Simon the Zealot. Simon the Zealot or Simon the Cananite or Simon the Cananaean was one of the most obscure among the apostles of Jesus. A few pseudepigraphical writings were connected to him, but Saint Jerome does not include him in De viris illustribus written between 392-393 AD. The name Simon occurs in all of the Synoptic Gospels and the Book of Acts each time there is a list of apostles, without further details: Simon, and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.,   Luke 6:14-16 To distinguish him from Simon Peter he is called Kananaios or Kananites, depending on the manuscript, and in the list of apostles in Luke 6:15, repeated in Acts 1:13, Zelotes, the Zealot. Both titles derive from the Hebrew word קנאי qanai, meaning zealous, although Jerome and others mistook the word to signify the apostle was from the town of קנה Cana, in which case his epithet would have been Kanaios, or even from the region of כנען Canaan. As such, the translation of the word as the Cananite or the Canaanite is traditional and without contemporary extra-canonic parallel. Robert Eisenman has pointed out contemporary talmudic references to Zealots as kanna'im but not really as a group, rather as avenging priests in the Temple. Eisenman's broader conclusions, that the zealot element in the original apostle group was disguised and overwritten to make it support the assimilative Pauline Christianity of the Gentiles, are more controversial. John P. Meier points out that the term Zealot is a mistranslation and in the context of the Gospels means zealous or jealous, as the Zealot movement did not exist until 30 to 40 years after the events of the Gospels. However, neither Brandon, nor Hengel support this view, both independently concluding that the revolt by Judas of Galilee, arising from the census of Quirinius in 6 AD, was the ultimate origin of the Jewish freedom movement, which developed via the Fourth Philosophy group into the Zealots, even by the time of Jesus. Both of these researchers suggest that Simon Zelotes was indeed a Zealot belonging to this movement, and perhaps that other disciples were also. However, Hengel concluded that Jesus himself was not a zealot, as much of his teaching was actually contrary to Fourth Philosophy views. In the Gospels, Simon the Zealot is never identified with Simon the brother of Jesus mentioned in Mark 6:3: Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. The Catholic Encyclopedia suggests that Simon the Zealot may be the same person as Simeon of Jerusalem or Simon the brother of Jesus. He could perhaps be the cousin of Jesus or a son of Joseph from a previous marriage. Another tradition holds that this is the Simeon of Jerusalem who became the second bishop of Jerusalem, although he was born in Galilee. St. Isidore of Seville drew together the accumulated anecdotes of St. Simon in De Vita et Morte. According to the Golden Legend, which is a collection of hagiographies, compiled by Jacobus de Varagine in the thirteenth century Simon the Cananaean and Judas Thaddeus were brethren of James the Less and sons of Mary Cleophas, which was married to Alpheus. In the apocryphal Arabic Infancy Gospel a fact related to this apostle is mentioned. A boy named Simon is bitten by a snake in his hand, he is healed by Jesus and told the child you shall be my disciple. The mention ends with the phrase this is Simon the Cananite, of whom mention is made in the Gospel. In later tradition, Simon is often associated with St. Jude as an evangelizing team; in Western Christianity, they share their feast day on 28 October. The most widespread tradition is that after evangelizing in Egypt, Simon joined Jude in Persia and Armenia or Beirut, Lebanon, where both were martyred in 65 AD. This version is the one found in the Golden Legend. He may have suffered crucifixion as the Bishop of Jerusalem. One tradition states that he traveled in the Middle East and Africa. Christian Ethiopians claim that he was crucified in Samaria, while Justus Lipsius writes that he was sawn in half at Suanir, Persia. However, Moses of Chorene writes that he was martyred at Weriosphora in Caucasian Iberia. Tradition also claims he died peacefully at Edessa.