The first concerns Simon Magus, or Simon the Sorcerer, a trickster and Gnostic chancer who appears briefly in the New Testament’s Book of Acts. Simon was a kind of rival Messiah, who had been ...

It helps to know the story of Simon Magus going into Simon The Magician ... generally considered the first Gnostic, traveling to first-century Rome to challenge St. Peter to a sorcerer's duel ...