Around the year 339 CE, Simeon bar Sabbae (the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon on the Tigris) was killed by the Persian king Shapur II. Simeon was arrested for refusing to collect taxes from his flock, and he was beheaded for disobeying the king's order to worship the sun. The bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon was no minor figure. In fact, Simeon's martyr acts proclaim that he was the leader of the Christians of Persia and the protomartyr of Shapur's forty-year persecution. Curiously, however, two very different versions of Simeon's death exist. Each is presented here with an accompanying translation...