Samaria’s name to ‘Sebaste’, the Greek form of Augustus.

Herod embellished and enlarged the city during his reign (37 BC – 4 BC), which became even more ‘Greek-like’ and was among the king’s favorite residences. On the site of the old temple of Ba’al, he dedicated a large temple to Augustus.⁴¹ Residents of Sebaste served in the army of Herod, which meant that they were sometimes used against the Jews of Judaea or Galilee. This did little to increase fraternity between the two groups.

After the death of Herod in4 BC, Sebaste was given to his son Herod Archelaus, and when the Romans finally annexed Judaea and organized it as a province in 6 AD, the city was one of the centers of the new government. The Samaritan soldiers were integrated as auxiliary troops in the regular Roman army.

After the Birth of Christ

At the time of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, the Roman Empire was ruled by Tiberius Claudius Nero (known as Tiberius Caesar Augustus, or just Tiberius), the second emperor of Rome.⁴² During this time the Empire was relatively peaceful, but political and personal intrigues were ever present.

Tiberius had been a popular and brilliant general, with spectacular victories in Parthia and Pannonia,⁴³ but in 6 BC, at the age of 36, he had to leave Rome and go into self-imposed exile on the island of Rhodes because of intense personal issues.⁴⁴ Four years later, he was recalled to Rome, and after another great military victory in 9 AD,⁴⁵ he became the #2 man in the empire. His life was calm until 14 AD when emperor Caesar Augustus (Octavian) died of natural causes.⁴⁶ In short order, at the age of 54, Tiberius was proclaimed emperor.

Although the first few years of Tiberius’ reign seemed to be of wise and temperate rule, there were occasional displays of force and violence intended to secure his power.⁴⁷ He did not attempt any major new conquests, stopped wasteful spending from the imperial treasury, and strengthened the Roman navy. The treatment of the many religious groups operating in the Empire was fairly tolerant – they could worship whoever and however they wanted, as long as they paid homage to the Roman emperor and did not defy the Imperial cult.

In 23 AD, Tiberius’ son Drusus died and the depressed emperor withdrew into semi-retirement, delegating most of his authority in the actual running of affairs of state to a man named Sejanus, the commander of the Praetorian Guard.⁴⁸ In 27 AD, at age 67, Tiberius left Rome to quietly settle down on the island of Capri (near Naples) – he never returned to Rome, letting Sejanus and the Roman bureaucracy rule the Empire.⁴⁹ But he was always suspicious of Sejanus’ vile ambition. In 31 AD, he saw the opportunity to rid the empire of Sejanus, who had become too powerful and egocentric. Through a tricky combination of kindness and cruelty, Sejanus was harshly denounced by the Senate and then quickly executed.⁵⁰

In the last six years of Tiberius’ life, from 31 to 37 AD, the time of the passion of Jesus Christ, he became ruthless in his attempt to rid the empire of sleaze and corruption. Likened to a reign of terror, many prominent Roman names were implicated, falsely or not. While the inquisition lasted, no one was safe. But Tiberius’s chief remaining concern for the empire was who would rule it when he was gone. There were few living successors with any real claim. In the end, he chose a great-grandson of Augustus, a young boy named Gaius Caesar, known by the nickname the Roman legionnaires had given him when he was a camp mascot – Caligula, or ‘Little Boots’. His morals, habits, and behavior were immature and offensive. But Tiberius didn’t mind. I am nursing a viper in Rome’s bosom, he observed, and named Gaius his adopted son and successor.

Tiberius died in 37 AD and was succeeded, as expected, by Gaius – now known to history by his childhood nickname of Caligula. At first, Caligula’s reign was rich with promise. He was young, energetic and popular. But he quickly turned out to be an evil madman, obsessed with a vision of himself as a living god. As the heir of Julius and Augustus Caesar, both of whom were deified in death, Caligula declared himself to be a god during life – and demanded that he be worshipped alongside all the other gods in the Roman pantheon. In 41 AD, he was killed at the hands of his own Praetorian guards, but his bizarre demands had long-term fallout.

