Simon Magus | Page 5

had stood, ticketed for hire, a Helen viler [than her
predecessor]. She was, therefore, the "lost sheep," to whom the highest
Father, Simon, you know, had descended. And after she was recovered
and brought back, I know not whether on his shoulders or knees, he
afterwards had respect to the salvation of men, as it were by the
liberation of those who had to be freed from these Angelic Powers, for
the purpose of deceiving whom he transformed himself, and pretended
that he was a man to men only, playing the part of the Son in Judaea,
and that of the Father in Samaria.
v. [Hippolytus (?)] (Philosophumena, vi. 7-20). Text: _Refutatio
Omnium Haeresium_ (ediderunt Lud. Duncker et F.G. Schneidewin);
Gottingae, 1859.
7. I shall, therefore, set forth the system of Simon of Gittha, a village of
Samaria, and shall show that it is from him that those who followed[9]
him got their inspiration, and that the speculations they venture upon
have been of a like nature, though their terminology is different.
This Simon was skilled in magic, and deluding many, partly by the art
of Thrasymedes, in the way we have explained above,[10] and partly
corrupting them by means of daemons, he endeavoured to deify
himself--a sorcerer fellow and full of insanity, whom the apostles
confuted in the Acts. Far more prudent and modest was the aim of
Apsethus, the Libyan, who tried to get himself thought a god in Libya.
And as the story of Apsethus is not very dissimilar to the ambition of
the foolish Simon, it will not be unseemly to repeat it, for it is quite in
keeping with Simon's endeavour.
8. Apsethus, the Libyan, wanted to become a god. But in spite of the
greatest exertions he failed to realize his longing, and so he desired that
at any rate people should think that he had become one; and, indeed, for
a considerable time he really did get people to think that such was the
case. For the foolish Libyans sacrificed to him as to some divine power,
thinking that they were placing their confidence in a voice that came
down from heaven.

Well, he collected a large number of parrots and put them all into a
cage. For there are a great many parrots in Libya and they mimic the
human voice very distinctly. So he kept the birds for some time and
taught them to say, "Apsethus is a god." And when, after a long time,
the birds were trained and could speak the sentence which he
considered would make him be thought to be a god, he opened the cage
and let the parrots go in every direction. And the voice of the birds as
they flew about went out into all Libya, and their words reached as far
as the Greek settlements. And thus the Libyans, astonished at the voice
of the birds, and having no idea of the trick which had been played
them by Apsethus, considered him to be a god.
But one of the Greeks, correctly surmising the contrivance of the
supposed god, not only confuted him by means of the self-same parrots,
but also caused the total destruction of this boastful and vulgar fellow.
For the Greek caught a number of the parrots and re-taught them to say
"Apsethus caged us and made us say, 'Apsethus is a god.'" And when
the Libyans heard the recantation of the parrots, they all assembled
together of one accord and burnt Apsethus alive.
9. And in the same way we must regard Simon, the magician, more
readily comparing him with the Libyan fellow's thus becoming a god.
And if the comparison is a correct one, and the fate which the magician
suffered was somewhat similar to that of Apsethus, let us endeavour to
re-teach the parrots of Simon, that he was not Christ, who has stood,
stands and will stand, but a man, the child of a woman, begotten of
seed, from blood and carnal desire, like other men. And that this is the
case, we shall easily demonstrate as our narrative proceeds.
Now Simon in his paraphrasing of the Law of Moses speaks with artful
misunderstanding. For when Moses says "God is a fire burning and
destroying,"[11] taking in an incorrect sense what Moses said, he
declares that Fire is the Universal Principle, not understanding what
was said, viz., not that "God is fire," but "a fire burning and
destroying." And thus he not only tears to pieces the Law of Moses, but
also plunders from Heracleitus the obscure.[12] And Simon states that
the Universal Principle is Boundless Power, as follows:

"_This is the writing of the revelation of Voice and Name from
Thought, the Great Power, the Boundless. Wherefore shall it be sealed,
hidden, concealed, laid in the Dwelling