The concensus among scholars surrounding the details of the dating of the earliest source material surrounding the Gospels is well within the first century, with origins to Greek speaking Jews from the Levant. There is some debate only surrounding only the exact dates, being on the conservative end in the 90s, all the way back to the mid 50s, where is supposed to be the missionary season for Paul the Apostle. Widespread traditions rose up very early on, across the world in just such areas as are recorded to have been the destinations of the likes of Gamaliel’s Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, or Mark, Peter, John, Phillip, Thomas, Matthew, Lazerus, Mary Magdalene and the rest of the cast of characters described by the Gospel text of the Christian New Testament.
Among those traditions arise a group of texts, also dated to very early in the Apostolic Chronology, which attest to the same familiar New Testament names, only they take on a much different characteristic to that of the Gospels of the Christian Canon. This familiar, yet disparate dichotomy has brought the present world of religious discussion to dispute the nature of the reality of the original words of the Galilean prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, the rabbinic sage. The center of the discussion orbit around very distinct impressions that people had in response to this message which had gone out, for which participants were suffering a fate promised by Jesus Himself for His followers, as recorded in the earliest Gospel of Mark. When we confront the texts of the Gospels, we can see the groundwork being layed by what was confessed by His disciples to be the promised Jewish Messiah, and as such, having been raised bodily from the dead, was in Himself, the incarnate Son of God. This very theological assessment is brought to bare by a shared nomenclature surrounding those sources, by following the thread of disciples that would carry on the teachings to the next generations, as we have them.
Within the New Testament text, is a smattering of stories, and slogans that appear out of the text that lend themselves to the issues that were most important to those cultures and societies where the evangelists held greatest interest. What you will not find are any other contemporary texts from the same region, claiming the authority of eye witnesses, which corroborate any of their details to any verifiable facts, and are in fact riddled with historical and contextual issues that highlight their differences to the canon. Upon closer analysis of supposed “gnostic gospels” of the second century, one begins to recognize a society of people who are wrestling with the differences of the Pagan Gentile world, and where they end when buttressed against the Jewish background against which the Gospel promises them to be grafted in to.
Symbolized as a prototype of this conflict, the book of Acts enshrines the figure of Simon the Magician, aka Simon Magus, the Arch-Heretic. In chapter 8, we meet this man:
[Act 8:9-24 NASB20] 9 Now a man named Simon had previously been practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; 10 and all [the people,] from small to great, were paying attention to him, saying, “This man is the Power of God that is called Great.” 11 And they were paying attention to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic arts. 12 But when they believed Philip as he was preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were being baptized. 13 Now even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was [repeatedly] amazed. 14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they would receive the Holy Spirit. 16 (For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) 17 Then they [began] laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. 18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could acquire the gift of God with money! 21 “You have no part or share in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 “Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord [that,] if possible, the intention of your heart will be forgiven you. 23 “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of unrighteousness.” 24 But Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
What magic it was that Simon practiced might be garnered from the practices of the Imperial court, being that Simon was himself so celebrated under the reign of Claudius Caesar that a statue is said to have been erected in his honor. To this day Simon is celebrated as a Father of Gnosticism by openly professing Gnostics. There are a number of sources outside the Book of Acts which shine some light on the person himself, however, magic, as a practice had a much different connotation in its day than it does in the modern English vernacular. Such a personality is a product of the time, where some connections may be made in order to grasp the cause of this force of nature contending for the souls of first century Rome.
Simon serves second only to Judas in carrying the load for the wrath of the early Christians, who unanimously comment on his relationship to the church. They each have their own angle on the situation, all agreeing him to be a prolific magician who sought to undermine the legitimacy of the Faith. He’s said to be a celebrity, who astounded even the Caesar Claudius himself. Magic of the type familiar to the first century contemporary world of the New Testament, was largely relegated to certain esoteric schools, which were not inexpensive, and carried with it, a particular assumed lifestyle, in this case, staying up to date with most up to date, and progressive spiritual concepts, for the sake of a vocation. As a Magician buys a trick or a spell, Simon made the mistake of assuming that what he’d found in the backwoods of Samaria was just another gimmick to add to his act, since it was a core element to the fiction that arose from his influence here as, “…the Power of God that is called Great.”.
