Early Legends
THE MESSAGE spreads to Gentiles in distant regions like Adiabene and Osroene. In Adiabene, King Izates and his mother Helena fall under the influence of Jewish teachers, first becoming God-fearers and then becoming Jewish. In nearby Osroene, an apostolic mission to Edessa results in the miraculous healing and conversion of King Abgar the Black. Meanwhile, Simon Magus, a Samaritan magician, spreads heretical teachings, claiming to be a divine power. Peter debates Simon, who twists the Scriptures to support his claims. Peter also takes on a new Gentile disciple named Clement of Rome. Back in Jerusalem, James contends with another magician.
The legend about Simon Magus is an important thread in the apostolic narratives, connecting the book of Acts and later legendary embellishments. The real significance of the story is not the drama of the confrontations with Peter but the larger contest between Judaism and the Gnostic distortions of Yeshua faith. We take a closer look at Simon Magus and the heretical religious movement credited to him.
The Conversion of King Izates
While the apostles in Jerusalem debated about whether of not to receive Cornelius the God-fearer and his household into the Way, the message was already spreading to Gentiles in other places. Gentiles in the faraway kingdoms of Adiabene and Osroene were learning about the God of the Jews and His Messiah.
The Syriac-speaking kingdom of Adiabene, with its capital at Arbela (modern Arbil, Iraq), straddled the highlands of what is today the Kurdish areas of Iraq, Armenia, and northern Iran. Adiabene was part of the Assyrian province of the Parthian Empire.
King Monobazus 1 of Adiabene had many wives and many sons, but he loved his wife Helena the most. She gave him a son, and he bestowed on him the royal name Monobazus 11, making him the heir apparent. Helena conceived again. One night, while his wife was still pregnant with her second son, the king slept beside her with his hands on her stomach. A voice spoke to him in a dream, telling him to remove his hands and to protect the child, for this one was chosen by God. Monobazus worshiped the planets and Mesopotamian gods. The voice so frightened him that he awoke his wife and told her what he had heard.
Monobazus named the son Izates (Ezad). Like Jacob with his son Joseph, King Monobazus placed all of his affection on Izates, to the point that the other brothers hated the boy. For the protection of the young man, the king sent him away to be tutored and raised in a foreign court.
Izates fell in love with and married Samachos, a princess of that kingdom. It so happened that Princess Samachos had fallen under the influence of a Jewish teacher. The princess introduced her new husband to a Jew named Ananias (Chananyah) and to the religion of Judaism:
While Izates was living at Charax Spasinu, a certain Jewish merchant named Ananias got among the women that belonged to the king, and taught them to worship God according to the Jewish religion. Through the women, he met Izates and persuaded him, in like manner, to embrace that religion. (Josephus, Antiquities 20:34-35/11.3)
This took place sometime between 30 and 36 CE, perhaps prior to the story about Cornelius the centurion in Acts 10. When Izates turned to the God of the Jews, he wanted to immediately undergo circumcision as a sign of his conversion. Ananias discouraged him from doing so, telling him that he could worship God without being circumcised, even though he resolved to follow the whole Torah:
He said that he could worship God without being circumcised, even if he resolved to follow the Jewish law entirely, the worship of God was of a superior nature to circumcision. (Josephus, Antiquities 20:41/11.4)
Readers of Josephus have often wondered if Ananias might not have been a disciple of Yeshua. His type of active proselytism seems more consistent with the disciples of Yeshua than it does with the rest of first-century Judaism. (Remember that, at that early time, "Christianity" was still a sect of Judaism, not an independent religion that could have been defined outside of Judaism. Josephus would not have made the distinction. The royal house of Adiabene may have first learned Judaism through the Sect of the Way.) Ananias's approach to the Gentiles seems to anticipate the policy later taught by the Apostle Paul. Ananias encouraged his students to become God-fearing Gentiles, but he discouraged them from undergoing a formal conversion to become Jewish. He counseled Izates against circumcision.
Like Paul's converts, Izates became an adherent of Judaism but was not Jewish-not a proselyte either. He became a God-fearer. To this day, the common name for Christians in the Iranian languages is "Tarsakan," i.e., "Fearers."
