Simon Magus
E441613
Simon Magus is a 1st-century Samaritan religious figure often portrayed in early Christian and Gnostic traditions as a magician and heretic who opposed the apostles and inspired later Gnostic thought.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Simon Magus canonical | 3 |
| Simon Magus as sorcerer | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4468279 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Simon Magus Context triple: [Gnosticism, hasKeyFigure, Simon Magus]
-
A.
Gregory Thaumaturgus
Gregory Thaumaturgus was a 3rd-century Christian bishop and theologian, renowned for his missionary work in Neocaesarea and his reputation for performing miracles.
-
B.
Serapion of Thmuis
Serapion of Thmuis was a 4th-century Christian bishop and theologian, known as a close associate of Athanasius of Alexandria and a defender of Nicene orthodoxy.
-
C.
Nazarenus
Nazarenus is a Latin term meaning “of Nazareth,” traditionally used in Christian inscriptions and texts to refer to Jesus as “the Nazarene.”
-
D.
Caelestius
Caelestius was a 5th-century Christian theologian and associate of Pelagius, known for advocating Pelagian doctrines that were later condemned as heretical by the early Church.
-
E.
Didymus
Didymus is another name for the Apostle Thomas, one of Jesus Christ’s twelve original disciples in the New Testament.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Simon Magus Target entity description: Simon Magus is a 1st-century Samaritan religious figure often portrayed in early Christian and Gnostic traditions as a magician and heretic who opposed the apostles and inspired later Gnostic thought.
-
A.
Gregory Thaumaturgus
Gregory Thaumaturgus was a 3rd-century Christian bishop and theologian, renowned for his missionary work in Neocaesarea and his reputation for performing miracles.
-
B.
Serapion of Thmuis
Serapion of Thmuis was a 4th-century Christian bishop and theologian, known as a close associate of Athanasius of Alexandria and a defender of Nicene orthodoxy.
-
C.
Nazarenus
Nazarenus is a Latin term meaning “of Nazareth,” traditionally used in Christian inscriptions and texts to refer to Jesus as “the Nazarene.”
-
D.
Caelestius
Caelestius was a 5th-century Christian theologian and associate of Pelagius, known for advocating Pelagian doctrines that were later condemned as heretical by the early Church.
-
E.
Didymus
Didymus is another name for the Apostle Thomas, one of Jesus Christ’s twelve original disciples in the New Testament.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Gnostic figure
ⓘ
New Testament person ⓘ Samaritan religious figure ⓘ heretic ⓘ magician ⓘ |
| activityLocation | Samaria ⓘ |
| appearsIn | Acts 8:9–24 ⓘ |
| associatedConcept | simony ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Gnosticism
ⓘ
Helena (his consort in later traditions) ⓘ heresy ⓘ magic ⓘ proto-Gnostic teachings ⓘ sorcery ⓘ |
| baptizedBy | Philip the Evangelist ⓘ |
| calledBy | “the Great Power of God” ⓘ |
| condemnedBy |
Hippolytus of Rome
ⓘ
linked to:
Saint Hippolytus
Irenaeus of Lyons ⓘ Justin Martyr ⓘ |
| convertedBy | Philip the Evangelist ⓘ |
| describedAs |
“a man who had previously practiced magic in the city”
ⓘ
“saying that he himself was somebody great” ⓘ |
| ethnicOrigin | Samaritan ⓘ |
| flourishedInCentury | 1st century ⓘ |
| influenced | later Gnostic thought ⓘ |
| knownFor |
attempting to buy spiritual power
ⓘ
opposing the apostles ⓘ practicing magic in Samaria ⓘ |
| languageContext | Greek-speaking early Christian world ⓘ |
| laterOpposed |
Peter the Apostle
ⓘ
linked to:
Apostle Peter
|
| mentionedIn | Acts of the Apostles ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Simon Magus ⓘ |
| offeredMoneyTo |
John the Apostle
ⓘ
linked to:
Apostle John
Peter the Apostle ⓘ
linked to:
Apostle Peter
|
| portrayedAs | arch-heretic in early Christian literature ⓘ |
| portrayedIn |
Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies
ⓘ
linked to:
Hippolytus’ work "Contra Noetum"
Irenaeus, Against Heresies ⓘ
linked to:
Against Heresies
Justin Martyr, First Apology ⓘ
linked to:
Apologies of Justin Martyr
Pseudo-Clementine literature ⓘ
linked to:
Apocryphal New Testament writings
|
| rebukedBy |
Peter the Apostle
ⓘ
linked to:
Apostle Peter
|
| region | Roman province of Syria Palaestina ⓘ |
| religiousContext |
Second Temple Judaism
ⓘ
early Christianity ⓘ |
| reputationAmong | people of Samaria ⓘ |
| roleInTradition |
founder of a school of heresy
ⓘ
opponent of apostolic Christianity ⓘ |
| soughtToBuy | power of the Holy Spirit ⓘ |
| timePeriod | Apostolic Age ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Simon Magus Description of subject: Simon Magus is a 1st-century Samaritan religious figure often portrayed in early Christian and Gnostic traditions as a magician and heretic who opposed the apostles and inspired later Gnostic thought.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.