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The Name Simon
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2011
Extract
Speculation about the “change” in the name of the apostle Peter will undoubtedly always be in order. In this respect the recent article of Cecil Roth of Oxford raises an interesting point. He suggests that the apostle's name Peter prevailed in time over Simon because of a current tendency of contemporary Judaism to avoid the use of the name Σίμων or װעמש. The latter name was “commonly or even methodically modified or eliminated, for some reason or the other, among the Jews at the beginning of the Christian era. One finds it difficult to avoid the conclusion that the modification of the name of the Apostle by the elimination of ‘Simon’ was connected with this and due to the same cause, whatever that may have been.” Roth offers parallels of persons whose name was Simon, but who were known more usually by a patronymic or a nickname (ben Sira, ben Zoma, ben Azzai, ben Nanos, bar Kochba), and suggests that it was a peculiarly “patriotic” name, borne by great national and revolutionary leaders such as Simon Maccabee, Simon the High Priest (Sir 50.1–21), Simeon ben Šeṭaḥ (politician-Rabbi of the second century B. C), Simon the rebel (Josephus, JW 2.4,2 #57; Ant. 17.10,6 #273), Simon the son of the founder of the Zealots, Judah the Galilean (Josephus, Ant. 20.5,2 #102), Simon bar Giora (leader in the First Revolt), Simon bar Kochba (leader of the Second Revolt).
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- Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1963
References
1 “Simon-Peter,” Harvard Theological Review LIV (1961), 91–97Google Scholar.
2 Ibid., p. 94.
3 Ibid., pp. 96–97.
4 Included are the names of those who were so named as Jews, even though they may have subsequently been converted to Christianity.
5 “Zur jüdischen Namenkunde,” Vom Alten Testament: Karl Marti zum siebzigsten Geburtstage gewidmet (Beiheft zur Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft XLI, Giessen, 1925), pp. 148–157Google Scholar. See also Noth, M., Die israelitischen Personennamen im Rahmen der gemeinsemitischen Namengebung (Stuttgart, 1928), p. 60Google Scholar.
6 Op. cit., pp. 150–151.
7 Op. cit., p. 155.
8 As a matter of fact, there are nine instances in the New Testament spelled Σίμων see Arndt, W. F. and Gingrich, F. W., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago, 1957), p. 758Google Scholar. But to these should be added two instances of Συμεών (Lk 2.25,34 and Acts 13.1, the former referring to the devout old man of Jerusalem, the latter to Simeon Niger, who is perhaps also the Simeon of Acts 15.4 — see Giet, S., “L’assemblée apostolique et le décret de Jérusalem. Qui éiait Siméon,” Recherches de science religieuse 39 (1951), 203–220Google Scholar).
9 Bagatti, B. and Milik, J. T., Gli scavi del ‘Dominus Flevit’ (Monte Oliveto —Gerusalemme): Part I, La necropoli del periodo romano (Pubblicazioni dello Studium Biblicum Franciscanum XIII; Jerusalem, 1958), pp. 76–77Google Scholar.
10 Ibid., p. 108.
11 A slight qualification should be made here because in the column in which the instances from Murabba‘ât are recorded, the total is given for Simon as “ca 14 + 7,” i.e., 14 occurrences in Hebrew or Aramaic texts and 7 occurrences in Greek texts. While the total is greater for Simon than for any other name, the name Joseph appears more frequently in the Greek texts, 9 times. — A further slight modification is in order, for in checking the Hebrew and Aramaic texts of Murabba‘ât we have found 17 instances of persons with the name 
, apart from the frequent mention of 
, Bar Kochba himself. See Benoit, P., Milik, J. T. and Vaux, R. de, Les Grottes de Murabba‘ât (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert II; Oxford, 1961)Google Scholar: 9 i 1 ([ ] 
); 28 i-ii 9 (
); 29, 10 (
and 
); 29 verso 4 ([ ] 
— possibly the same person as the first one mentioned in 29,10); 30,9 (
); 31 i 4 (
); 31 iv 2 (
); 33,2 (
); 39 iii 1 (
); 41 i-iv 4 ([?] 
); 41 i-iv 7 (
); 48,1 (
); 48,2 (
); 73,3 ([ ] 
); 74,1 (
); 29 verso 6 ([ ] 
).
12 Gli scavi …, p. 108.
13 See Yadin, Y., “Expedition D,” Israel Exploration Journal 11 (1961), 36–52Google Scholar, especially, pp. 44–45. Cf. “New Discoveries in the Judean Desert,” Biblical Archaeologist 24 (1961), 48Google Scholar.
14 Even granting for the sake of the discussion that the tradition preserved by Origen and a number of New Testament mss. is worthless, that Barabbas’ name was really Jesus Barabbas (i.e., 
), is it not somewhat gratuitous to suggest that the first name of the brigand was really Simon? The question of the use of patronymics alone as the identification of Jews is a complicated one and has an old tradition behind it (Barrakkab, Barhadad, Bartholomew, Barsabba [Murabba‘ât 25 i 4]; cf. Acts 1.23; 15.22). See Alt, A., “Menschen ohne Namen,” Archiv Orientálni 18 (1950), 9–24Google Scholar; reprinted in Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte des Volkes Israel (München, 1959), 3. 198–213Google Scholar.