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
A God-Fearer on the Throne
King Monobazus died. His wife Helena went to work securing the throne for her younger son, lzates. She summoned all the political officers and told them how her husband Monobazus had chosen Izates to succeed. She said, "I believe you are aware that my husband wanted Izates to succeed him in the government and thought him worthy of the position. However, I await your decision; for happy is he who receives a kingdom, not from a single person only, but from the willing consent of the majority." With similar entreaties, she secured their loyalty.
When he returned home to take his throne, Izates brought Ananias the Jew with him to Adiabene. He hoped that Ananias might influence his mother to accept Judaism. He was too late. In his absence, his mother Helena had already embraced the religion of the Jews. She had done so without knowing about her son's new convictions; neither had Izates suspected that his mother was also under the influence of the Jewish faith.
Izates took this as a sign from God, and he immediately sought full conversion to become Jewish. His mother tried to dissuade him. She warned him that a legal conversion and circumcision would put him in political danger. When his subjects came to realize that he, their king, adopted strange and foreign rituals, they would find him odious. She warned him that his subjects would never submit to being ruled over by a Jew.
Ananias the Jew agreed with Queen Helena. He confirmed her words and comforted Izates, telling him that God would certainly forgive the omission of circumcision since it literally constituted a danger to his life. Under the counsel of his teacher and the urging of his mother, Izates consented to forego a legal conversion and simply live as a God-fearer.
Sometime later, however, a certain Galilean Jew named Eleazar arrived in Adiabene. He was a sage and Torah scholar. King Izates heard about the arrival of the sage and invited him to visit the royal court. When Eleazar entered the palace, he found Izates seated, reading the Torah of Moses. Like Paul's theological opponents among the apostles, Eleazar of Galilee dismissed the God-fearer status as illegitimate. He had some sharp words for the uncircumcised king:
Have you never considered, O King, that you unjustly violate the rule of those laws you are studying, and you are an insult to God himself by omitting to be circumcised. For you should not merely study the commandments; more importantly, you should do what they tell you to do. How long will you continue to be uncircumcised? But if you have not yet read the law about circumcision, and if you are unaware of how great an impiety you are guilty of by neglecting it, read it now. (Josephus, Antiquities 20:44-45/11.4)
The king immediately sent for a surgeon. Izates completed his formal conversion to Judaism at Eleazar's behest and under his supervision. His mother did so as well. That's how Izates and Queen Helena became Jewish.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Later History of Izates
God blessed Izates and the kingdom of Adiabene. The Jewish king became highly respected and an important power broker in Parthian politics. He obtained wealth, political power, and the friendship of the king of Parthia.
Queen Helena and King Izates used their considerable wealth to provide famine relief for Jerusalem and Judea during the reign of Herod Agrippa, and the sages praised them. They used a large portion of their own state treasury to buy grain in Alexandria and dried fruits in Cyprus. They hired a fleet to ship the food to Judea.
Izates and Helena built palaces for themselves within the holy city, on the northern end of the southern hill, just at the foot of the Temple Mount. Their palaces were so large and magnificent that they became prominent landmarks. Queen Helena so loved the holy city that she wanted to be buried there. She prepared monumental tombs for herself and her two sons outside Jerusalem's walls. Izates sent his sons to learn Hebrew in Jerusalem. God blessed the king and prospered his kingdom.
Not everyone was pleased with the Jewish king. When his brother Monobazus and other relatives publicly admitted that they, too, had converted to Judaism, the noblemen of Adiabene made several attempts to overthrow Izates. On one occasion, they conspired with the king of Nabataea to start a war with Adiabene. Izates found himself leading his army to battle against the Nabataeans:
Queen Helena said, "If my son comes home from war whole and in one piece, I shall be a Nazirite for seven years." Her son did come home from war, and she was a Nazirite for seven years. Then at the end of the seven years she went up to the land [of Israel]. The house of Hillel instructed her that she should redo the vow in the land for another seven years. Then, at the end of the seven years, she became unclean, and had to repeat the term. She turned out to be a Nazirite for fourteen years. Rabbi Yehudah says, "She was only a Nazirite for twenty-one years." (m. Nazir 3:6)
Helena submitted herself completely to the authority of the sages. Izates and Helena contributed vast sums toward the Temple. Izates replaced the handles on all the vessels that the high priest used for the Yom Kippur rituals with pure gold. Helena adorned the gate of the Temple with a great, golden menorah that seemed to ignite with the reflection of the first light of dawn as it broke in the east:
When the sun rose, sparkling rays proceeded from it, and everyone knew that it was time to say the morning Shema. (b. Yoma 37b)
She also had a golden tablet made and inscribed with the words of the vow of the bitter water for a woman suspected of adultery. Queen Helena once set up a tall sukkah (festival booth) in the city of Lydda. Some sages felt that the walls were too high for a valid sukkah. Nevertheless, they did not dare say anything to her about it, and they dined with her in her enormous three-story sukkah.
