cheenc03a.pdf

SIMON MAGUS
with the devil.
Nor yet even among Christians war any, such eltimate put
"PO" him at ro date a3 in the aposlollo age ; he acquxrcd
it by the enhanced 3mportance which camc to he attached to
him thl.oueh the romznce of which he war the hero. Thus if
Simon rh&ld be mesnr we should have to reject ax too eslly
,he dating of Preuwhen, who underitandl b the three men
who destroy mome (v. 51%) ~r~br, otho, and Cin~~iur (68 and
6g A,!.) qnd by the fire from heaven (u 53%) !he eruption of
Veruv~us m 79 A,". Moreover rhe second darlng cancels the
firrt: for that Grlba, Orha, and Viteiliur had dcrtroycd Rome
could no longer he believed aft~r 69 A.D. GelTcken (TU23r
p. who agrees with Jelicher uregardr Simon Mngur,
~ud~ctoudy leaves the date undetermined. Yet it is altogcrher
W""g to rake uu, 36-9. or even w. 16-92 nr a unity. I"
the pusage before !,r the destructlo" of the wail$ by fire is
predlsted as romcthlng new no less than three ilmcs (53-6r,
,I-,+, 8487); and moreover the destruction of Rome by !he
three mcn just referred to follows upon the reign dthe Merq~ah
over all the earth (46.52). whilst of course it must have preceded
it, and the reign of the widow over ihc world follows npon the
destruction of the world together with Beliar and his follovcrr
by fire (71.7,)~ and also u on the dertmstion of Rome by the
three men already rc1ated)in;. ;I/, which would he equally
inappropriate whether the widow be taken ar meining fhc
widow C1roprtra or Rome. Thur only w 63-74 come into
account as a unity for our present dirsusslon.
(6) Simon the Magician has been detected in the
'other bezt' of Rev. 13rr.17 (which in 161~ 1 9 2010 ~
is called the 'false prophet') in recent years by Spitta
(Oflnd. d loh., 1889, pp. 380-385) and Erber (Offenb.
Joh., 189r. pp. 25-27). Thb identification may in some
measure suit the wonderful works which are attributed
to this beast in 13rj-rja. But it no way suits the regard
for the worship of the Emperor in w. I2lid, and the
exclilsion of those who have not the mark of the beast
on hand or forehead from the buying and selling, unless
we choose to suppore that the figure of Simon furnished
merely the outlines for this second kart which were
filled in by the author with essentially new features.
Still less havc Volkmai(Cumm. e. OJnnd.Iah., 1862, p
2x3, Ulom (ThT 1884, pp. 175-181) and Kappcler
Z*.c