Prior to Caligula, the policy of religious tolerance did much to promote peace throughout the Empire. However, Caligula’s actions crossed the line when he proclaimed divinity and started erecting statues of himself around Jerusalem. This just inflamed resentment among the Jews.

Another act that affected the future of Judaism and the spread of the Jesus movement was Caligula’s appointment in 37 AD of Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, as king over southern Syria, Samaria, the Golan heights, and the east shore of the Sea of Galilee. Two years later, the lands of Galilee and Perea were taken from Herod Antipas and given to Herod Agrippa as well.⁵¹

Related Future Historical Notes

When the Jewish-Roman War (sometimes called the Great Jewish Revolt) broke out in 66 AD, the inhabitants of Sebaste saw their city razed to the ground by Jewish zealots.

It was rebuilt after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of its temple, in 70 AD. But the city was now eclipsed by nearby Shechem, close to Mount Gerizim, which had been renamed as Neapolis (‘new town’ – modern-day Nablus).

More than a century later, the Roman emperor Septimus Severus (reigned 193-211 AD) awarded Sebaste the rank of a fully Roman city, with Roman magistrates, Roman citizens, a Roman garrison, and Roman temples. When the Christian church became more fully organized, Samaria-Sebaste became the residence of the bishop.

Religious Overview

In Israel and Samaria under Assyrian rule (722-626 BC), the ‘civilizing’ colonization process of Alexander the Great was continued. The people lived in a more cosmopolitan world than the people of Judah. This meant the pursuit of the restless, inquiring, creative spirit of Greece – what might loosely be called today, the ‘scientific spirit’ – a way of life based on human discovery and experience.⁵² Cultural clubs called gymnasia, were introduced, in which people gathered to study, to learn, and to enjoy each other’s company. After competing in various forms of athletics, prominent men and women would soak themselves in hot baths – delight in the body beautiful was a major preoccupation. To most of them, polytheism was a matter of civilized behavior. Many Samaritans believed in YHWH (yahweh), but accepted Him as just one of several gods.

On the other hand, in Judah, the Jewish view of life was totally in opposition to this. It was a way of life based on spiritual revelation. They regarded Hellenism as a form of nature worship. They saw it as the continuation of the pagan religion of the Canaanites, which they viewed as simply mythologizing the anger, hate, lust, envy, and greed of un-enlightened human hearts. Their belief was that it was yahweh who chose Israel to be ‘a light to lighten the nations’.⁵³ The reason for Israel’s existence was to put the revelation of God into everyday life, by producing an ordered human society that was ruled by God’s justice and love, and not by the desires, influence, and power of human beings.

Before the Assyrian exile of the Israelites, the Samaritans were mostly descended from ancient Semitic inhabitants of the region.⁵⁴ Religiously, they were adherents of an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism. Based only on the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch), Samaritans claimed that their worship was the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian exile, preserved by those who remained in the Land of Israel and were not taken into captivity. Through the Pentateuch, they saw themselves as co-equals in inheritance to the Israelite lineage.⁵⁵ However, after the Assyrian acts of exile and immigration, the Samaritans were considered to be less fervent and less devout by the people of Judah.

Antagonism between Samaritans and Jews

Within the region of Samaria, in the historical city of Sychar (also called Shechem),⁵⁶ was the site of ‘Jacob’s Well’. This was the location of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, who asked, Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?⁵⁷ Later in the conversation, she brought up a centuries-old controversy: Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.⁵⁸ The ‘mountain’ referred to is Mount Gerizim in the central Samaritan highlands, the place where the Samaritans had built their own temple in the middle of the 5th century BC; what they considered to be the true temple of God.⁵⁹

From the death of Herod onwards, the history of Samaria/Sebaste is part of the history of Judaea (although not because the inhabitants wanted it that way). There were religious tensions between the Samaritans and the Judaeans, economic differences between the urban and peasant economies, and the cosmopolitan city was culturally different from most towns in Judaea. Most Judaean Jews in Jesus’ day disliked the Samaritans because of their questionable religious views and their mixed racial heritage – calling them racial half-breeds – spiritual heretics who taught a distorted faith based on a fusion of pagan belief and modified/condensed Jewish belief.

