all who peacefully submitted to that foreign sway. This sect, however, did not arise by this name until many years after the death of Jesus, and there is no good reason to suppose that Simon derived his surname from any connection with the bloody Zealots who did their utmost to increase the last agonies of their distracted country, but from a more holy zeal displayed in a more righteous manner. It may have been simply characteristic of his general conduct, or it may have referred to some particular occasion in which he decidedly evinced this trait of zeal in a righteous cause.
The Cananite.—In respect to this name, a most absurd and unjustifiable blunder
has stood in all the common versions of it, which deserves notice. This is the representation
of the word in the form, "Canaanite," which is a gross perversion of the
original. The Greek word is (
Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Kananitês), (Kananites,) a totally different word from
that which is used both in the New Testament, and in the Alexandrian version of
the Old, to express the Hebrew term for an inhabitant of Canaan. The name of
the land of Canaan is always expressed by the aspirated form, (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Chanaan), which in the
Latin and all modern versions is very properly expressed by "Chanaan." In Matt.
xv. 22, where the Canaanitish woman is spoken of, the original is (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Chananaia), (Chananaia,)
nor is there any passage in which the name of an inhabitant of Canaan
is expressed by the form (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Kananitês), (Cananites,) with the smooth K, and the single A
Yet the Latin ecclesiastic writers, and even the usually accurate Natalis Alexander,
express this apostle's name as "Simon Chananaeus," which is the word for "Canaanite."
The true force and derivation of the word is this. The name assumed in the
language of Palestine by the ferocious sect above mentioned, was derived from the
Hebrew primitive (Hebrew characters) (Qana or Kana,) and thence the name (Hebrew characters) (Kanani) was very
fairly expressed, according to the forms and terminations of the Greek, by (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Kananitês),
(Kananites.) The Hebrew root is a verb which means "to be zealous," and the
name derived from it of course means, "one who is zealous," of which the just
Greek translation is the word (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Zêlôtês), (Zelotes,) the very name by which Luke represents
it in this instance. (Luke vi. 15; Acts i. 13.) One of these names is, in
short, a mere translation of the other,—nor is there any way of evading this construction,
except by supposing that Luke was mistaken in supposing that Simon was
called "the Zealot," being deceived by the resemblance of the name "Cananites" to
the Hebrew name of that sect. But no believer in the inspiration of the gospel can
allow this supposition. Equally unfounded, and inconsistent with Luke's translation,
is the notion that the name Cananite is derived from Cana the village of Galilee,
famous as the scene of Christ's first miracle.
The account given in the Life of Matthew shows the character of this sect, as it existed in the last days of the Jewish state. Josephus describes them very fully in his history of the Jewish War, (iv. 3.) Simon probably received this name, however, not from any connection with a sect which arose long after the death of Christ, but from something in his own character which showed a great zeal for the cause which he had espoused.
HIS HISTORY.
No very direct statement as to his parentage is made in the New Testament; but one or two incidental allusions to some circumstances connected with it, afford ground for a reasonable conclusion on this point. In the enumeration which Matthew and Mark give of the four brothers of Jesus, in the discourse of the offended citizens of Nazareth, Simon is mentioned along with James, Juda and Joses. It is worthy of notice, also, that on all
