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Concept
Simon the Zealot
Summary
Simon the Zealot (, ) or Simon the Canaanite or Simon the Canaanean (, ; Σίμων ὁ Κανανίτης; ⲥⲓⲙⲱⲛ ⲡⲓ-ⲕⲁⲛⲁⲛⲉⲟⲥ; ܫܡܥܘܢ ܩܢܢܝܐ) was one of the most obscure among the apostles of Jesus. A few pseudepigraphical writings were connected to him, but Jerome does not include him in De viris illustribus written between 392 and 393 AD.
The name Simon occurs in all of the Synoptic Gospels and the Book of Acts each time there is a list of apostles, without further details:
Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.
To distinguish him from Simon Peter he is given a surname in all three of the Synoptic Gospels where he is mentioned. Simon is called "Zeloten" in Luke and Acts ( ). For this reason, it is generally assumed that Simon was a former member of the political party, the Zealots. In Matthew and Mark, however, he is called "Kananites" in the Byzantine majority and "Kananaios" in the Alexandrian manuscripts and the Textus Receptus ( ). Both Kananaios and Kananites derive from the Hebrew word קנאי qanai, meaning zealous, so most scholars today generally translate the two words to mean "Zealot". However, Jerome and others, such as Bede, suggested that the word "Kananaios" or "Kananite" should be translated as "Canaanean" or "Canaanite", meaning that Simon was from the town of קנה Cana in Galilee. If this is the case, his epithet would have been "Kanaios".
Robert Eisenman has argued that contemporary talmudic references to Zealots refer to them as kanna'im "but not really as a group—rather as avenging priests in the Temple". Eisenman's broader conclusions, that the zealot element in the original apostle group was disguised and overwritten to make it support the assimilative Pauline Christianity of the Gentiles, are more controversial. John P.
Official source
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