Back in Adiabene, the noblemen who resented being ruled over by a Jew continued to conspire against the king. They enlisted the help of the new king of Parthia. He brought his army up against Adiabene, an overwhelming force. Izates prepared for war. The Parthian army took up positions on his borders, poised to sweep across the Euphrates and topple Adiabene. With no hope of defending his kingdom, Izates turned to God with tears and prayed for deliverance:
O Lord and Ruler, I have committed myself to your goodness, and am convinced that you alone are the Lord and First over all beings. If I have not done so in vain, come now to my assistance, and defend me from my enemies, not only on my own account, but on account of their insolent behavior regarding your power. For they have not been afraid to lift up their proud and arrogant tongue against you. (Josephus, Antiquities 20:90/iv.2)
That very night, a miracle happened. The king of Parthia received letters calling the army back to Parthia to deal with raiders who, in the absence of the army, were laying his land to waste.
In the year 56 CE, after two decades and some years on the throne, Izates died at the age of 55. His older brother Monobazus, also a convert to Judaism, succeeded him. His mother did not survive Izates long. Monobazus had her bones and the bones of his brother sent to Jerusalem and interred in the monumental tombs Helena had prepared. The rock cut "Tomb of the Kings" in East Jerusalem, north of the Old City walls, has been identified as the tomb of Queen Helena and her sons.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Abgar the Black and Mar Addai
Not far from ancient Adiabene and the kingdom of Izates, the city of Sanllurfa (Urfa) occupies a plain about forty miles east of the Euphrates River in Modern Turkey. In the days of the apostles, the city was called Edessa. King Abgar the Black ruled there over the kingdom of Osroene, a Syriac-speaking kingdom on the upper course of the Euphrates. He was the fifth king in a long dynastic succession; each king bore the enthronement name Abgar. Like the people of neighboring Adiabene, the house of Abgar worshiped the planets and prayed to the Mesopotamian gods.
Legend says that King Abgar suffered from an incurable disease, apparently a bad case of gout. No physician was able to heal him (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 1.13, The Teaching of Addai). A member of his court told him about a miracle-worker in the land of Judea who healed without medicine or herbs. Abgar dispatched a Jewish servant by the name of Chananyah (Ananias) to Judea. The servant carried an official letter inviting the healer to come at once to Edessa and heal the king: "For, as the story goes, you make the blind regain their sight, the lame to walk, and you cleanse lepers and cast out unclean spirits and demons, and you cure those tormented by long disease."
The servant returned without the healer but with a promise from the healer to send one of his disciples.
Sometime later, the Apostle Judas Thomas dispatched Thaddeus and another disciple named Mari to the city of Edessa. The mission sounds plausible. Jewish communities existed in Edessa and Adiabene, and the apostles may have been in contact with believers in those kingdoms.
On arriving in the city of Edessa, Thaddeus and Mari found lodging in the house of Tobias the son of Tobias, "a Jew from Palestine." Thaddeus began, in the power of God, to heal every disease and sickness, causing much amazement in the city. Word of the miracles soon reached the palace.
King Abgar summoned Tobias and said to him, "I have heard that a certain man of power has come and is staying in your house. Bring him up to me. Maybe there shall be found for me some good hope of healing from him."
Tobias returned to his home and said to his guests, "The king, Abgar, summoned me and told me to bring you to him in order to heal him."
Thaddeus replied, "I will go. This is why I have been sent."
Tobias rose early the next morning and brought Thaddeus the apostle before Abgar. As soon as Abgar laid eyes on Thaddeus, a wonderful vision appeared to him from the face of the apostle. Abgar prostrated himself before Thaddeus, much to the dismay of his noble court. (They did not see the vision.) Abgar asked, "Are you a disciple of Yeshua, that man of valor, the Son of God?"
