Underrated Bible stories #4: Simon of Cyrene

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Niemand
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Underrated Bible stories #4: Simon of Cyrene

Post by Niemand »

Carrying the cross
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In the thread about people' favourite less known Bible stories, I quoted someone noted:
Simon of Cyrene... hardly ever mentioned for some reason.
viewtopic.php?t=69006

Simon of Cyrene is briefly mentioned in the three synoptic gospels, but not John's.

Matthew 27:32
And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they [the Romans] compelled to bear his cross.
Mark 15:21
And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.
Luke 23:26
And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.
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Simon is venerated in Roman Catholic tradition and appears in the Twelve Stations of the Cross found at most of their chapels. (He is depicted in the fifth station.) The usual assumption is that he volunteered for the job, but the three gospels make it clear that he didn't necessarily do.so (see parts I have put in bold.) Some people do say he was a follower of Jesus and that is why he was chosen. Others say he converted to Christianity later. I don't think it's that clear cut myself. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is wrong on many things but gets this correct.

Does Simon represent taking on Jesus' suffering? Our suffering? Or just an unlucky victim? Was he someone who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

This is all the information we have from the main scriptures. Here is what we can deduce:
* The name Simon implies he was Jewish.
* He was from Cyrene or Cyrenaica , a city and region in Libya in North Africa. Because he was not local, he may have been a trader or a pilgrim to the Jerusalem Temple.
* He had two sons Alexander and Rufus. According to some traditions these two became saints. These are not very Jewish sounding names. Rufus may be addressed in Romans 16:13.

So we can surmise he was probably a Hellenised Jew from North Africa, just to the west of Egypt. This does not mean he was a black African, as many try to claim (Sidney Poitier plays him in one film), but he was probably part of the long established Jewish colonies in and around Egypt mentioned in 3 Maccabees, and judging by his son's name Alexander, he could well have been dressed more like a Greek than a local Jew. Simon would have been of Mediterranean/Levantine appearance not sub-Saharan African. Another reason to suspect he wasn't black is his son's name "Rufus" which often referred to someone who was red in the face or who had red hair (which is rare but not unknown among blacks.)

Black Simon (see above)
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If Romans 16:13 refers to his son Rufus, this may mean his wife and son were or became Christian.

Pseudepigrapha
Some Pseudepigrapha such as the Gospel of Basilides, the Apocalypse of Peter and Second Treatise of the Great Seth claim that Simon himself ended up being crucified in Jesus' place. Irenaeus reports in Against Heresies that in the Gospel of Basilides:
... a certain Simon of Cyrene was compelled to carry his cross for him. [Jesus] It was he who was ignorantly and erroneously crucified, being transfigured by him, so that he might be thought to be Jesus. Moreover, Jesus assumed the form of Simon, and stood by laughing at them.
The argument of Gnostics was that they worshipped a living Christ not a dead one. In the Apocalypse of Peter, Peter himself ends up on a cross beside Jesus in a similar incident. I do not agree with this although it is worth pointing out other odd aspects of the Crucifixion such as the thief on the cross who ends up redeemed and Barabbas (whose name means literally "Son of the Father") who ends up released.

While these are dubious sources, the Acts of Simon and Judas states that Simon of Cyrene was martyred decades later by being cut in half with a saw.

Cyrenians
https://www.gotquestions.org/Simon-of-Cyrene.html
Many Jews from Cyrene had returned to their native Israel and were part of a community in Jerusalem called the Synagogue of the Freedmen comprising Jews from many other provinces including Alexandria (Egypt), Cilicia and Asia (Acts 6:9). Luke records men from Cyrene being among those converted at Pentecost (Acts 2:10). After the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7), believers from Cyrene were among the first to be scattered by the persecution in Jerusalem; arriving in Antioch, they preached to the Gentiles there (Acts 11:20). These believers were instrumental in the formation of the church at Antioch, where, for the first time, “the disciples were called Christians” (Acts 11:26).
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Niemand
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Re: Underrated Bible stories #4: Simon of Cyrene

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Acts 13:1, another possible mention of Simon of Cyrene.
Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.
Note the different name, although Simeon is also Jewish. "Niger" means "black", although it can refer to hair as well as skin. It is possible that Lucius is one of his relatives.

Was Simon a Gentile?
Some sources state Simon was a pagan. I doubt this, as Simon is a Jewish name and there were a lot of Jewish Cyrenians. However one of his sons was called Alexander, which is a Greek name so who knows?

Roman Catholics seem to be persistent in this idea.

Leo the Great, a Roman Catholic bishop of the 5th Century suggested his inclusion indicated how Gentiles were brought into the suffering of Christ.

The German RC mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774– 1824) makes a similar claim from her visions, that Simon was a pagan (despite the Jewish name!!!) but converted as did his family. I do not think this is a prophetic vision.

https://www.jesus-passion.com/THE_PASSI ... R%20XXXIII

...[T]he Pharisees said to the soldiers: ‘We shall never get him to the place of execution alive, if you do not find some one to carry his cross.’ At this moment Simon of Cyrene, a pagan, happened to pass by, accompanied by his three children. He was a gardener, just returning home after working in a garden near the eastern wall of the city, and carrying a bundle of lopped branches. The soldiers perceiving by his dress that he was a pagan, seized him, and ordered him to assist Jesus in carrying his cross. He refused at first, but was soon compelled to obey, although his children, being frightened, cried and made a great noise, upon which some women quieted and took charge of them. Simon was much annoyed, and expressed the greatest vexation at being obliged to walk with a man in so deplorable a condition of dirt and misery; but Jesus wept, and cast such a mild and heavenly look upon him that he was touched, and instead of continuing to show reluctance, helped him to rise, while the executioners fastened one arm of the cross on his shoulders, and he walked behind our Lord, thus relieving him in a great measure from its weight; and when all was arranged, the procession moved forward. Simon was a stout-looking man, apparently about forty years of age. His children were dressed in tunics made of a variegated material; the two eldest, named Rufus and Alexander, afterwards joined the disciples; the third was much younger, but a few years later went to live with St. Stephen. Simon had not carried the cross after Jesus any length of time before he felt his heart deeply touched by grace.

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Niemand
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Posts: 13999

Re: Underrated Bible stories #4: Simon of Cyrene

Post by Niemand »

Other underrated stories
I've done a series of posts on some Bible stories which don't garner a lot of attention. Here are eleven of them:
1 - Elisha and the Bears
viewtopic.php?t=69474

2 - Getting Naked with Jesus
viewtopic.php?t=69486

3 - Habakkuk's Hair-raising Experience
viewtopic.php?t=69509

5 - Lefty Kills Fatty
viewtopic.php?t=69569

6 - The Idol of Dagon Bows to the Real God
viewtopic.php?t=69574

7 - Jesus Breaks Up a Funeral
viewtopic.php?t=69681

8 - Hundreds Killed by Farm Implement
viewtopic.php?t=69697

9 - Peter Swims out to See Jesus
viewtopic.php?t=69720

10 - Lapping it up Like a Dog
viewtopic.php?t=70815

11 - Paul bores a Man to Death
viewtopic.php?t=71863

12 - Herod needs to be Wormed
viewtopic.php?t=73176

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