Chapter 8 of Acts provides a critical pivot in the overarching narrative of Acts. After the death of Stephen, a severe persecution breaks out in Jerusalem (8:1–3); as a consequence, “those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word” (8:4). Thus begins the “turn to the Gentiles”, a series of events in chs.8—12 that reorients the focus away from the community of followers of Jesus gathered in Jerusalem (chs.1—7), towards the activity of Paul and his companions as they preach the good news amongst the Gentiles (chs.13—28).
This turn involves not only events in Samaria, but also the commission that Saul receives as he travels to Damascus (ch.9) and the twofold visions to Peter and Cornelius (ch.10) which, when Peter reports this to the church in Jerusalem (ch.11) lays the foundation for widespread acceptance of the mission to the Gentiles (ch.15).
This “turn to the Gentiles” begins with an account of the activity of Philip (8:5–24). What he does in Samaria begins the fulfilment of the second stage of Jesus’ programmatic statement (1:8). After Philip enters the city of Samaria (8:5) he preaches “the Messiah” (8:5), a message already announced by Peter and John in Jerusalem (2:36; 3:20; 5:42). His activity is characterised by signs (8:6), just as both the apostles (2:43; 4:30; 5:12) and Stephen (6:8) had done.
Philip casts out unclean spirits (8:7), as did Peter (5:16), and heals the paralysed and lame (8:7), as did Peter (3:1–10, a lame man; 9:32–35, a paralysed man) and, indeed, Jesus (Luke 5:18, a paralysed man; 7:22, the lame). As a result, Philip brings “much joy” to the city’s inhabitants (8:8), producing in the northern area the emotions previously experienced by the Jerusalemites to the south (3:11; 4:33). There is a consistency running in the storyline: just as God guided the apostles in Jerusalem, so God guides Philip in Samaria.
But the first specific incident involving Philip that is narrated in this chapter (8:9–13) introduces a new element, as we hear about an encounter with Simon, who was endowed with a special power. The people of the city are amazed at the magical powers of Simon (8:9, 11), to the extent that they have named him “Simon the Great” (8:10).
Simon the Samaritan, magician supreme
Simon of Samaria was presumably an adherent of the religion established by Moses; the Samaritans believed that they held the true interpretation of scripture (indeed, that they had the original version of the Torah); they had their own Temple for centuries and their own priesthood; and they boasted that they had remained faithful to the Law of Moses over the centuries whilst those southerners in Judah (where another Temple was located) had deviated from the faith. Indeed, in Hebrew (where only consonants were written), SMR, the basis for SaMaRia, could also provide the root for SoMeRim, the “keepers of the traditions”. They knew the Law and kept it faithfully.
Assuming that this Simon was such a Samaritan, we find that he also is a magician! He would presumably have practised some means of divination, perhaps chanting incantations and offering prayers on behalf of those who approached him. He might also have performed healings on people who came with such a request. And the fact that he was known as “great” would surely indicate that he had a measure of success in this enterprise. Although perhaps Luke is making a neat play on the fact that Simon, known as μέγαν (megan, great) performed feats of μαγεύων (mageuōn, magic).
“Magic” aspects were part of life for people in the Hellenistic world. “Magicians” who “divined the will of the gods” were everywhere to be found. However, Luke’s view of magicians is made clearest some chapters later in his portrayal of the Cyprian magician Elymas, whom Barnabas and Saul encounter, condemn, and curse (13:6–12). Elymas the magician is “a Jewish false prophet” (13:6) whom Paul slanders as “you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy” amd asks him, “will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?” (13:10). In this way, Luke makes his view clear: magicians are in thrall to the one whose power has, in fact, been defeated (Luke 10:18).
Simon in later church tradition
In later centuries, Simon became identified as the founder of a significant branch of Gnostic Christianity. Justin Martyr says that he came from the village of Gita in Samaria, and that “through the arts of the demons who worked in him, did mighty works of magic in [the] imperial city of Rome and was thought to be a god” (Justin, 1 Apology 1.26.1-3).
In his detailed discussion of a number of heresies that he had identified, the 2nd century apologist and bishop of Lyons, Irenaeus of Smyrna, devotes significant space to “Simon the Samaritan”, of whom, he reports, the Caesar had erected a statue in Rome. He notes that, in adherence to the developing Gnostic understanding of a divine entity standing over and above the Demiurge (the creator God of the Old Testament), Simon declared that “it was himself who appeared among the Jews as the Son, but descended in Samaria as the Father, while he came to other nations in the character of the Holy Spirit”. As we don’t have any writings by Simon himself, we have only Irenaeus’s claims about his teaching.