The antagonism between Samaritans and Jews is important in understanding the Bible’s New Testament story of the ‘Samaritan woman at the well’ and the parable of ‘the Good Samaritan’.⁶⁰ In the 1st century AD, Samaria was under Roman control and influence. The disciples of Jesus had nothing but disdain for the Samaritans, but in the apostolic age (after Pentecost), many Christians preached to them, marking the first transition in the extension of the church into the non-Jewish world.⁶¹

Samaria is included as one the geographical locations in Jesus’ Great Commission to spread the Gospel.⁶² Once the church was scattered after Stephen’s martyrdom, many Christians fled to the surrounding areas, including Samaria, and continued to preach the ‘Good News’.⁶³

First Attacks on the Jesus Movement

Herod Agrippa was raised in Rome, but he was conscious of the role of Judaism in his territory. As a good politician, he publicly supported the religious leaders in and around Jerusalem. In order to gain favor with them, Herod Agrippa started a major attack against the Jesus movement. He arrested a number of people thought to be members of the movement, intending to persecute them. His first high-profile victim was the apostle James,⁶⁴ the son of Zebedee, who was put to death with the sword. James was a fisherman and brother of John. When Herod saw that this was met with approval from the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.⁶⁵

Peter was put in prison, guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover celebrations. But the night before he was to come to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with chains, and sentries standing guard at the entrance.

Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. The angel tapped Peter on the side and woke him up. Quick, get up! he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.⁶⁶ Peter put on his clothes and followed the angel past the guards and right out of the prison. He had no idea if this was a dream or really happening – it was like he was in a daze. They got to the main iron gate at the entrance to the prison, and it just opened by itself. Peter walked through the gate and down the adjoining lane – and then the angel disappeared.

When Peter came to his full senses, he thought:

Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel to rescue me from Herod’s clutches, and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.⁶⁷

Herod Agrippa died in 44 AD, while presiding over a celebratory festival at the port city of Caesarea.⁶⁸ Decked-out in royal garments made entirely of silver, he was a spectacle to behold – and the people cried out that he was a ‘god’. However, just after being hailed as divine by the crowd, Herod was gripped by a sharp pain in his stomach – thought to be worms at the time. He died five days later because it was said that ‘he had not given the proper glory to God’.⁶⁹

Herod Agrippa’s son, Agrippa II, would serve as the final king from the Herodian family. It was Herod Agrippa II that participated in the trial of Paul at Caesarea, after Paul had appealed his case to the emperor.⁷⁰

Introduction

Simon Magus

Simon was a man who achieved god-like status in the first century AD through his philosophy and his acts – through his preaching and his magic tricks. There were many prophets, messiahs, fortune-tellers, seers, and mystics roaming around at the time, but Simon was the most notorious. He had an uncanny talent for deceiving people to his own betterment. And he was not afraid to use religion as a tool for his masquerades.

At the time of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth,⁷¹ nearly all the people of Samaria were followers of Simon of Gitta.⁷² The name of Simon’s father was Antonius, and that of his mother, Rachel. He learned magic as a child from his father, but as a young man he traveled to Alexandria to study Greek literature. He was a bright young man. But during those years of schooling, he became ambitious – so ambitious that he wished to be considered as the highest power, higher even than the God who created the world. He hinted that he was the messiah, calling himself the ‘standing one’, a name used to indicate that he would stand forever, and not suffer from bodily decay. He did not believe that the God who created the world was the highest, nor that the dead would rise. And like all Samaritans, he maintained that Mount Gerizim in Samaria was the center of divine thought on earth, and not Jerusalem.⁷³

Simon was also one of the most esteemed followers of John the Baptist. As Jesus had 12 apostles, representing the number of the 12 solar months in a year, John had 30 leading men following him, bearing the number of the daily cycles of the moon in a month. In addition to Simon, one of the 30 leading ‘men’ was a woman named Helena, who was also a ‘friend’ of Simon. In addition to following John, Simon was also the de-facto leader of the religious sect to which most Samaritans belonged.

