SIMON MACCABEUS, a celebrated leader and high-priest of the Jews, who, after rendering the most important services to his country, was at last treacherously slain by his son-in-law. See the History of the Jews, No. 15.
Simon Magus, or the Sorcerer, was a native of Gitton, a village of Samaria. According to the usual practice of the Asiatics of that age, he visited Egypt, and there probably became acquainted with the sublime mysteries taught in the Alexandrian school, and learned those theurgic or magical operations, by means of which it was believed that men might be delivered from the power of evil demons. Upon his return into his own country, the author of the Clementine Recognitions relates, that he imposed upon his countrymen by high pretensions to supernatural powers. And St Luke attests, that this artful fanatic, using sorcery, had bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that he was some great one; and that he obtained such general attention and reverence in Samaria, that the people all gave heed to him from the least to the greatest, saying "This man is the great power of God."
By the preaching of Philip the Deacon, he was with other Samaritans converted to the Christian faith, and admitted into the infant church by the ordinance of baptism. His conversion, however, seems not to have been real; for, upon seeing the miraculous effects of the laying on of the apostle's hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost."
He probably thought Peter and John magicians like himself, but better skilled in the art of deceiving the multitude.
Being sharply reprov'd for this impiety, he seems by his answer to have been made sensible of his sin; but his repentance, if sincere, was of short duration. Returning to his former practices of imposture, he travelled through various provinces of the empire, opposing the progress of the gospel; and arriving at Rome, he led astray vast numbers of people by his pretended miracles. How long he lived in that metropolis of the world, or in what manner he died, we have no accounts that can be fully depended on. The Christian writers tell us, that being raised in the air by two demons, he was deprived of their support by the prayers of St Peter and St Paul, and falling, broke his legs. By some he is thought to have been the person mentioned by Suetonius, who, undertaking to fly in the presence of Nero, fell to the ground with such violence, that his blood spurted up to the gallery where the emperor was sitting.
The sum of this impostor's doctrine, divested of allegory, was, that from the Divine Being, as a fountain of light, flow various orders of seons, or eternal natures, subsisting within the plenitude of the divine essence; that beyond these, in the order of emanation, are different classes of intelligences, among the lowest of which are human souls; that matter is the most remote production of the emanative power, which, on account of its infinite distance from the Fountain of Light, possesses sluggish and malignant qualities, which oppose the divine operations, and are the cause of evil; that it is the great design of philosophy to deliver the soul from its imprisonment in matter, and restore it to that divine light from which it was derived: and that for this purpose God had sent him one of the first seons among men. To his wife Helena he also ascribed a similar kind of divine nature, pretending that a female seon inhabited the body of this woman, to whom he gave the name of Ensis, Wisdom; whence some Christian fathers have said, that he called her the Holy Spirit. He also taught the transmigration of souls, and denied the resurrection of the body.
Simon, Richard, was born at Dieppe the 13th May 1638. He began his studies among the priests of the Oratory in that city, but quitted their society in a short time. From Dieppe he went to Paris, where he made great progress in the study of the oriental languages. Some time afterwards he joined the society of the Oratory again, and became a priest of it in 1660. In 1670 he published some pieces of a smaller kind. In 1678 his Critical History of the Old Testament appeared, but was immediately suppressed by the intrigues of Messieurs du Port Royal. It was reprinted the year after, and its excellence soon drew the attention of foreigners; an edition of it was accordingly published at Amsterdam in Latin, and at London in English.
He died at Dieppe in 1712, at the age of 74. He certainly possessed a vast deal of learning: his criticism is exact, but not always moderate; and there reigns in his writings a spirit of novelty and singularity which raised him a great many adversaries. The most celebrated of these were Le Clerc, Vossius, Jurieu, Du Pin, and Bossuet. Simon wrote an answer to most of the
the books that were published against him, and displays a pride and obstinacy in his controversial writings which do him little honour.
He was the author of a great many books. The following are the principal: 1. The Ceremonies of the Jews, translated from the Italian of Leo of Modena, with a supplement concerning the sects of the Carraites and Samaritans. 2. L'Histoire Critique du Vieux Testament, "The Critical History of the Old Testament." This is a very important work, and deserves the attention of every clergyman. He sometimes, however, deviates from the road of integrity, to serve the cause of the church of Rome, particularly in his endeavours to prove the uncertainty of the Hebrew language. These passages have been very justly exposed and confuted by Dr Campbell, in his ingenious Preliminary Dissertations to his new Translation of the Gospels. 3. Critical History of the Text of the New Testament. 4. Critical History of the Versions of the New Testament. 5. Critical History of the principal Commentators on the New Testament. 6. Inspiration of the Sacred Books. 7. A translation of the New Testament. This book was censured by Cardinal Noailles and Bossuet. 8. The History of the rise and progress of Ecclesiastical Revenues, which is commended by Voltaire, as is his Critical History of the Old Testament. It resulted from a quarrel with a community of Benedictines. 9. A new select Library, which points out the good books in various kinds of literature, and the use to be made of them. 10. Critical History of the Beliefs and Customs of the Nations on the Levant. 11. Critical Letters, &c.