[9.3] See _Life of Jesus_, ch. xiv. It may be, however, that the habitual tendency of the author of the _Acts_ shows itself here again. See _Introd._, and supra. [9.4] _Acts_ viii. 5-40. [9.5] Jos. _Ant._ XVIII. iv. 1, 2. [9.6] At this day Jît, on the road from Nablous to Jaffa, an hour and a half from Nablous and from Sebastieh. See Robinson _Bib. Res_. ii. p. 308, note; iii. 134 (2d ed.), and his map. [9.7] The accounts relative to this personage, given by the Christian writers, are so fabulous that doubts may be raised even as to the reality of his existence. These doubts are all the more specious from the fact that in the Pseudo-Clementine literature "Simon the Magician" is often a pseudonym for St. Paul. But we cannot admit that the legend of Simon rests upon this foundation alone. How could the author of the _Acts_, so favorable to St. Paul, have admitted a doctrine the hostile bearing of which could not have escaped him? The chronological series of the Simonian School, the writings which remain to us of it, the precise facts of topography and chronology given by St. Justin, fellow-countryman of our thaumaturgist, are inexplicable, moreover, upon the hypothesis of Simon's having been an imaginary person. (See especially Justin _Apol._ ii. 15, and _Dial. cum Tryph._ 120.) [9.8] Acts viii. 5, and following. [9.9] Ib. viii. 9, and following. [9.10] Justin, _Apol._ i. 26, 56. [9.11] _Homil._ Pseudo-Clem. xvii. 15, 17; Quadratus, in Eusebius _Hist. Ecc._ iv. 3. [9.12] _Acts_ viii. 25. [9.13] Ib. viii. 26-40. [9.14] I. Macc. x. 86, 89; xi. 60, and following. Jos. _Ant._ XIII., xiii. 3; XV. vii. 3; XVIII. xi. 5; _B. J._, I. iv. 2. [9.15] Robinson _Bib. Res._, II. p. 41 and 514, 515 (2d ed). [9.16] Talm. of Bab. _Erubin_ 53 b and 54 a; _Sota_, 46 b. [9.17] Isaiah liii. 7. [9.18] At this day Mérawi, near to Gebel-Barkal (Lepsius, _Denkmæler_ i pl. 1 and 2 _bis_.) Strabo XVII., i. 54. [9.19] Strabo, XVII, i. 54; Pliny VI, xxxv. 8; Dion Cassius liv. 5; Eusebius _Hist. Ecc._ ii. 1. [9.20] The descendants of these Jews still exist under the name of Falâsyân. The missionaries who converted them came from Egypt. Their translation of the Bible was made from the Greek version. The Falâsyân are not Israelites by blood. [9.21] John xii. 20; Acts x. 2. [9.22] See _Deut._ xxiii. 1. It is true that εὐνοῦχος might be taken by catachresis to designate a chamberlain as functionary of the Oriental Court. But δυνάστης was sufficient to render this idea; εὐνοῦχος ought then to be taken here in its proper sense. [9.23] _Acts_ viii. 26, 29.