SIMON ZELOTES.
HIS NAME.
The ever-recurring difficulty about the distinctive appellations of the apostles, forms the most prominent point of inquiry in the life of this person, otherwise so little known as to afford hardly a single topic for the apostolic historian. The dispute here indeed involves no question about personal identity, but merely refers to the coincidence of signification between the two different words by which he is designated in the apostolic lists, to distinguish him from the illustrious chief of the twelve, who bore the same name with him. Matthew and Mark in giving the names of the apostles,——the only occasion on which they name him,——call him “Simon the Cananite;” but Luke, in a similar notice, mentions him as “Simon Zelotes;” and the question then arises, whether these two distinctive appellations have not a common origin. In the vernacular language of Palestine, the word from which Cananite is derived, has a meaning identical with that of the root of the Greek word Zelotes; and hence it is most rationally concluded, that the latter is a translation of the former,——Luke, who wrote entirely for Greeks, choosing to translate into their language a term whose original force could be apprehended only by those acquainted with the local circumstances with which it was connected. The name Zelotes, which may be faithfully translated by its English derivative, Zealot, has a meaning deeply involved in some of the most bloody scenes in the history of the Jews, in the apostolic age. This name, or rather its Hebrew original, was assumed by a set of ferocious desperadoes, who, under the honorable pretense of a holy zeal for their country and religion, set all law at defiance, and constituting themselves at once the judges and the executors of right, they went through the land waging war against the Romans, and all who peacefully submitted to that foreign sway. This sect, however, did not arise by this name until many years after the death of Jesus, and there is no good reason to suppose that Simon derived his surname from any connection with the bloody Zealots who did their utmost to increase the last agonies of their distracted country, but from a more holy zeal displayed in a more righteous manner. It may have been simply characteristic of his general conduct, or it may have referred to some particular occasion in which he decidedly evinced this trait of zeal in a righteous cause.
The Cananite.——In respect to this name, a most absurd and unjustifiable blunder has stood in all the common versions of it, which deserves notice. This is the representation of the word in the form, “Canaanite,” which is a gross perversion of the original. The Greek word is Κανανιτης, (Kananites,) a totally different word from that which is used both in the New Testament, and in the Alexandrian version of the Old, to express the Hebrew term for an inhabitant of Canaan. The name of the land of Canaan is always expressed by the aspirated form, Χανααν, which in the Latin and all modern versions is very properly expressed by “Chanaan.” In Matthew xv. 22, where the Canaanitish woman is spoken of, the original is Χαναναια, (Chananaia,) nor is there any passage in which the name of an inhabitant of Canaan is expressed by the form Κανανιτης, (Cananites,) with the smooth K, and the single A. Yet the Latin ecclesiastic writers, and even the usually accurate Natalis Alexander, express this apostle’s name as “Simon Chananaeus,” which is the word for “Canaanite.”
The true force and derivation of the word is this. The name assumed in the language of Palestine by the ferocious sect above mentioned, was derived from the Hebrew primitive קנא (Qana or Kana,) and thence the name קנני (Kanani) was very fairly expressed, according to the forms and terminations of the Greek, by Κανανιτης, (Kananites.) The Hebrew root is a verb which means “to be zealous,” and the name derived from it of course means, “one who is zealous,” of which the just Greek translation is the word Ζηλωτης, (Zelotes,) the very name by which Luke represents it in this instance. (Luke vi. 15; Acts i. 13.) One of these names is, in short, a mere translation of the other,——nor is there any way of evading this construction, except by supposing that Luke was mistaken in supposing that Simon was called “the Zealot,” being deceived by the resemblance of the name “Cananites” to the Hebrew name of that sect. But no believer in the inspiration of the gospel can allow this supposition. Equally unfounded, and inconsistent with Luke’s translation, is the notion that the name Cananite is derived from Cana the village of Galilee, famous as the scene of Christ’s first miracle.
The account given in the Life of Matthew shows the character of this sect, as it existed in the last days of the Jewish state. Josephus describes them very fully in his history of the Jewish War, (iv. 3.) Simon probably received this name, however, not from any connection with a sect which arose long after the death of Christ, but from something in his own character which showed a great zeal for the cause which he had espoused.
HIS HISTORY.
No very direct statement as to his parentage is made in the New Testament; but one or two incidental allusions to some circumstances connected with it, afford ground for a reasonable conclusion on this point. In the enumeration which Matthew and Mark give of the four brothers of Jesus, in the discourse of the offended citizens of Nazareth, Simon is mentioned along with James, Juda and Joses. It is worthy of notice, also, that on all the apostolic lists, Simon the apostle is mentioned between the brothers James and Juda; an arrangement that can not be accounted for, except by supposing that he was also the brother of James. The reason why Juda is distinctly specified as the brother of James, while Simon is mentioned without reference to any such relationship, is, doubtless, that the latter was so well known by the appellation of the Zealot, that there was no need of specifying his relations, to distinguish him from Simon Peter. These two circumstances, incidentally mentioned, may be considered as justifying the supposition, that Simon Zelotes was the same person as Simon the brother of Jesus. In this manner, all the old writers have understood the connection; and though such use is no authority, it is worth mentioning that the monkish chroniclers always consider Simon Zelotes as the brother of Juda; and they associate these two, as wandering together in eastern countries, to preach the gospel in Persia and Mesopotamia. Others carry him into much more improbable wanderings. Egypt and Northern Africa, and even Britain, are mentioned as the scenes of his apostolic labors, in the ingenious narratives of those who undertook to supply almost every one of the nations of the eastern continent with an apostolic patron saint. All this is very poor consolation for the general dearth of facts in relation to this apostle; and the searcher for historical truth will not be so well satisfied with the tedious tales of monkish romance, as with the decided and unquestionable assurance, that the whole history of this apostle, from beginning to end, is perfectly unknown, and that not one action of his life has been preserved from the darkness of an utterly impenetrable oblivion.