Typical of liberal church histories that began to doubt his real influence is this one: Simon Magus, who had been viewed for almost 2,000 years as a paragon of heresy, was given a kind of historical pass. Woe to thee, Simon Magus! Woe to you, his wretched followers! Who the things of God, which should be wedded unto goodness, them, rapacious as ye are, do prostitute for gold and silver in adultery.īut then something happened with the approach of the 20th century. Dante’s The Divine Comedy mentions Simon in Canto XIX in his section on the interiors of hell: Michelangelo drew a sketch of Simon’s mythical battle with Peter 17th-century artist Avanzino Nucci painted a scene depicting Peter’s disputation with Simon and numerous other artists used Simon Magus as a subject, with Simon even appearing in the architectural features of cathedrals. Gnosticism as a heretical sect slowly faded, but the significance of Simon as a progenitor of false spirituality lived on for nearly two millennia through depictions in art and culture. The Great Exposition spoke openly about Simon’s status as a pretender-redeemer the others show Simon as Peter’s archrival, fighting with him to the death in Rome where Peter supposedly foiled Simon’s attempt to fly in the air by sending him crashing down to the earth. The early church fathers quoted extensively from ancient, heretical religious writings that were rife with mention of Simon Magus: the second-century apocryphal book The Great Exposition, supposedly written by Simon (though more likely by his disciples), and the third-century apocryphal Acts of Peter and Pseudo-Clementine literature. However, things ended poorly-and finally-for him when the “miracle” failed. (Gnosticism emphasized the esoteric attaining of “secret knowledge” of God.) Justin Martyr condemned Simon’s teachings, and Hippolytus related that Simon had created an extensive Gnostic philosophy and tried to mimic Christ’s resurrection by having himself buried alive with the promise of being raised three days later. Irenaeus attributed the rise of heretical Gnosticism to Simon, whom he described as a propagator of false knowledge. The early church fathers who wrote in defense of the true gospel after the apostles’ deaths and sometimes were martyred for it, wrote extensively about Simon Magus.

History records that this same Simon surfaced years later as “Simon Magus,” a heretical cult leader who appeared during the development of the early church and founded a competing pseudo-Christian sect. It is a key to understanding the dangers of heresy and false spirituality that plague 21st-century popular culture and that have infected current ultraliberal Bible “scholarship.” The answer to these questions is more than mere Bible trivia.

So here is the mystery: Was this former sorcerer a true believer in Christ, and what became of him after verse 24?

Scripture’s portrait of Simon ends with him begging Peter to pray to the Lord on his behalf, hoping to escape the consequences of the condemnation Peter levied against him (v. 1 When he tried to purchase it from the apostle Peter, he earned one of the most severe rebukes found in the New Testament (vv. 13).Īfter noticing the apostles’ powerful, supernatural ability to bestow the Holy Spirit on believers in Samaria through the laying-on of hands, Simon began to lust after the same power (vv. Luke, the human author of Acts, noted, “Then Simon himself also believed and when he was baptized he continued with Philip” (v. When Philip preached Jesus Christ, Simon’s followers left him, believed in the Savior, and began to be baptized. While Philip the evangelist preached the gospel throughout Samaria, he met a man named Simon, a magician whose dark practice of the magical arts had astonished many and gained him a wide audience. With that prologue, however, let me say that there is a true mystery in Acts 8. Many, I presume, are simply wild speculations by those who lack serious belief in Scripture’s inerrancy and divine inspiration. Prince of Heresy: The Mystery of Simon of SamariaĪuthors always seem quick to entice readers with the promise of revealing the real truth behind some Bible “mystery.” When I last checked for books with both the words mystery and Bible in the titles, I found no fewer than 1,959.

Lesson on simon the sorcerer