Thaddeus replied, "Because you have had faith in Him who sent me to you, for this reason I was sent. And if you will believe in Him, your request will be to you as you believe."
Abgar confessed faith in Yeshua and the God of the Jews: "I believe in Him and in His Father."
Thaddeus said, "I lay my hand on you in His name." Immediately, the king was healed from his disease and its suffering without drugs or herbs, and not only him but also another man named Abdus ben Abdus who suffered from gout. He, too, came and showed the apostle his feet and received prayer at his hands and was healed from his gout.
Abgar invited the apostle to tell the whole court, indeed, the whole city, the message about Yeshua. He also ordered his servants to give Thaddeus silver and gold in payment for the healing. Thaddeus replied, "If we have left our own things behind, how shall we take those of others? For our Master commanded us to go out without money bag or wallet. Rather, carrying crosses on our shoulders, we have been commanded to preach His good news."
Thaddeus stayed in Edessa for some time, teaching and ministering, while his traveling companion, Mari, went on to other locations in Mesopotamia. Syriac tradition holds that, after some years, Thaddeus died in Edessa on the fourteenth of lyyar. "And the whole city was in great mourning and bitter anguish for him. Nor was it the Christians only that were distressed for him, but the Jews also, and the pagans, who were in this same town" ("Ancient Syriac Documents: The Teaching of Addaeus the Apostle," in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 8, 664).
Thaddaeus, also called Labbaeus and who was surnamed Judas the Zealot preached the truth to Edessenes and the people of Mesopotamia, when Abgarus ruled over Edessa. (Apostolic Constitutions)
The stories of Izates in Adiabene and Abgar in Edessa share several common elements. Both kingdoms belong to the same general geography. Both were part of the Parthian Empire. Both stories can be dated to the fourth decade of the first century. Both stories involve the conversion of a monarch who comes into contact with itinerant Jewish evangelists.
The story of Izates, told by Josephus and corroborated in rabbinic literature, is certainly authentic. The story of Abgar and Thaddeus stands on less certain ground. The versions preserved for us in Eusebius and the Syriac Teaching of Addai cannot be considered strictly reliable, but their narrative might be based on a traditional memory of an apostolic visit. Fantastical embellishments (such as supposed correspondence exchanged between Abgar and Jesus) do not diminish the possibility of real contact between the apostolic community and the royal court at Edessa. In any event, when compared with the historical story of King Izates, the legend about the disciples Thaddeus and Mari at work in Edessa appears more plausible.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Clement of Rome
At some point in the days of the apostles, Clement of Rome became a disciple of Yeshua. He is considered to be one of the "Apostolic Fathers," a technical term that means he personally knew the apostles and learned directly from them. Church tradition identifies him as a disciple of Peter, but he is also associated with Paul on the strength of Philippians 4:3: "Together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life." He ultimately became a leader in the congregation at Rome:
The seat of overseer fell to Clement, who had seen the blessed apostles and conversed with them, and still had their preaching ringing in his ears and their authentic tradition before his eyes. And he was not the only one: there were still many people alive who had been taught by the apostles. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5.6)
Clement wrote the lengthy epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, also known as I Clement, in the late first century. Early churches read the Epistle of Clement along with the epistles that eventually became canonical. If Clement had been an apostle instead of the disciple of an apostle, the Epistle of Clement might have been included in the New Testament canon.
In the third century, a theological treatise disguised as a novel about Clement's adventures with the apostles began to circulate. The novel still exists in two versions. The Greek version is called the Clementine Homilies. A Latin version called Clementine Recognitions tells essentially the same story. A late Syriac manuscript from Edessa contains parts of both Homilies and Recognitions. Scholars agree that all of our existing versions are redactions of an earlier apocryphal version. The collective versions are referred to as Pseudo-Clementine Writings (which means, the fake writings of Clement). They show unmistakable evidence of Jewish authorship--literature left behind by communities of Jewish believers.
According to the story told in the twin works of Clementine Recognitions and Homilies, Clement was a Roman citizen, born and educated in that great city. He possessed a strong moral compass, pursuing virtue and fleeing vice, but nagging questions about the existence of the soul, the gods, the origins of things, and all the basic questions of human mortality vexed him continually and undermined his resolve to live a moral life. He sought for answers in philosophy but found that field to be more an exercise in rhetorical skills and argumentation than an actual quest for truth. He considered abandoning all fears of divine punishment and becoming a hedonist, but uncertainty about the possibility of comeuppance in the afterlife paralyzed him with fear. He considered taking a scientific approach to the occult and necromancy, similar to the experiments of parapsychologists, in order to determine whether or not incorporeal spirits exist, but a philosopher friend warned him that the gods would not tolerate that type of dabbling.
