SIMON sī’ mən (Σίμων, G4981, snub-nosed [?], Gr. form of Heb. שִׁמְעֹֽון, which is diminutive of שָׁמַע אֵל, God has heard). 1. Simon surnamed Peter, “stone,” and Cephas, Aram. for “rock” (Matt 4:18; 16:17, 18). A native of Beth-saida on the Sea of Galilee (John 1:44), he was the son of John (or Jonah, Matt 16:17, KJV). He was a fisherman with his brother Andrew who led him to Christ after he himself had found the Messiah. Simon Peter became the most prominent of the twelve apostles, a leader of the Early Church in Jerusalem, and later authored the two NT epistles bearing his name. (See Simon Peter.)

2. Another of the twelve disciples of Jesus, Simon called “the Cananaean” (Matt 10:4; Mark 3:18) to distinguish him from Simon Peter; not that he was a Canaanite or from Cana, but a “zealot,” “enthusiast” (from Aram. קַנָאַן). In Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13 he is correctly called “the Zealot” since he was a member of that party of patriotic Jews who so zealously opposed the Rom. rule in Pal. and fanatically resorted to violence in their hatred of the foreign yoke.

3. A brother of the Lord (Matt 13:55; Mark 6:3).

4. A leper in Bethany in whose house Mary anointed Jesus’ head with expensive ointment (Mark 14:3-9; cf. John 12:1-8).

5. A Pharisee in whose house a sinful woman anointed the feet of Jesus with her tears and ointment. Simon’s criticism of the act by an unclean woman of such low reputation drew forth from Jesus a parable which taught Simon the relation between forgiveness and appreciation (Luke 7:36-50). Jesus commended the woman for her love and faith.

6. A man from Cyrene in N Africa who was compelled to carry the cross of Christ (Matt 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26). Mark calls him “the father of Alexander and Rufus” who were well-known to Mark’s readers (prob. in the church at Rome, cf. Rom 16:13). Because of this relation, Simon was not likely a Negro, but one of many Jews living in Cyrene, now in Jerusalem, perhaps on business.

7. The father of Judas Iscariot (John 6:71; 12:4 KJV; 13:2, 26).

8. See Simon Magus.

9. The tanner of Joppa in whose house Peter stayed “for many days” (Acts 9:43; 10:6, 17, 32). His house was by the seaside outside the city wall, because the handling of dead bodies made tanning ceremonially unclean to a Jew.

Bibliography “Simonians,” J. H. Blunt, ed., Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools of Religious Thought (1874); R. M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity (1960), ch. 3.