The Jewish version of Simon, a very common name during the Second Temple period.
1. Simeon, the second son of Jacob by Leah. Both the person and the tribe descended from him enjoyed a rather nondescript existence in the history of ancient Israel. When Shechem, the son of Hamor, saw Dinah, Jacob's daughter by Leah, he fell in love with her but unable to control his passion, violated her and then asked for her hand in marriage, Simeon, together with his younger brother Levi, broke covenant and murdered the sons of Hamor while they were healing from their circumcision which was part of the agreement (Gen 34). Their violence earned them Jacob's curse:
Simeon and Levi are brothers—their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.
For reason unstated in the account, Simeon was picked out by Joseph to be kept back in surety during the brothers' journey to Egypt to buy grain. For the first and only time we hear Jacob lamenting over a son not of Rachel's bearing, "Simeon is no more" (Gen 42:24, 36).
2. A man named in Ezr 10:31 as one of those who married foreign wives, though for reasons unknown his name is spelled in English translations as Shimeon. Nothing else is known about him.
3. Two persons by this name are mentioned in the New Testament. The first is mentioned in Lk 2:25-35; he was:
righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."
4. The other, "Simeon called Niger," is listed as one of the prophets and teachers in the church of Antioch, who was among those praying and fasting when the Holy Spirit commanded them to set aside Barnabas and Saul (Paul) "for the work to which I have called them" (Acts 13:1-2). We know nothing more of him.
5. Though Simon is probably meant in Act 15:14, as suggested by such translations as NIV and NKJ, the Greek text has the name as Simeon at this point, as it is rendered in NRS. Simeon, in this case may be another name of Simon. At any rate, the name Simon is simply the Greek version of the Jewish Simeon.
©ALBERITH