“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” (John 19:25)Īs you may recall from my previous article, the “Judas” mentioned in Mark 6:3 may have been the disciple Jude, also known as Judas Thaddeus, and the “James” was potentially James the Less. He is also said to be the son of Clopas and, therefore, potentially a cousin of Jesus. The names of Jesus’ brothers are mentioned in Mark 6:3 “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” Simeon of Jerusalem or Saint Simeon, however, does not appear in the Bible.Īccording to tradition, Saint Simeon was the second Bishop of Jerusalem who was appointed by the Apostles Peter, James and John. Although, in contemporary English zealous means enthusiastic or having a strong passion, in Greek, it was also a synonym for jealous.Ĭatholic scholars have attempted to identify Simon the Zealot with both Simon the brother of Jesus and Simeon of Jerusalem, although there is no evidence in the Bible for either claim. Unfortunately, no one knows why Simon was singled out as being zealous. The reason for the Canaanite confusion is easy to forgive since the term stems from the same Hebrew word. In Hebrew, Simon was referred to as “qanai”, which means “zealous”.
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The term “Canaanite” has led people to assume Simon was from Canaan or Cana, however, the Hebrew text proves this to be a mistranslation. Luke and Acts, on the other hand, calls him “Simon Zelotes” (Luke 6:15 Acts 1:13 KJV) or “Simon the Zealot” (NIV) depending on the translation.
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To distinguish Simon from Simon Peter, Matthew and Mark use the term “Simon the Canaanite” (Matthew 10:4 Mark 3:18 KJV). Although his name appears on a list of the disciples mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and John and the Book of Acts, he does not play a named role elsewhere.
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Simon the Zealot or Simon the Canaanite/Cananaean is possibly the most obscure of the disciples.