Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Acts 8:10

There are 11 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 347, footnote 7 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book I (HTML)

Chapter XXIII.—Doctrines and practices of Simon Magus and Menander. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2934 (In-Text, Margin)

1. Simon the Samaritan was that magician of whom Luke, the disciple and follower of the apostles, says, “But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who beforetime used magical arts in that city, and led astray the people of Samaria, declaring that he himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This is the power of God, which is called great. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had driven them mad by his sorceries.”[Acts 8:9-11] This Simon, then—who feigned faith, supposing that the apostles themselves performed their cures by the art of magic, and not by the power of God; and with respect to their filling with the Holy Ghost, through the imposition of hands, those that ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 66, footnote 3 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

On Idolatry. (HTML)

Professions of Some Kinds Allied to Idolatry. Of Astrology in Particular. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 217 (In-Text, Margin)

... was rather, that thence forward they should walk otherwise. So, too, that other species of magic which operates by miracles, emulous even in opposition to Moses, tried God’s patience until the Gospel. For thenceforward Simon Magus, just turned believer, (since he was still thinking somewhat of his juggling sect; to wit, that among the miracles of his profession he might buy even the gift of the Holy Spirit through imposition of hands) was cursed by the apostles, and ejected from the faith.[Acts 8:9-24] Both he and that other magician, who was with Sergius Paulus, (since he began opposing himself to the same apostles) was mulcted with loss of eyes. The same fate, I believe, would astrologers, too, have met, if any had fallen in the way of the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 649, footnote 3 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Appendix: Against All Heresies. (HTML)

Earliest Heretics:  Simon Magus, Menander, Saturninus, Basilides, Nicolaus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8334 (In-Text, Margin)

Of these the first of all is Simon Magus, who in the Acts of the Apostles earned a condign and just sentence from the Apostle Peter.[Acts 8:9-24] He had the hardihood to call himself the Supreme Virtue, that is, the Supreme God; and moreover, (to assert) that the universe had been originated by his angels; that he had descended in quest of an erring dæmon, which was Wisdom; that, in a phantasmal semblance of God, he had not suffered among the Jews, but was as if he had suffered.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 579, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)
Chapter XI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4336 (In-Text, Margin)

... Jesus Christ is the only Son of God who visited the human race: for those who, like Celsus, have supposed that (the acts of Jesus) were a series of prodigies, and who for that reason wished to perform acts of the same kind, that they, too, might gain a similar mastery over the minds of men, were convicted of being utter nonentities. Such were Simon, the Magus of Samaria, and Dositheus, who was a native of the same place; since the former gave out that he was the power of God that is called great,[Acts 8:10] and the latter that he was the Son of God. Now Simonians are found nowhere throughout the world; and yet, in order to gain over to himself many followers, Simon freed his disciples from the danger of death, which the Christians were taught to ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 74, footnote 5 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)

Book VI. (HTML)
Simon Magus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 612 (In-Text, Margin)

... shall also prove that his successors, taking a starting-point from him, have endeavoured (to establish) similar opinions under a change of name. This Simon being an adept in sorceries, both making a mockery of many, partly according to the art of Thrasymedes, in the manner in which we have explained above, and partly also by the assistance of demons perpetrating his villany, attempted to deify himself. (But) the man was a (mere) cheat, and full of folly, and the Apostles reproved him in the Acts.[Acts 8:9-24] With much greater wisdom and moderation than Simon, did Apsethus the Libyan, inflamed with a similar wish, endeavour to have himself considered a god in Libya. And inasmuch as his legendary system does not present any wide divergence from the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 252, footnote 2 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)

The Clementine Homilies. (HTML)

Homily IV. (HTML)
Simon's Doings. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1031 (In-Text, Margin)

... ghosts appear in the midst of the market-place; and when he walks abroad, statues move, and many shadows go before him, which, he says, are souls of the dead. And many who attempted to prove him an impostor he speedily reconciled to him; and afterwards, under pretence of a banquet, having slain an ox, and given them to eat of it, he infected them with various diseases, and subjected them to demons. And in a word, having injured many, and being supposed to be a god, he is both feared and honoured.”[Acts 8:9-11]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 444, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)

On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)

Augustin undertakes the refutation of the arguments which might be derived from the epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus, to give color to the view that the baptism of Christ could not be conferred by heretics. (HTML)
Chapter 19 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1316 (In-Text, Margin)

25. They indeed who say that baptism is not to be repeated, because only hands were laid on those whom Philip the deacon had baptized,[Acts 8:5-17] are saying what is quite beside the point; and far be it from us, in seeking the truth, to use such arguments as this. Wherefore we are all the further from "yielding to heretics," if we deny that what they possess of Christ’s Church is their own property, and do not refuse to acknowledge the standard of our General because of the crimes of deserters; nay, all the more because "the Lord our God is a jealous God," let us refuse, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 453, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)

On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)

In which he treats of what follows in the same epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus. (HTML)
Chapter 10 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1390 (In-Text, Margin)

16. But it will be urged that the bad outside are worse than those within. It is indeed a weighty question, whether Nicolaus, being already severed from the Church, or Simon, who was still within it,[Acts 8:9-24] was the worse,—the one being a heretic, the other a sorcerer. But if the mere fact of division, as being the clearest token of violated charity, is held to be the worse evil, I grant that it is so. Yet many, though they have lost all feelings of charity, yet do not secede from considerations of worldly profit; and as they seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s, what they are ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 45, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter I. 32, 33. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 136 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Holy Ghost may be given? And Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou thoughtest that the gift of God was to be bought with money.” To whom said he, “Thy money perish with thee”? Undoubtedly to one that was baptized. Baptism he had already; but he did not cleave to the bowels of the dove. Understand that he did not; attend to the very words of the Apostle Peter, for he goes on, “Thou hast no part nor lot in this faith: for I see that thou art in the gall of bitterness.”[Acts 8:5-23] The dove has no gall; Simon had, and for that reason he was separated from the bowels of the dove. What did baptism profit him? Do not therefore boast of thy baptism, as if that were of itself enough for thy salvation. Be not angry, put away thy ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 105, footnote 2 (Image)

Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine

The Church History of Eusebius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

The Course pursued by the Apostles after the Ascension of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 257 (In-Text, Margin)

11. Simon was at that time so celebrated, and had acquired, by his jugglery, such influence over those who were deceived by him, that he was thought to be the great power of God.[Acts 8:10] But at this time, being amazed at the wonderful deeds wrought by Philip through the divine power, he feigned and counterfeited faith in Christ, even going so far as to receive baptism.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 332, footnote 6 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

The Dialogue Against the Luciferians. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4146 (In-Text, Margin)

... them. But why speak of later times? When the blood of Christ was but lately shed and the apostles were still in Judæa, the Lord’s body was asserted to be a phantom; the Galatians had been led away to the observance of the law, and the Apostle was a second time in travail with them; the Corinthians did not believe the resurrection of the flesh, and he endeavoured by many arguments to bring them back to the right path. Then came Simon Magus and his disciple Menander. They asserted themselves to be[Acts 8:10] powers of God. Then Basilides invented the most high god Abraxas and the three hundred and sixty-five manifestations of him. Then Nicolas, one of the seven Deacons, and one whose lechery knew no rest by night or day, indulged in his filthy ...

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