Acts 8:9

But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who beforetime in the city used sorcery, and amazed the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one.

Josephus mentions no less than twenty different Simons in his history,[15] making this one of the commonest names of antiquity, and imposing an intolerable burden upon any who would identify this Simon with any of those. It is logical to reject all fanciful traditions about the man mentioned here and to view the information given by Luke as the total of all that is really known concerning him. A full understanding of the triumph of the gospel in Samaria would be impossible without a knowledge of the people's widespread following of such a deceiver as Simon, hence Luke's mention of this condition. Also, it may have been Luke's intent to show the gospel's triumph over one who even practiced the black arts.