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419 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Simler Simon Xsgns in his attempted ascension (frustrated by the prayer of Peter) and in the epithet: " He that hath stood." An entirely different picture is given by the heresiologists of the early Church. The frag ments of Justin Martyr's lost work on heresies state that Simon Magus was born in the Samaritan village of Gitta, and went to Rome in the reign of Claudius. There he is described as honored by a statue on an island in the Tiber, this statue bearing the inscrip tion Simoni sancto deo (" To Simon, the holy god "). This latter statement seems, however, to be due to confusion with a statue actually set up on the island in question in honor of the Sabine deity Semo Sancus, with an inscription including the words Semoni Sanco deo. At the same time, the tradition of Simon's residence at Rome in the reign of Clau dius was evidently wide-spread, and Justin also states that nearly all the Samaritans honored Simon Magus " as the first god, above all power, authority, and might," and as accompanied by a certain ex courtezan Helena, designated " the first under standing from himself " (Apol ., i. 26; Tnypho, cxx.). A valuable supplement to this information is given by a Roman heresiology written before 175 and incorporated by Ifeneeus in his Hwr., i. 23, also being used, in all probability, by Celsus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and the pseudo-Tertullian. 3. His Sys- Here Simon Magus appears in an essen tem Accord- tially Gnostic garb, being, on the one ing to Later hand, the " highest God " (or " Fa Heresiolo- ther "), and, on the other, " the most gists. sublime power of God "; while Helena (here brought into connection with Tyre) is represented as " the first conception of his [Simon's] mind," " the mother of all," " wisdom," " the Holy Spirit," etc. Emanating from the Fa ther, she descended to the realms beneath, where, in conformity to his will, she created the angelic powers which, without knowing the Father, created the world and man. Unwilling to be considered creatures, the angels imprisoned her in a female body, and she is the lost sheep for whose salvation the Father (Simon) appeared, to rescue both her and mankind from the slavery of the cosmic angelic powers. To deceive these powers, he was mani fested to mankind as man, as the Father to the Samaritans and the Son to the Jews, suffering do cetic passion. To this Irenaeus erroneously adds that Simon was supposed to have appeared as the Holy Ghost to the gentiles; and both he and Epi phanius give a number of further details which, while not impossible, can not definitely be ascribed to the system. An entirely different presentation of Simon's teaching is implied by Clement and Origen, and is further developed in the Philoso phumena (vi. 7-18, x. 12; ANF, v. 74,81, 143). Here Helena (" Mind ") is unknown, and Simon is given his self-designation-" He that hath stood"; but Clement adds practically no new material, and Origen little beyond the statement that Simon re garded idolatry as a matter of no concern (Contra Celaum, vi. 11). A similar ignorance of Helena and a like emphasis on Simon as " He that hath stood " are shown by the Philosophumend. Here the center of all being is " boundless power," which is both supramundane (inconceivable holy Silence) and in-
tramundane (the " Father," " He that hath stood, that standeth, and is to stand," an androgynous power with neither beginning nor end, and essentially unitary). While remaining distinct as a seventh power, the Father causes to emanate three syzygies of cosmic powers, which in their spiritual aspect are " Mind," " Intelligence, " Voice," " Name," " Ratiocination," and " Reflection," and in their physical aspect are " Heaven," " Earth," " Sun," " Moon," " Air," and " Water." The Father is, moreover, " He that hath stood " in relation to premundane existence; " He that standeth " in relation to present being; and " He that shall stand " in relation to-the final consummation. Man is simply the realization of " boundless power," the ultimate end of the cosmic process in which the godhead attains self-consciousness. All this material is recapitulated, with some additional data, by the pseudo-Clementine Homilies and Recognitions. Simon Magus is here described as a necromancer driven by Peter from Caesarea to Antioch, and finally to Rome, everywhere shown to be an impostor, though declaring himself to be Christ, and overcpme by divine miracles. Helena again appears, this time as "Wisdom," " the All-Mother," and " Lady," sending forth two angels (who seize power over her), one to create the world, and the other to give the Law. The pseudo-Clementine sources also add that Simon Magus was the son of Antonius and Rachel, that he was educated in Greek learning at Alexandria, and that, after being received among the thirty disciples of John the Baptist, he became head of the sect after the death of his teacher. He is likewise described, though without plausibility, as the representative of Samaritan worship on Mount Gerizim who expounded the Law allegorically and denied the resurrection of the dead, as the representative of pagan philosophy (especially of astrological fatalism), and even as the defender of Marcion's antithesis of the good and righteous God.
In some passages in these writings Simon Magus wears the mask of Paul, and attacks are made on Pauline teachings under the guise of polemics in favor of the Petrine theology against the tenets of
4. Unten- basis for the theory that the picture of able Theo- Simon Magus in the Clementine literaries Con- ture is deliberately designed to be a cerning caricature of Paul inspired by the Simon hatred of the Judaizing school, or for Magus. seeing in the struggle between Peter and Simon the victory of Petrine over Pauline Christianity. All the traits of Simon in this literature reveal him as only a magician or pseudo-Messiah, later given not merely Pauline, but also pagan and Marcionistib, characteristics; so that both in the apocryphal Acts and in the pseudoClementine literature Simon Magus was primarily not a pseudo-Paul, but a pseudo-Christ, and therefore the antithesis of Peter. Equally improbable is the hypothesis which identifies Simon Magus with the beast of Rev. xiii. 11-17, although it is not impossible that the Beliar which the Sibylline Books, iii. 63 sqq., describe as destined to come " from the Sebastenes " (Samaritans) represented Simon. It