XVI. SIMON NIGER, or the Black, of whom mention is made in the Acts of the Apostles1. He was of the Number of the Prophets and Teachers, that were of the Christian Church at Antioch. He was one of those that laid their Hands on St. Paul and St. Barnabas, for the Office to which the Holy Ghost had appointed them. Some think he was the same as Simon the Cyrenean mention’d before; but there is no other Proof of this Opinion, but the Similitude of Names; nor is this a very good one, since St. Luke always calls Simon the Cyrenean by the Name of Simon; but Simon Niger, by Epiphan. hæres. 20. c. 4.the Name of Simeon. Epiphanius reckons up one Niger among the seventy Disciples. The Church makes no mention of Simon Niger in its Offices, nor in its Martyrology.
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Footnotes
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Acts xiii. 1. About the 44th Year of the vulgar Era. ↩