While exploring all things supernatural and pertaining to the divine, he heard a report about a miracle-working holy man in Judea. Sometime later, he encountered a man called Barnabas teaching in Rome. He decided to travel to Judea to see if the reports were true and if the claims of Barnabas could be verified.
He delayed a long while, trying to settle some business affairs. When he finally made the trip, adverse winds forced his ship to land in Alexandria, Egypt, instead of Caesarea. While in Alexandria, he made inquiries about the Judean holy man among the philosophers. He was presently introduced to an apostle. It turned out to be Barnabas, the same apostle he had encountered earlier in Rome. Barnabas brought him to Caesarea and introduced him to Simon Peter.
Simon Peter provided Clement with a summary of Bible history, presenting Yeshua as the promised "true prophet" like Moses. He brought Clement up to speed with stories of the apostles in Jerusalem and their interaction with various Jewish groups and authorities.
As it turned out, Simon Peter had come to Caesarea on a mission to challenge and refute a certain heretic who had been drawing a following to himself: the wicked Simon Magus. Peter invited Clement to stay and witness the debate.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Shi’mon Magus Again
Justin Martyr grew up in Samaria in the early second century. He describes Simon Magus as follows:
There was a Samaritan, Simon, a native of the village of Gitto [n] ... Almost all the Samaritans, and a few even of other nations, worship him, and acknowledge him as the first god; and a woman named Helen who went around with him at that time. She had formerly been a prostitute, but [Simon's followers] say she is the first [divine] emanation generated by him. And a man, Meander, also a Samaritan from the town of Capparetaea, was a disciple of Simon. Inspired by devils, we know that he used his magical arts to deceive many while he was in Antioch. (Justin Martyr, First Apology I:26)
The second-century church writer Irenaeus describes the beliefs of Simon Magus at length in his work Against Heresies (1.23.I-4). Scholars disagree about the accuracy of his claims, but Irenaeus credits Simon Magus with the origin of Christian Gnosticism: the belief that secret knowledge is required for the soul to escape the prison of physicality and return to its source.
Simon began to present himself as the same divine power that appeared among the Jews as the Son of God. Just as he had appeared among the Jews as the "Son of God," he had come among the Samaritan people as the Father-a direct manifestation of "the being who is the father over all." This "father god" was not the God of the Bible; rather, he was a higher being unknown and unrevealed, similar to the Platonic conception of an unknowable, transcendent deity.
As mentioned by Justin Martyr, Simon Magus took a consort named Helen. He redeemed her from the slave markets of Tyre, where she had been used as a prostitute. He purchased her and deified her. He introduced her to his followers as the first emanation of his mind, the mother of all, by whom, in the beginning, he had formed the angelic beings. She was to him as the moon is to the sun, so he referred to her as Luna.
The angelic beings he created through her, however, rebelled against her. They denied the higher power of the unknowable god from which she emanated. They denied his existence and declared themselves to be the true gods. They made the material world by twisting her power. Among the Jews, these renegade angelic forces presented themselves as the LORD, the God of the Jews. They authored the Scriptures and kept men in subjugation under their capricious law: the Torah.
Gnosticism used philosophical dualism and an early form of Neo-Platonism to supplant Judaism, retell the story of the Bible, and ultimately co-opt the good news of Yeshua. This clever, new system of theosophy transformed the good news into something completely different. In the new, enlightened world of Simon Magus, the God of the Jews became an evil angel. The Torah was His snare to entrap souls in bondage to the material world and keep them ignorant about the truth. Jesus was not the Son of the God of the Jews, but the son of a higher god who came to fight the lower angels (including the LORD) and to liberate souls from the material world.
