The apostle Simon the Canaanite (called Simon the Zealot in Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13; שמעון "Hearkening; listening", Standard Hebrew Šimʿon, Tiberian Hebrew Šimʿôn) was one of the more obscure among the apostles of Jesus, of whom little is recorded aside from his name.
- Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas [the son] of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. (Luke 6:12-16, RSV)
The name of Simon occurs in all the passages of the synoptic gospels and Acts that give a list of apostles. To distinguish him from Simon Peter he is called Kananaios, or Kananites (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18), and in Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13 Zelotes, the "Zealot." Jerome and others wrongly assumed that Kana was his native place: in which case, however, he would have been Kanaios.
The 2nd century Epistle of the Apostles (Epistula Apostolorum) [1], a polemic against gnostics, lists him among the apostles purported to be writing the letter (who include Thomas) as Judas Zelotes, which suggests that he may be the "Judas not Iscariot" mentioned in John 14:22: "Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" The apostle Jude/Judas not Iscariot is identical with the apostle Thomas, or Jude Thomas Didymus" The Old Latin translations of Matthew 10:3 substitute "Judas the Zealot" for Lebbaeus.) The New Testament records nothing more of his activities, aside from this multitude of pseudonyms.
The possibility that "Simon Zelotes" known as "Simon the Canaanite" was a double for the apostle Thomas cannot be dismissed out of hand.
In later tradition
Later traditions expand on an independent personality for "Simon" and speculate about his fate. One tradition states that he travelled in the Middle East and Africa; one version saying he visited Britain -- possibly Glastonbury -- and was martyred in modern-day Lincolnshire. Another, doubtless inspired by his title "the Zealot", states that he was involved in a Jewish revolt against the Romans, which was brutally suppressed.
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