What if the first Jesus-community beyond Jerusalem kept its own testimony?
The Testament of Simon the Mage depicts ancient Samaria—the first place in Acts where the Jesus movement takes root beyond Jerusalem—and tells its story from within the community formed there.
It revisits familiar biblical memories:
· The Magi and the star over Bethlehem
· Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well
· Nicodemus, who came by night seeking understanding
· Philip’s mission to Samaria
· Peter and John among the Samaritan believers
· Simon of Samaria’s baptism, rebuke, and struggle for discernment
· The Good Samaritan’s world of mercy across inherited boundaries
· Joseph of Arimathea, the crucifixion, and the Cup of Blessings, Sorrows, and Redemption
In this account, Simon is more than the “magician” of Acts 8. He is a seeker whose life becomes entangled with the earliest Christian evangelists to spread the gospels, the apostles. Simon was the spiritual leader of a Samarian community of water, memory, prayer, hospitality, conflict, and mercy.
Neither a replacement for the Gospels nor a final verdict on Simon’s history, The Testament of Simon the Mage offers a provocative counter-testimony from the contested margins of early Christian memory. It invites readers to revisit a familiar apostolic world—and to ask what it might look like when Samaria is allowed to speak.
