✝🇻🇦O13 N Deacon Philip and Simon Magus

Acts Timeline

https://www.2belikechrist.com/articles/timeline-of-the-book-of-acts

Acts 8:9-25

Good evening everyone,

Just a quick update, the next couple episodes will be the next few promised installments in the big timeline project, episodes of which are now marked with a latin cross at the beginning of the episode name to make them easily identifiable, now including all such episodes released so far.

For those episodes, remember they were originally put together for the daily format, so words like “yesterday” and “tomorrow” should be taken with a grain of salt, as the last such episode was in early October, and the next after these will be in 2025 at the earliest.

Next month, which I guess is technically this month, I'm officially recording in March now, uh anyways later in March we’ve got some birthday interviews, and I’m going to let those carry the show until April, when the next worldbuilding Episode on the Gospel of Mark should be ready, followed by Luke in May and John in June. If I fall behind on that plan, don't be alarmed, that's life and there's a lot of life right now. No matter what, I'll have another update for you on June 29th, everyone's favorite feast day, and don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Cardinal Numbers.

Anyways, for today, here's past me, going into a little more detail about the adventures of Saint Philip, the Evangelist!

Welcome to Popeular History! My name is Gregg, and yeah, there are show notes these days. They have transcripts, and links! Lovely stuff. Anyways…

Last episode we concluded our discussion of who can claim the status of the First Gentile Convert. If the Samaritans Philip had converted shortly after Stephen's stoning count- and to be clear as I previously argued I don't think they actually should, since Samaritans aren't normally considered gentiles, but if they do manage to count, then Simon Magus has a decent claim to be the first Gentile convert, as he was among those first recorded Samaritan baptisms.

Let's dive in, quote

"for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw." End quote

Now that's basically the part we covered last episode, but with the addition of Simon as a sorcerer. But wait, there's more! Quote:

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit."

End quote

This is one of the key texts for the practice of the Sacrament of Confirmation, as it shows a separate reception of the Holy Spirit after baptism. It's also interesting to observe how the baptism was carried out by Deacon Philip, but the confirmation part seems to have required the presence of the apostles, the predecessors of the bishops. This matches current practice, where deacons- or really anyone in a pinch- can baptize, but confirmation is generally reserved to the bishop. In modern practice it might also be delegated to the priests, so maybe some of those priests who joined the Jerusalem Jesus club after Peter's Pentecost homily could have done in a pinch.

I also want to note that I saw some commentary suggesting Philip the Deacon was the same as Philip the Apostle, sort of an embedded agent among the deacons, but I think the way that all played out just now is an effective counterargument to that theory. There's a million Johns, why not multiple Philips?

Anyways, the next section is what Simon is most famous for and is where the practice of Simony- the selling of Church offices, blessings, and or pardons gets its name.

Quote

"When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

End quote

Alright, so Peter condemns, and Simon Magus repents, and therefore the practice of Simony is ended for all time. Just kidding. Simony is one of the most popular pieces of corruption in the Church, and while being pretty consistently condemned it just keeps popping up. We'll even get to the point where the Papacy is effectively sold, and yeah, that's considered a low point, not to mention the way the apparent selling of forgiveness in the form of indulgences helped spark the Protestant Reformation. There was some fancy mental and theological footwork being done to argue that the whole indulgences thing wasn't *really* Simony, but the whole situation reeked of corruption and Europe exploded. Now look, it wasn't the only cause and I'm being needlessly dramatic here, but let me have this one because that was fun to say.

Speaking of things we can have fun with but should probably feel academically guilty about, I want to turn to some less generally reliable sources tomorrow. You know, the 3s, 4s, and 5s on our credibility scale. They've got more info on Deacon Philip, more info on Simeon Bachos- remember that's the Ethiopian Eunuch, a lot more info on Simon Magus, and heck, more info on Peter too, while we're at it. Of course I think the word "info" might be a stretch. Words. These sources have more words on those folks.

I'm sure tomorrow will be a banger as we dive onto the New Testament Apocrypha- and as we make our way to Rome!