Acts 8:10

ἡ δύναμις το͂υ Θεοῦ ἡ μεγάλη : in R.V. the power of God which is called (καλουμένη) Great, see above, critical notes. T.R. may have omitted the word because it appeared unsuitable to the context; but it could not have been used in a depreciatory sense by the Samaritans, as if to intimate that the person claimed was the so-called “Great,” since they also gave heed to Simon. On the other hand it has been argued that the title “Great” is meaningless in this relation, for every divine power might be described by the same epithet (so Wendt, in loco, and Blass: “mirum maxime ἡ καλ. quasi δύναμις Θ. μικρά quoque esse possit”. This difficulty leads Blass in his notes to introduce the solution proposed by Klostermann, Problem im Aposteltexte, pp. 15 20 (1883), and approved by Wendt, Zöckler, Spitta, and recently by Zahn, Einleitung in das N. T., ii. 420; see also Salmon's remarks in Hermathena, xxi., p. 232), vix., that μεγάλη is not a translation of the attribute “great” רב, but rather a transcription of the Samaritan word מגלי or מגלא meaning qui revelat (cf. Hebrew גָּלָה, Chaldean גְּלָא גְּלַה, to reveal). The explanation would then be that in contrast to the hidden essence of the Godhead, Simon was known as its revealing power. Nestle however (see Knabenbauer in loco) objects on the ground that καλουμένη is not read at all in many MSS. But apart from Klostermann's explanation the revised text might fairly mean that amongst the “powers” of God (cf. the N.T. use of the word δυνάμεις in Romans 8:38; 1 Peter 3:22, and cf. Book of Enoch lxi. 10) Simon was emphatically the one which is called great, i.e., the one prominently great or divine. The same title was assigned to him in later accounts, cf. Irenæus, i., 23 (Clem. Hom., ii., 22; Clem. Recog., i., 72; ii, 7; Tertullian, De Præscr., xlvi.; Origen, c. Celsum, v.). But whatever the claims made by Simon himself, or attributed to him by his followers, we need not read them into the words before us. The expression might mean nothing more than that Simon called himself a great (or revealing) angel of God, since by the Samaritans the angels were regarded as δυνάμεις, powers of God (cf. Edersheim, Jesus the Messiah, i., 402, note 4, and De Wette, Apostelgeschichte, p. 122, fourth edition). Such an explanation is far more probable than the attribution to the Samaritans of later Gnostic and philosophical beliefs, while it is a complete answer to Overbeck, who argues that as the patristic literature about Simon presupposes the emanation theories of the Gnostics so the expression in the verse before us must be explained in the same way, and that thus we have a direct proof that the narrative is influenced by the Simon legend. We may however readily admit that Simon's teaching may have been a starting-point for the later Gnostic developments, and so far from Acts 8:10 demanding a Gnostic system as a background, we may rather see in it a glimpse of the genesis of the beliefs which afterwards figure so prominently in the Gnostic schools (Nösgen, Apostelgeschichte, in loco, and p. 186, and see McGiffert, Apostolic Age, p. 99, and “Gnosticism,” Dict. of Christ. Biog., ii., 680). On the close connection between the Samaritans and Egypt and the widespread study of sorcery amongst the Egyptian Samaritans see Deissmann, Bibelstudien, pp. 18, 19. In Hadrian's letter to Servianus we find the Samaritans in Egypt described, like the Jews and Christians there, as all astrologers, sooth sayers and quacks (Schürer, Jewish People, div. ii., vol. ii., p. 230 E.T.): no doubt an exaggeration, as Deissmann says, but still a proof that amongst these Egyptian Samaritans magic and its kindred arts were widely known. In a note on p. 19 Deissmann gives an interesting parallel to Acts 8:10, ἐπικαλοῦμαί σε τὴν μεγίστην δύναμιν τὴν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ (ἄλλοι · τὴν ἐν τῇ ἄρκτῳ) ὑπὸ Κυρίου Θεοῦ τεταγμένην (Pap. Par. Bibl. nat., 1275 ff.; Wessely, i., 76) (and he also compares Gospel of Peter, Acts 8:19, ἡ δύναμίς μου (2)). The expression according to him will thus have passed from its use amongst the Samaritans into the Zauber-litteratur of Egypt.