Menander the Sorcerer

Let us now go on, then, to the history that follows. Menander succeeded Simon Magus, and by his way of life he showed himself a second weapon of the devil’s working, no worse than the first. He too was a Samaritan. He went to the very height of sorcery, no less than his teacher, and indulged in still greater tales of wonders. He claimed that he himself was the Savior, sent down from somewhere above, from invisible ages, for the salvation of mankind. [a] He taught that no one could gain the upper hand even over the angels who made the world unless he had first been led through the magical skill Menander passed on and through the baptism he gave. Those counted worthy of it, he said, would share undying immortality in this very life: they would no longer die, but would remain here forever, ageless and immortal. All this can easily be learned from the works of Irenaeus. [d]

Justin too, in the same passage where he mentions Simon, adds an account of this man. He says: “We know that a certain Menander, also a Samaritan, from the village of Capparattea, became a disciple of Simon. He too was goaded on by the demons, came to Antioch, and deceived many by magical art. He persuaded his followers that they would not die, and even now there are some who profess this on his word.” [e]

It was the devil’s working, then, through such sorcerers who took on the name of Christians, to strive to slander the great mystery of godliness as mere magic, and through them to make a mockery of the Church’s teachings on the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the dead. But those who have enrolled these men as their saviors have fallen away from the true hope. [f]