Acts 8:9-13, We get a specific episode in Samaria that concerns Simon, Simon the magician. In verse 9, There was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest saying, This man is the power of God that is called great. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. (The name, it’s not just Philip running around saying Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, he’s preaching a person, the name is the person.) And these people were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed. And after being baptized, he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.
Acts 8:16-19, For the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on any of them, and they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money saying, give me this power, that anyone on whom I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. It’s kind of a naive request, obviously in verse 20-23 Peter doesn’t like it. Verse 24, Simon says, Pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. Was Simon a believer? The text says he believed, but he asks a naive question, because he wants to be part of this and there’s no indication in the text he wants to sort of go off and be a wizard or something like that.
Now Peter is really hard on Simon, but Peter wasn’t there at the beginning, Philip was. Peter doesn’t know this guy’s history, or of his conversion necessarily, and Peter’s offended, people don’t get the Holy Spirit by paying for it or anything like that. Peter said Simon’s heart’s not right before God, he rebukes him really harshly. But what does Simon say? Enough of you guys, I’m just going to go off and do my wizard act again. No, he says, Pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. He’s sincere, Okay, I did wrong.
But in verse 10, this phrasing of what was said about Simon prior to his conversion. The people all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest saying, This man is the power of God that is called great. That’s significant, because in Samaritan Targums, Targums are just a word for a translation. The Targum of the Old Testament is the Hebrew Old Testament translated into Aramaic. The Targum of the Greek New Testament translated into Aramaic. The Samaritans had Targums and Samaritans have access to a Samaritan text, it’s not going to look like Hebrew, it’s still going to be Semitic, but it’s their own form. In ancient Samaritan Targums, the Hebrew word El, which means God and is often used as a proper name for God, is often represented by “great power” and is often used for “angels.” What’s being said here, this man is the power of God that is called great.
The claim apparently is that some people either we’re not really told if it’s by Simon’s encouragement or if they just drew this conclusion, but some people were associating his magic with God himself and were referring to him as great or the great one. That term in Samaritan Targums is also a divine name for God, God is the great power. When Simon is called great, it sort of moves him into the same category as God in the minds of those referring to him as this is the one who is great and the power among the angels. That links Simon to not only the great power abstractly, but actually the principal angel, the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord is Yahweh embodied as a man in the Old Testament, and he’s linked by virtue of what the New Testament does with some of those angel of the Lord passages, he’s linked to Jesus.
This portrayal of Simon, there were people, they weren’t thinking about Jesus when they were calling him the great one, the great power, this was a guy who some people associated with or as the angel of the Lord, that he was that close to God. The people look at the amazing magical stuff Simon does, the angel of the Lord has come to us and the power that he exhibits, they’re associating Simon with the second Yahweh figure of the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord. But who does Simon submit to? Who does Simon look at and essentially turn his back on his old life and believed in? It’s Jesus. It’s a victory of the true second power, the true second Yahweh over one who had been falsely claimed as having that status.
Acts 8:16-19, For the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on any of them, and they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money saying, give me this power, that anyone on whom I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. It’s kind of a naive request, obviously in verse 20-23 Peter doesn’t like it. Verse 24, Simon says, Pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. Was Simon a believer? The text says he believed, but he asks a naive question, because he wants to be part of this and there’s no indication in the text he wants to sort of go off and be a wizard or something like that.
Now Peter is really hard on Simon, but Peter wasn’t there at the beginning, Philip was. Peter doesn’t know this guy’s history, or of his conversion necessarily, and Peter’s offended, people don’t get the Holy Spirit by paying for it or anything like that. Peter said Simon’s heart’s not right before God, he rebukes him really harshly. But what does Simon say? Enough of you guys, I’m just going to go off and do my wizard act again. No, he says, Pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. He’s sincere, Okay, I did wrong.
But in verse 10, this phrasing of what was said about Simon prior to his conversion. The people all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest saying, This man is the power of God that is called great. That’s significant, because in Samaritan Targums, Targums are just a word for a translation. The Targum of the Old Testament is the Hebrew Old Testament translated into Aramaic. The Targum of the Greek New Testament translated into Aramaic. The Samaritans had Targums and Samaritans have access to a Samaritan text, it’s not going to look like Hebrew, it’s still going to be Semitic, but it’s their own form. In ancient Samaritan Targums, the Hebrew word El, which means God and is often used as a proper name for God, is often represented by “great power” and is often used for “angels.” What’s being said here, this man is the power of God that is called great.
The claim apparently is that some people either we’re not really told if it’s by Simon’s encouragement or if they just drew this conclusion, but some people were associating his magic with God himself and were referring to him as great or the great one. That term in Samaritan Targums is also a divine name for God, God is the great power. When Simon is called great, it sort of moves him into the same category as God in the minds of those referring to him as this is the one who is great and the power among the angels. That links Simon to not only the great power abstractly, but actually the principal angel, the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord is Yahweh embodied as a man in the Old Testament, and he’s linked by virtue of what the New Testament does with some of those angel of the Lord passages, he’s linked to Jesus.
This portrayal of Simon, there were people, they weren’t thinking about Jesus when they were calling him the great one, the great power, this was a guy who some people associated with or as the angel of the Lord, that he was that close to God. The people look at the amazing magical stuff Simon does, the angel of the Lord has come to us and the power that he exhibits, they’re associating Simon with the second Yahweh figure of the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord. But who does Simon submit to? Who does Simon look at and essentially turn his back on his old life and believed in? It’s Jesus. It’s a victory of the true second power, the true second Yahweh over one who had been falsely claimed as having that status.