Out of the haze of the first decades of the emergence of the Christian Patriarchs forming on the scene, there is a shadow cast under the cloud of what looms ahead, as Rome finds itself adapting a response to the Christians. While it may be imprecise to determine the authorship of certain various texts, what is apparent in what is preserved are the ideas that are being addressed as part of the conversations that were being had at the time, all the while regular Roman life was carrying on, and the political intrigues of the elites go uncontested by this simmering nuisance for Caesar, who is noted to be a patron of the Magus. And it was under these pretense which Peter and Paul are said to have made their way to Rome in order to make their stand against Simon in the Imperial court.
Then, as legend has it, Paul and Peter would find themselves penalized under the merciless arm of Roman fury. The facts of their case being brought to Caesar beg the question: With what were they actually charged? What legal grounds did the Roman court find the Apostolic duo guilty of. As we all know, Jesus’ crime is posted above the cross stated as, “THE KING OF THE JEWS”, but what was the accusation against Paul and Peter? Rome, being in the business of executing Law and Order within its borders, were masters in the art of bureaucracy, and litigation in order to subdue any insurrection which might emerge from the masses. These details are left unanswered and unaddressed in the New Testament, as the narrative there documents a period of time with the principle participant authors involved being yet still alive.
So those legends are relegated to the Ante-Nicene, Post Apostolic era. This is the age of time where the richest array of information survives to attest to the events surrounding the Acts of various Apostles, as well as the doctrines of the earliest known heretics. While nothing remains of any writings of Simon Magus, or his followers, such as Cerinthus, said to be the next generation of this seed of the magician. While the exact details of their views, and how they saw themselves might be hazy, given what we have to go by, we can at least recognize the efforts of his opponents, in particular from Irenaeus’s Against Heresies, as well as a less recognized title, Epistula Apostolorum or The Epistle of the Apostles, a text held to be dated to the early half of the second century, and therefore a contemporary to at least the likes of Marcion, another heretic of a different persuasion, who held a more anti-semitic bent in his thoughts.
In most cases regarding these first two centuries of documentation, we mainly see Orthodox Christians, with closest claim to an apostolic succession, addressing the teachings of individuals who pop up, in a theological and historical game of whack a mole. This procedure can be seen to be a familiar tactic to the writers of the times, when one pours through the works of Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian, who were particularly concerned with the works of Marcion. There are some extent texts that are rumored to be derived from Simon Magus, being the preservation of a group called the Simonians, including, Apophasis Megale or “Great Declaration” and two others called, The Four Quarters of the World and The Sermons of the Refuter. Attributions that are arguably originating with Cerinthus which may also at least give us some clues as to the ideas that were being contested by these communities are said to be the titles, Apocryphon of James and later in the second century, Caius of Rome credits Cerinthus as being the writer of the Apocalypse of John, thereby renaming the Apocalypse of Cerinthus.
Whatever disagreements there might have been on page, and they are manifold, one thing can be certain is that these disagreements remained there, bound to the pages of scripture, and never came to physical blows in those first to centuries. No accusations of violence of one toward the other existed in any ways. But these factions did exist, and made their way on to the pages of those who had skin in the game. It may be found to be advantageous should other manuscript sources emerge on the scene, with what we have on record in our current modern era, it can be clearly seen as a matter of irrefutable fact which is easily taken for granted, that no Christians were levying or scheming charges to be brought against Gnostic communities which would cost them their lives. On the contrary, Christians faced persecution at the hands of conspirators until Constantine’s rise in the 4th century. Gnostic communities were largely spared this humiliation as they were more inclined to abide by Roman and Jewish requirements in law and religion. Not so among Christians, who were being expended for making their arguments as evidence against them, to be fed to lions. If any of Simonian or Cerinthusian persuasion had faced such a fate, at least their credentials would likewise be reevaluated, since to face persecution for the truth of the Gospel, was the surest sign that you’d found the genuine way established by Christ Himself, the first to suffer and pay with their life.
“Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ’s pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.” - Ignatius of Antioch Letter to the Romans