This satanic reversal of the gospel laid all the necessary foundations for Christian Gnosticism. It used the Scriptures in reverse to prove the exact opposite of what they were saying. The early church writers traced all the Gnostic Christian sects that plagued the second, third, and fourth centuries back to Simon Magus.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Showdown in Caesarea
According to the version of the story told in the second-century fictionalized accounts of Clementine Recognitions and Homilies, Simon Magus left Samaria and began to propagate his ideas in Caesarea. He used sorcery, spellcraft, and necromancy to amaze the people and draw a following. If he had simply started a pagan cult, the apostles in Jerusalem would have paid him no attention. When they heard that he invoked the name and reputation of Yeshua as part of his charade, they felt compelled to answer the claims. In the Clementine Recognitions, Peter explained the situation to his new disciple, Clement of Rome:
James the bishop sent me here to Caesarea, saying that Zacchaeus had written to him from Caesarea, that one Simon, a Samaritan magician, was subverting many of our people, asserting that he was the One Standing, that is, in other words, the Messiah, and the great power of the high god, which is a deity [supposedly] superior to the Creator of the world. At the same time, he was showing many miracles, causing some to doubt and causing others to fall away. (Clementine Recognitions I.72)
Simon Peter and a delegation of disciples arranged to debate Simon Magus in a disputation. Clement is introduced to several characters in Peter's entourage, some of whom we recognize from the gospels (Zaccheaus, Thomas, Lazarus, and Aeneas from Acts 9:33):
Zaccheus, who was once a publican, and Sophonias his brother; Joseph and his foster-brother Michaias; also Thomas and Eliezer the twins; also Aeneas and Lazarus the priests; besides also Eliseus, and Benjamin the son of Saphrus; as also Rubilus and Zacharias the builders; and Ananias and Haggaeus the Jamminians; and Nicetas and Aquila the friends. (Clementine Homilies 2:I)
They hoped to publicly repudiate the claims of Simon Magus. They chose the courtyard of a large house in Caesarea for the debate.
After some delay, the day of the debate arrived. Peter and the brethren rose for prayer and prepared. Simon Magus arrived as arranged, and many observers crowded into the courtyard. Simon and Simon argued regarding the nature of God, the creation, the Scriptures, the existence of the undying soul, the meaning of various texts from the Torah and Prophets, and the interpretation of the words of Yeshua. The magician insisted that the one true god above all things did not create the physical universe. Rather, the lower angelic emanations had done so, and men called these beings gods and God. Therefore, polytheism was not less acceptable within the material world than monotheism, but the one true god was above all.
Each time the magician raised a new point of argument, he subtly twisted the Scriptures to support his claims. Peter answered each claim and countered with a proper explanation of the passage Simon Magus employed. Ultimately defeated by Peter's wisdom, Simon Magus flees the city, eventually making his way to Syria and ultimately to Rome.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Is This Story True?
Is the fictionalized Pseudo-Clementine story about a confrontation between Peter and Simon Magus in Caesarea at all reliable? Probably not, but if we strip it back to its basic details, a plausible scenario emerges. It seems plausible that Clement of Rome became a disciple of Simon Peter. His association with Peter has a strong foundation of church tradition. The second-century believers may have known a story about Clement's quest for truth and his first encounters with the apostles.
It also seems plausible that Simon Magus, in his jealousy over the gospel and the work of the apostles, did author a Gnostic perversion of truth he once sought to purchase. He probably did travel with a mysterious female consort whom he used to illustrate his seductive theosophy.
If he invoked the name of Yeshua of Nazareth, as seems likely, the apostles may well have been called upon to answer his deceits. They could have revealed him as a fraud and forced him to flee the country. In that age of false prophets, false messiahs, workers of sedition, and workers of magic, all of that seems plausible, if unverifiable.
