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Simler Simon Magna THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
retiring entirely from ministerial work, divided the lectures on theology with Peter Martyr (q.v.), at whose death, in 1562, he took charge of the entire New-Testament department, which he controlled until he died.
Simler was a most prolific author. He began by translating into Latin a number of the works of Bullinger and other Protestant theologians, and by editing a portion of Peter Martyr's writings, although his projected edition of the collected works of the latter was never realized. He was himself deeply interested in problems of dogmatic theology, par ticularly in view of the attacks of Italian antitrini tarians upon Reformed tenets. First assailing the teaching of Francesco Stancaro (q.v.), that Christ was a mediator only in virtue of his human nature, in his Responsio ad maledictum Franciaei Staneari Mantuani librum adversus Tigurinae eeclesim mint tros de Trinitate et mediatore nostro Jesu Christo (Zurich, 1563), he likewise wrote, in defense of or thodox Christology, his De ceterno Dei f lio Domino et Sermtore nostro Jesu Christo et de Spiritu sancto, adversus veteres et novos antitrwnitarios, id est Arianos, Tretheistas, Samosatenianos et Pneumatomachos libri quatuor (Zurich, 1568); Assertio orthodoxx doctrinee de duabus naturis Christi opposita blasphemiis et sophismatibus Simonis Budnwi (1575); Scripts vet erum Latina de una persona et duabus naturis Christi adversus Nestorium, Eutychen et Acephalos olim edita (1571); De very Christi secundum humanam naturam in his terris preesentia orthodoxy exposttio (1574); and the anonymous Ministrorum ewlesice Tigurince ad confutationem Jacobi Andrece apologia (1575). His Commentarii in Ezodum were pub lished posthumously in 1584; and he was the author of Oratio de vita et obatu . . . Petri Martyris Ver milii (Zurich, 1563; Eng. tranal. in A. Marten's version of the " Common Places " of peter Martyr, London, 1583) and De ortu, vita et obitu . . . Hein rici Bullingeri (1575). Besides the works already enumerated, Simler wrote on astronomy, the his tory of literature, geography, and history, the latter category including his De republ~,ca Helvetiorum (Zurich, 1576), which went through repeated edi tions until the middle of the eighteenth century, and was translated into German, French, and Dutch. His manuscript historical material, collected by his grandson, is preserved in the municipal library of Zurich. (G. MEYER VON KNONAU.)BIBIaoaRAPHY: J. G. Stuki, Vita Joei(c Simleri, Zurich, 1577; W. A. B. Coolidge, J08lae Simler et lea originm de rAlyiniame jusqu'en 1800, Grenoble, 1904; G. Meyer van Knonau, in Jahrbuch des Schweizer Alpenklub, say. 217-235; ADB, sxciv. 355-358.
SIMON, sai'mon (SIMEON), BEN YOHAI: Rabbi of the second Christian century, to whom the authorship of the Zohar (see CABALA, § 17) is attributed. He was a favorite pupil of Akiba (q.v.), and was of the party opposed to the Romans. Tradition reports that he was compelled to remain in hiding in a cave for twelve years, until the death of the emperor (Hadrian), the cause being an outspoken condemnation of the Romans and their laws. An event which is better placed late in his life was his mission to Rome to obtain for his coreligionists greater freedom in worship and teaching, and in this
mission he succeeded. During his hermit life is placed the composition of the Zohar, the basis of the tradition probably being that he combined a certain mysticism in his teaching. Yet his teaching,
prevailingly halachic in type, was rationalistic in so far as he sought always the underlying reason for a Biblical injunction.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: L. Lewin, Rabbi Simon ban Jochai, Frankfort, 1893; JE, xi. 359-363 (gives further literature, mostly in Hebrew).
SIMON THE MACCABEE. See HASMONEANa, 2.
One of the most difficult and interesting prob
lems of apostolic and post-apostolic history is pre
sented by Simon Magus, a Samaritan, who is de
scribed at once as a Christian, a Jew, and a pagan,
a magician and a sorcerer, a Christian religious
philosopher and an archheretic, a pseudo-apostle
and a pseudo-Messiah, the founder of a religion and
an incarnation of God. The earliest source con
cerning him is Acts viii. 5-24, where he appears as
a sorcerer who had " bewitched the people of Sa
maria, giving out that himself was
:. In the some great one," yet becoming an ad
Book of herent of the Apostle Philip and mar
Acts. veling at " the miracles and signs
which were done " (verses :r13). In
verses 14-19, on the other hand, he seeks from Peter
and John, not (as one would expect in the case of a
sorcerer) the power of working miracles like Philip's,
but the gift of conferring the Holy Ghost by the
laying on of hands, only to have his request re
fused because of the unworthy motives which had
prompted it. It is held by some critics that this
entire account was based by a redactor of Acts on
some " Acts of Peter," this redactor substituting
Philip for Peter in verses 5, 6, 12, 13; adding allu
sions to John in verses 18b, 19a, 24, interpolating
verse 10, and adding verses 14-18afnd 19b. It
should also be noted, in this connection, that neither
the extant Acts of Peter nor the Church Fathers mention Philip and John in their accounts of Simon Magus. The record of Acts is continued by the various recensions of the apocryphal Acts of Peter and kin dred literature (cf. Clement of Alexandria, Strom., vii. 17; Hippolytus, Philosophumena, vi. 20; Euse bius, Hist. ecd., ii. 14-15; Arnobius, Adv. genies, ii. 12; Philostorgius, Hcer., xxix.; Epiphanius, Haar., xxi. 4; etc.), all of which deal with the con-flict between Simon Peter and Simon 2. In the Magus. The scene is Samaria in the Apocrypha Acta Vercellenses only, the other sources and Justin substituting Judea (or Jerusalem and Martyr. Cwsarea) and, most frequently, Rome.
The time is the reign of Nero or (in the Acta Vercellenses) Claudius, but the only new trait ascribed to the characters is the pseudo-Messiahship of Simon Magus, which is shown, for instance,