But, on the death of John the Baptist,⁷⁴ when Simon was away in Alexandria honing his skills in magic, a man named Dositheus spread a false report of Simon’s death – and succeeded in installing himself as the leader of the sect.

Upon returning to Samaria, Simon thought it best to pretend friendship with Dositheus, and temporarily accept his leadership role. However, it wasn’t long before he began to hint to the others that Dositheus was not familiar enough with the doctrines of the sect – that he wasn’t competent enough to be the leader. Fearing that his reputation would be damaged beyond relief, Dositheus then moved with rage and began to beat Simon with a rod. But amazingly, the rod seemed to pass through Simon’s body as if it was translucent smoke. Seeing this, Dositheus was astonished, and said to him, Tell me if you are the ‘standing one’, such that I may revere you.

When Simon answered that he was, Dositheus fell down and worshipped him, giving up his leadership position to Simon – and he ordered all the others to henceforth obey Simon. Not long after this, Dositheus died, and Simon was the unchallenged leader of the sect.

Having fallen in love with Helena, Simon took her about with him, saying that she had come down into the world from the highest heaven, and was his companion – inasmuch as she was Sophia, the ‘Mother of All’.⁷⁵ It was for her sake, he said, that the Greeks and barbarians fought the Trojan War, deluding themselves into thinking that she was an innocent mortal, when in reality she was the ‘Ennoia’, the ‘thought of god’.⁷⁶ By such allegories, Simon deceived many, while at the same time he astounded them with his magical illusions.⁷⁷ He was often referred to as ‘Faustus’ (‘the favored one’ in Latin).

Simon was not afraid to plagiarize the words of John, or Jesus, or Paul, or anyone else for that matter, if it suited him. He appropriated everything that he thought would be advantageous, twisted it as needed, and used it to further his own personal agenda.⁷⁸ He was very smart, but not very wise.

Simon’s Self-centered Worldview

Simon’s philosophy has been likened to that of the Gnostics.⁷⁹ According to the Gnostic philosophy, this world of ours, and the material cosmos, is the result of a primordial error on the part of a supra-cosmic, supremely divine being, usually called ‘Sophia’ (or ‘Wisdom’, or the ‘Logos’). This being is described as the final emanation of a divine hierarchy, called the ‘Pleroma’ (or ‘Fullness’), at the head of which resides the supreme god, the ‘One-beyond-Being’. The error of Sophia, usually identified as a reckless desire to fully know the transcendent god, led to the hypostatization (attributing real identity to a concept) of her desire in the form of a semi-divine, and essentially ignorant, creature known as ‘Yaldabaoth’, or the ‘Demiurge’ (craftsman in Greek), who was responsible for the formation of the material cosmos.⁸⁰

But in Simon’s worldview, he himself, was part of the divine hierarchy. Some scholars have called Simon ‘the father of Gnosticism’. But most scholars today believe that Simon’s philosophy was unique, although some commonalities existed with the Gnostics that followed.⁸¹

In the Words of Simon

The presumed words of Simon, as reported by early church scholars, are summarized in the following paragraphs:⁸²

"In the beginning, god was one undifferentiated boundless essence outside of time and space – ‘the arch-aeon’.⁸³ At some point, the ‘arch-aeon’ subsumed into left and right elements – begetting itself – being its own mother, its own father, its own daughter, its own son. God contains all sexes, and is unbegotten. The leftmost element controlled the essence of incorporeality (spirit), and the rightmost element controlled the essence of corporeality (matter/energy). In the beginning, the dualism of incorporeality and corporeality was confined to the ‘arch-aeon’."

"The undifferentiated boundless essence took on form when it subsumed and became the ‘aeon of Mind’ (Truth) and the ‘aeon of Thought’ (Grace). The former was male in nature while the latter was female. The ‘aeon of Thought’, the rightmost element, the female principle, brought forth everything else into existence. She is the Mother of all, and is called the ‘Ennoia’. Knowing what the