Nevertheless, Irenaeus maintains that Simon “represented himself, in a word, as being the loftiest of all powers, that is, the Being who is the Father over all, and he allowed himself to be called by whatsoever title men were pleased to address him” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.23).
Origen and Eusebius (bottom)
Another apologist, writing in the early 3rd century, Origen of Alexandria, mentions Simon in the course of his lengthy refutation of the views of Celsus, a Greek philosopher active around eight decades before Origen wrote. He notes that “Simon freed his disciples from the danger of death, which the Christians were taught to prefer, by teaching them to regard idolatry as a matter of indifference” (Origen, Against Celsus 6.11).
Then, in his fourth century CE Church History, Eusebius of Caesarea references both Irenaeus and Origen, describing Simon as “a mighty antagonist of the great, inspired apostles of our Saviour”, in sway to “the father of wickedness”, who became “the father of all heresy” insofar as he established a school that promulgated his views even into Rome. Eusebius includes a fanciful scene in Rome, where Peter, “clad in divine armour like a noble commander of God”, confronted Simon so that “the power of Simon was immediately quenched and destroyed, together with the man himself” (Eusebius, Church History 2.13–15).
Much of this later patristic representation of Simon and his school derives from Luke’s account in Acts, where Simon is acclaimed as “the power of God that is called Great” (8:10). The fathers have elaborated, expanded, and speculated in grand fashion!
Yet the question is already present in Luke’s narrative: could the power exercised by Simon the Great be the same power which energised the apostles (3:12–13; 4:7–10), just as it had energised Jesus (2:22; Luke 5:17)? The answer (no) is implicit in the account of Philip’s conversion of Simon; the one who was acting as if he did possess such power is actually made to be subservient to the true power of God.
A community of faith in Samaria
In bringing Simon to the point of baptism, Philip offers the same message as Jesus; he preaches “the sovereignty of God” (8:12, usually translated as “the kingdom of God”), which was the central message of Jesus (1:3; Luke 4:43; 6:20; etc.).
Furthermore, Philip performs “signs and great miracles” (8:13), as did “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you” (as Peter had described him on the day of Pentecost, 2:22). Philip is modelling his words and his deeds on the one whom he follows as “Lord and Messiah” (as Peter also had declared, 2:36).
The specific miracles performed by Philip in 8:7 are akin to miracles of Jesus, who casts out unclean spirits (Luke 4:33–37; 7:21; 9:37–43) and heals the paralysed and lame (Luke 5:17–26; 7:22). The people respond by being baptised (8:12), paralleling what had taken place earlier in Jerusalem after Peter’s first public speech (“those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added”, 2:41).
So Simon becomes a member of the community through baptism (8:13); he joins those who heard Philip and watched what he had done, “and were baptized, both men and women” (8:12). Now a community of Samaritans exists in continuity with the Jewish community in Jerusalem.
Apostolic approval of Philip’s actions
All that remains, it seems, is some form of apostolic approval to be given to the new community. So the Samaritans—who have already “received the word of God” (8:14)—now “receive the holy spirit” through the laying on of hands by the apostles (8:15–18), prefiguring the subsequent laying-on of hands on Saul (9:12, 17; and 13:3, with Barnabas). The spirit has guided the community in Jerusalem (2:4; 4:31; 6:3, 5, 10; 7:55); now guidance by the spirit is experienced by the community in Samaria.
Although the gift of the spirit (8:17) is here separate from baptism (8:12), as also in Ephesus (19:1–7), Luke does not intend this pattern to be read as prescriptive for all situations, as other accounts of baptisms indicate (Peter, at Pentecost, 2:38-41; Peter, in Caesarea with Cornelius and his household, 10:44–48; Paul, in Ephesus, 19:1–7). Rather, the emphasis is on continuity with the Jerusalem experience: the apostles validate the Samaritans’ experience by means of the holy spirit.
Negatively, this gift of the spirit provokes the envy of Simon, whose baptism (8:13) has not removed his desire for power. Simon requests authority to perform the same powerful act as the apostles (8:19). Peter’s rebuke accuses Simon of seeking to purchase the gift of God (8:20) and places him in the same category as Ananias and Sapphira, since his heart is “not straight before God” (8:21).
The same type of conflict that has been evidenced in Jerusalem is now found in Samaria; once more, language about God is used to define the preferred option and to validate the actions of the community leaders. This conflict is resolved, neither by imprisonment nor by martyrdom, but through means already evidenced in Jerusalem: Peter commands Simon to repent, and Simon offers a petitionary prayer to the Lord for forgiveness (8:22; cf. 2:39, 3:19, 5:31).
This initial Samaritan passage then concludes with a summary description (8:25) of the testimony to “the word of the Lord” undertaken by the apostles as they preach throughout Samaria.
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An Informed Faith 