[Riaan]

Probably the most significant reason why many scholars reject the idea of a historical Jesus is the fact that the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus made no mention of him, his disciples or their activities, even though Josephus belonged to the generation immediately following that of Christ (the two verses in which he seemingly does are almost certainly later insertions by Christians).

I managed to obtain a copy of an extraordinary book by Rupert Furneaux called The Other Side Of The Story. In this book a came across a very controversial statement by Furneaux, that Simon Peter had murdered Ananias and Saphira, two land owners who were supposedly ‘struck dead by the Lord’ when they failed to surrender their money.

This immediately reminded me of a Simon I had read about in Josephus’ account of the Wars of the Jews, a Simon who had plundered the houses of the rich and tortured many of them. Could it be that Josephus had indeed known at least some disciples and possibly even Christ, but by other names?

It did not take long to find this Simon. His name was Simon bar Giora(s).

An intensive investigation revealed the following similarities between the two characters:

1. Simon bar Giora was the leader of the sicarii, who hid their daggers underneath their cloaks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicarii

Simon Peter drew his short sword (a dagger) during Christ’s arrest.

2. Simon Peter
= Simon bar Jonah
= Simon bar Yonah[khir]
= Simon bar Joachim (English)
= Simon bar Gioacchino (Latin, Italian)
= Simon bar Gioa[cchino]
= Simon bar Gioa / Giora / Gioras / Goia

3. Josephus: During the reign of Agrippa, Albinus, the procurator of Judea, conducted a wide-spread campaign to eliminate the sicarii and managed to capture and kill many of them. The sicarii reacted by kidnapping the children of the high priests and other officials, who were then forced to negotiate with Albinus the release of these victims in exchange for captured sicarii.

Acts of Peter: While Simon Peter was in Rome, four concubines of Agrippa and the beautiful wife of Albinus ‘came to Peter’, causing Agrippa and Albinus to rage and swear to kill Peter. Would these wives willingly have left the luxury and wealth of their homes to join a complete stranger? It would rather seem that they had been kidnapped either as bargaining chips or simply as an act of revenge on Agrippa and Albinus.

4. During Christ’s march to Golgotha the Roman soldiers put a purple robe on him, but later removed it again. Simon bar Giora was also known as Simon bar Poras, the latter word a shortened version of the Latin word purpura (porpora in Italian) for the colour purple. Simon was therefore most likely known to the Romans as Simon, son of the Purple One (Christ). When Simon bar Giora was arrested, he put on his purple cloak before he surrendered, probably as a declaration that he was the one they wanted most.

5. The Other Side of the Story (Furneaux): Simon Peter murdered (the wealthy) Ananias and Saphira (for their money).

Josephus: Simon bar Gioras harassed (plundered) the rich men’s houses and tormented their bodies.

6. The Yosippon on Bar Gioras: “He went therefore through all the cities of
Judea and Galilee, causing to be proclaimed in the streets and market places, and sent his letters where he could not come himself, in this manner and form: “Whoso listeth … let him resort to me, I will deliver him from the yoke and danger of the laws, and will find him his fill of booties and spoils.”

In Acts Simon Peter publically addresses a crowd, “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem… Men of Israel, listen to this…”. At that occasion three thousand followed Peter.

7. Simon Peter was imprisoned in the Mamertine Prison before his martyrdom.
Simon bar Gioras was imprisoned in the Mamertine Prison (Cecil Roth) before being executed.

Do you think Simon Peter and Simon bar Giora could have been one and the same person?

[Lt_Ripley]

Quote

Do you think Simon Peter and Simon bar Giora could have been one and the same person?

could have . or a character made up fashioned after Giora.

[DieChecker]

It could very well be. Even when Jesus Christ was on the cross, many of his Apostles were like, "So... what are we doing???", and "What... What does that story mean??" It is possible that they took to fanaticism to get money to support themselves and spread what they thought they were supposed to be teaching.

This post has been edited by DieChecker: 13 October 2009 - 11:37 PM

[Tiggs]

I have absolutely no idea. It's an interesting theory, however - one definitely worth investigating further.

[questionmark]

Did some quick check ups...could be you're unto something. But it will be very difficult to prove due to lack of sources.