Simon

Simon is a personal name — the Greek form of the Hebrew name Simeon — carried by several different men in the New Testament, which is why the Gospel writers and Luke in Acts almost always qualify it with a second name, a trade, a family relationship, or a place.

Scripture names a Simon among the brothers of Jesus. The text says the townspeople of Nazareth ask, "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?" (Matthew 13:55), and Mark's account lists the same household: "Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joses, Judah, and Simon?" (Mark 6:3). The name itself is a well-attested Jewish name of the period, and its Greek form is the ordinary spelling used throughout the New Testament.

Other Simons are distinguished by an added description. Acts 1:13 lists "Simon the Zealot" among those gathered in the upper room after the ascension, the qualifier serving to separate him from others of the same name. John's Gospel refers twice to "Simon Iscariot," but only as the father of Judas: "he spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot" (John 6:71), and "Judas Iscariot, Simon's son" (John 13:2). Mark 14:3 places Jesus at table "in the house of Simon the leper" at Bethany, where a woman poured costly nard over his head. Luke's account of a woman who anointed Jesus at a Pharisee's table names the host Simon a few verses later (Luke 7:40, 44), though the verse describing the host's reaction calls him only "the Pharisee who had invited him" (Luke 7:39).

The most fully drawn of these figures is Simon of Samaria in Acts. The text says that when the crowd in Samaria believed Philip's preaching of the kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ, "they were baptized, both men and women" (Acts 8:12), and that Simon too believed and was baptized. When he saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, "he offered them money" (Acts 8:18), and Peter answered, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart isn't right before God. Repent therefore of this, your wickedness" (Acts 8:20–22). Historically, the later church's word for buying or selling spiritual office derives from his name.

Christian traditions differ on some of these figures without disputing the text. In this tradition and in that one, the Simon listed as Jesus' brother (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3) is read as a full sibling, a half-brother from an earlier marriage of Joseph, or a cousin, depending on how the Greek words for brother and sister are understood and on each communion's teaching about Mary; one way to read the Acts narrative is that Simon of Samaria's belief and baptism were genuine but immature, while another reading takes Peter's words as addressed to a heart not truly converted (Acts 8:21–22).

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.