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 murdered by his son-in-law.

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 aquainted with the sublime mysteries taught in the Alexandrian School, learning 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. St. Luke attests, that this artful fanatic 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 apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me also[7:20:355] this power, that on whomsoever I Jay 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 reproved 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 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 having undertaken 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 aeons, or eternal natures, subsisting within the plenitude of the divine essence; that beyond these, in the order of emanation, are different classes of intelligences, amongst 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 as one of the first aeons amongst men. To his wife Helena he also ascribed a similar kind of divine nature, pretending that a female aeon inhabited the body of this woman, to whom he gave the name of Εννοια , or 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 on the loth May 1638. He began his studies amongst the priest of the Oratory in that city, but in a short time quitted their society. 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; and in 1678 his Critical History of the Old Testament appeared, but was immediately suppressed by the intrigues of the gentlemen of 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 in London in English. He died at Dieppe in 1712, at the age of seventy-four.

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, Dupin, and Bossuet. Simon wrote an answer to most of 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, viz:—1. The Ceremonies of the Jews, translated from the Italian of Leo of Modena, with a supplement concerning the sects of the Caraites and Samaritans; 2. The Critical History of the Old Testament; 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, which was censured by Cardinal Noailles and by 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 Testa ment; 9. A new select Lihrary, pointing out the good books in various departments of literature, and the use to be made of them; 10. Critical History of the Belief and Customs of the nations on the Levant; and, 11. Critical Letters.