Simon (Simeon)

Simon (Simeon in Greek) is named in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 as one of the brothers of Jesus. The early church historian Hegesippus (writing c. 170 AD, preserved in Eusebius's Historia Ecclesiastica III.11) provides additional information: that Simon was the son of Clopas, who was the brother of Joseph (and therefore Simon was, in this account, technically the cousin of Jesus rather than his uterine brother — which makes Hegesippus's report a possible source for the later Hieronymian-Catholic view of the "brothers of the Lord").

Eusebius (III.11) records that after the death of James the Just in 62 AD, the surviving apostles, disciples, and "those that were called the brethren of the Lord" met together in Jerusalem and elected Simon son of Clopas as the new bishop — explicitly because he was a kinsman of the Lord. The continuity of Davidic lineage in the Jerusalem bishopric remained the principle of succession for as long as the Jerusalem church was a Jewish-Christian community in the holy city. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the church retreated across the Jordan to Pella, then returned and rebuilt under Simon's leadership.

Eusebius (III.32) records Simon's death in extreme old age, traditionally placed around 107 AD under the Emperor Trajan. He was denounced as a Davidide and crucified after refusing to renounce Christ. He was, by the chronology, well over a hundred years old at the time. His position as the second Bishop of Jerusalem — appointed because of his kinship to the Lord — is a remarkable detail in the early ecclesiastical record, demonstrating how strongly the Davidic-messianic continuity was understood by the earliest Jewish-Christian community. Simon is sometimes conflated in popular hagiography with Simon the Zealot (one of the Twelve apostles) — these are almost certainly two different figures.