Simon

Simon, the Zealot, one of the little-known followers, lived in Galilee. 

In two places in the King James Version he is called a Canaanite (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18). However, in the other two places he is called Simon Zelotes (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13).

The New Testament gives us practically nothing on him personally except that it says he was a Zealot. The Zealots were fanatical Jewish Nationalists who had heroic disregard for the suffering involved and the struggle for what they regarded as the purity of their faith. The Zealots were crazed with hatred for the Romans. It was this hate for Rome that led to the destruction  of Jerusalem. Josephus says the Zealots were reckless persons, zealous in good practices and extravagant and reckless in the worst kind of actions.

In Acts 1:13, we learn that Simon was present with the apostles in the upper room of Jerusalem after Christ ascended to heaven. Simon is mentioned occasionally in early church writings, but centuries after the gospels were written, Jerome and others mistranslated Simon’s title, believing that Matthew and Mark referred to him as Simon the Canaanite or Simon the Cananaean. They assumed he was from Cana in Galilee, or possibly even descended from one of the non-Jewish people in the area. This mistake led to the idea that Simon was present at the wedding in Cana in John 2, where Jesus performed his first miracle and turned water into wine.

Some Bible translations preserve Jerome’s mistake out of respect for tradition, calling Simon “the Canaanite” or “the Cananaean” in Matthew 10:3 and Mark 3:18.

From this background, we see that Simon was a fanatical Nationalist, a man devoted to the Law, a man with bitter hatred for anyone who dared to compromise with Rome. Yet, he emerged as a man of faith who abandoned all his hatred for the faith that he showed toward his Master, Jesus. Simon, the Zealot, the man who once would have killed in loyalty to Israel, became the man who saw that God will have no forced service. Tradition says he died as a martyr.