On a symbolic level, the story is absolutely true. For second- and third-century believers, the story illustrated the real battle between the true faith inherited from the apostles and the many Gnostic perversions that nearly eclipsed it in the second century. Simon Peter represented apostolic authority and tradition. Simon Magus represented Gnostic Christianity in all its hydra-headed forms. Irenaeus' description of Simon Magus' religion accurately prefigures the anti-Jewish, anti-Torah Gnostic heresies that nearly strangled Gentile Christianity in the second century.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Ovadyah of Bavel
Legend says that among our Master's seventy disciples, he had a disciple named Obadiah. Sometime after the fall of Jerusalem, the Master's brothers, Jude and Simon, appointed Obadiah as the head of the assembly of Yeshua's followers in Babylon. Obadiah traveled to the large Jewish community in Babylon and took his position there. While he labored in Babylon for the gospel, he composed a memoir he called The History of the Apostles. The legend says his own disciple, Eutropius, translated the book from Hebrew to Greek, and it was a Greek work when it was acquired by Julius Africanus, who translated it into Latin as the ten-volume Historia Certaminis Apostolici (History of the Apostolic Contest). That's the legend. Scholars report that it shows no evidence of being written by a first-century Jew. Instead, it contains a vast collection of early medieval New Testament apocrypha, probably composed between the fifth and ninth centuries. It compiles legendary accounts of the lives and martyrdoms of the apostles, blending historical, hagiographical, and sometimes fantastical elements. Several of the stories, including the story of James and the Sorcerers (below), also appear in the medieval book of saints called The Golden Legend. Take it for what it's worth (probably not much) and enjoy it for its entertainment value.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
James and the Sorcerers
The religious leaders in Judea had witnessed Yeshua's miracles. They saw Him make the blind to see, the mute to talk, and the disabled to walk. They could not deny His miracles, but they explained them away, saying, "This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons" (Matthew 12:24).
The apostles also performed miracles in the manner of their Master. They healed the sick and did signs and wonders just as the Master had done. The people of Jerusalem saw their miracles, and many believed. James the son of Zebedee was among those who testified for Yeshua in Judea and Samaria, and he performed the signs and wonders and miracles of a true apostle.
Those who had opposed Yeshua demurred, "These cannot be miracles from God, for we know that God does not hear sinners. He uses magic as his teacher did." They hatched a plan to prove that the Apostle James employed forbidden magic. They employed an enchanter named Hermogenes to expose the fraud. Hermogenes sent his apprentice, Philetus, to challenge James publicly with some petty spells, but, as you will easily believe, he found he had no power against the apostle. Philetus followed James about and saw the things he did; he knew that neither he nor his teacher could do such wonders. Confessing himself utterly defeated by the apostle, Philetus returned to his wicked master. He reported all that he had seen and announced his intention to repent, follow James, and become his disciple. He urged Hermogenes to consider joining him.
The sorcerer was understandably angry with his apprentice. Using his diabolical spells, he bound Philetus with magic so that his body was completely paralyzed. He could not move a single muscle, hand, or foot. "Now we will see if your James can save you," Hermogenes said.
Philetus had a son who hurried to James and told him about the dreadful condition into which his father had fallen. James gave the young man his cloak and said, "Lay it over the man, and say to him that the Lord heals the sick and releases the bound."
The young man took the cloak to his father, spread it over him, and said, "The Lord heals the sick and releases the bound." The spell broke; Philetus sat up. He leaped up joyfully from his bed and hurried back to Jerusalem to throw himself at the feet of James.
When Hermogenes heard that his spell had been broken and that his apprentice had gone to become a disciple, he grew more furious than ever. He called to the demons that served him and summoned many devils. He commanded them, "Drag this fellow James back here bound in fetters! And bring my worthless apprentice as well."
When the evil spirits encountered James, they revealed themselves and cried, howling in the air and begging for mercy, for they saw that he was a disciple of Yeshua. They said, "James the apostle of God! Have mercy on us, for we burn before our time!"
James asked them, "Why have you come to me?"
They replied, "Hermogenes has sent us to you and to Philetus to bring you to him, and the angel of God has bound us with chains of fire and torments us."
James told them, "Go back to him who sent you and summon him to me." They returned, dragging Hermogenes bound in invisible fetters, and they rebuked him, saying, "You have sent us to a place where we were strongly tormented and grievously bound." They delivered the frightened sorcerer before the feet of James and pled, "Give us permission to take vengeance on our enemy and yours."
James did not heed them. He delivered Hermogenes from their invisible hands and told the sorcerer, "Go your way freely as you like. For we do not make disciples that are converted against their will."
Hermogenes said to him, "I am afraid of the anger of the devils. I know them well; they will try to slay me. Give me something to protect me." James gave him his staff.
Hermogenes gathered all of his spell books and his enchantments and would have brought them to James to be burnt, but James advised him to cast them into the sea lest the odor of their burning do mischief and harm some foolish person. And after he had cast his books into the sea, Hermogenes returned to James and took him by the feet, saying, "Receive me as a penitent, though I have until now spoken evil of you." From that day on, he began to walk in the fear of God so that many virtues were done by him afterward.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.