simon

As I was reading the gospels and then the Book of Acts, I noticed that one of the apostles of Yoshua Ben Yosef was called "Simon the Canaanite" in two particular passages. Those two passages are found in Matthew 10:4 and Mark 3:18. Yet, when I read Acts, I saw that in Acts 1:13 Luke calls him "Simon - the Zealot."

My first thoughts were, how is it that the greatest of all prophets, the supposed moshiach, called a Canaanite man to be one of his inner circle disciples - an apostle? Granted, I know Rahab and her family were allowed to live, even though she was from one of the seven nations that the Israelites were to genocide out of existence back in Moses' and Joshua's time. This is because the two spies made an oath with her. So, as I meditated on these things, I pondered them.

In case you are wondering where it is commanded by the God of Israel to slay all humans of the land of Canaan upon Israel's entrance into the land, this commandment is found in Deuteronomy 20:17. Here it is:

But thou shalt utterly destroy them; [namely], the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as Yehowah thy God hath commanded thee:

Notice the word, "Canaanites" is listed.

Now granted, there was another convert to Judaism you may be forgetting about as you read this paper and that is King David's friend, Uriah. Uriah was a Hittite according to 2 Samuel 11:3:

And David sent and enquired after the woman. And [one] said, [Is] not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

So as I read about Uriah and Rahab, I thought maybe Simon was a Canaanite convert to Judaism. However, I do not want to assume anything, because that would get me into trouble if I am wrong. So I said to myself I need to look into this matter a little deeper, because I have found that the translators do not always get things right or that they might have deliberately tainted the original writings to fit their personal doctrines, even though certain passages in the original debunk their personal beliefs.

In my studies this is what I found:

σιμων [Simon] ο [a] κανανιτης [?????] This is the Greek text of Matthew 10:4

and here is Mark 3:18 in the Greek text

σιμωνα [Simon] τον [the] κανανιτην [?????]

I am going to leave these two particular Greek words un-translated for now just so that I can find "Canaan" somewhere else in the Greek writings to see whether or not this is truely "Canaanite" or something else.

Well, in my searching I came across Matthew 15:22 that says,

And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O master [thou] son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

The word "Canaan" in this passage looks totally different in the Greek when compared to Mark 3:18 and Matthew 10:4. I will put them all together so that you can see the difference.

κανανιτης = Matthew 10:4. You says this like this: (kan-an-ee'-tace)

κανανιτην = Mark 3:18. (kan-an-ee'-ten)

χαναναια = Matthew 15:22. You says this like this: Chanaanaios (khan-ah-an-ah'-yos)

So as you can see Matthew 15:22 is far different that the other two passages.

But now let me give you one more passage where we can find an interesting Greek word. For it will help us solve our dilemma.

This passage is found in John 2:1, for it says:

"On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there"

This word, "Cana" in the Greek looks like this:

κανα - notice it is within the Greek words found in Matthew and Mark.

Likewise, if you where to use the Strong's Concordance, Cana (found in John 2:1) is numbered as # 2580 and if we look up the Greek word found in Matthew 10:4 it is numbered # 2581, only one number off. Whereas "Canaan" of Matthew 15:22 is numbered # 5478 !!!

So, according to my studies and no one else's, Simon was a Cana-ite, not a Canaan-ite.

But, let me prove my case even more if you have doubts.

Let us look up some differences between "Cana" and "Canaan" in the Greek Tanach - or the Jewish Scriptures, that being Genesis through Malachi.

But let's research this further just to make sure, OK. That is to say, what other ancient document(s) can we use that would help us versus using some modern dictionary as found in the Strong's concordance. Well, let's go to the Greek Septuagint - an ancient translation of the Hebrew bible made around 285 BCE.

When Cana is translated from Hebrew into English, it is rendered as ""Kanah" vs. "Cana." In the Hebrew bible Cana is only mentioned three times and they are all found in the "Book of Joshua." In the Greek Septuagint here are the passages and the way they are written in the Greek:

χελκανα = 16:8

καρανα = 17:9

κανθαν = 19:28

Yet, if we were to look up the word "Canaan" in the same Greek Septuagint, we will once again get a different word than "Cana" or Kanah." Here are some examples:

χανααν = Genesis 11:31

χανααν = Exodus 15:15

χανααν = Leviticus 18:3

χανααν = Deuteronomy 32:49

So you see my friends, it seems pretty clear to me that Simon was from the town of Cana, where Yoshua transformed the water into wine.

On a side note what I am about to say may not have any bearing whatsoever, because Uriah the Hittite had a Jewish name, but nonetheless here it goes:

Simon is not a Canaanite name, it is strictly a Jewish name - not necessarily from one of the sons of Jacob [which it is], but most likely from one of the Maccabean heros from where we celebrate Chanukah. For many upon many Jews were named after the Maccabees after they conquered the Syrians in or around 165 BCE. The Maccabees were Mattathias, Judas or Judah, Simon and Jonathan or John.

Simon, by all accounts is from Cana or Kanah of Galilee.

Just a thought: Simon might have started following Yoshua after Yoshua turned the water into wine in Cana, seeing that it was only the third day after Yoshua's baptism. I say this because according to the only surviving eyewitness account of the life and words of Yoshua - the Gospel of John - John mentions that Yoshua only had five main disciples before he went to the wedding. But such thoughts are nothing but "hear-say," because nothing is written about how and when the other 7 disciples started following our rabbi and future earthly king.

The first five disciples that started following Yoshua before the wedding in Cana were

John, Andrew, Simon, Philip and Nathanael, according to John's account.

Thank You,

Maregaal

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