Simon of Cyrene (
שמעון "Hearkening; listening", Standard Hebrew
Šimʿon, Tiberian Hebrew
Šimʿôn) was the person compelled by the
RomansThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
to carry the
crossA cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run diagonally, the design is technically termed a saltire....
of
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
as Jesus was taken to his
crucifixionCrucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
, according to all three
Synoptic GospelsThe synoptic Gospels are three Gospels in the New Testament the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke, that display a high degree of similarity in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence and paragraph structures...
- And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross
- 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.
By contrast, the
Gospel of JohnThe Gospel of John , is the last of the four canonical gospels. This non synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth...
emphasises that Jesus carried the cross himself, and there is no mention of a Simon.
Because his home town,
Cyrene, LibyaCyrene was an ancient Greek colony in present-day Shahhat; Libya, the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region. It gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times.Cyrene lies in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar uplands...
, was located in northern
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, a connection arose making Simon of Cyrene the first African saintly
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
.
Simon of Cyrene (
שמעון "Hearkening; listening", Standard Hebrew
Šimʿon, Tiberian Hebrew
Šimʿôn) was the person compelled by the
RomansThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
to carry the
crossA cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run diagonally, the design is technically termed a saltire....
of
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
as Jesus was taken to his
crucifixionCrucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
, according to all three
Synoptic GospelsThe synoptic Gospels are three Gospels in the New Testament the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke, that display a high degree of similarity in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence and paragraph structures...
- And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross
- 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.
By contrast, the
Gospel of JohnThe Gospel of John , is the last of the four canonical gospels. This non synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth...
emphasises that Jesus carried the cross himself, and there is no mention of a Simon.
Because his home town,
Cyrene, LibyaCyrene was an ancient Greek colony in present-day Shahhat; Libya, the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region. It gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times.Cyrene lies in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar uplands...
, was located in northern
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, a connection arose making Simon of Cyrene the first African saintly
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
. Cyrene was a Jewish community where 100,000
JudeanThe Kingdom of Judah existed at two periods in Jewish history. According to the Hebrew Bible, a kingdom emerged in Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David, who came from the Tribe of Judah, to rule over it. After seven years David became king of a reunited Kingdom of...
Jews had settled during the reign of Ptolemy Soter (323-285 BC). They had a synagogue in Jerusalem, where many went for annual feasts. Tradition states his sons Rufus and Alexander became
missionariesA missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith;...
; the inclusion of their names in
Mark suggests that they were of some standing in the early Christian community at Rome. It has even been suggested that the Rufus mentioned by Paul in
RomansThe Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, also known as Romans, is the sixth book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was written by the Apostle Paul to explain that Salvation is offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ...
16:13 is the son of Simon of Cyrene. Some also link Simon himself with the "men of Cyrene" who preached the Gospel to the Greeks in
ActsThe Acts of the Apostles is the fifth book of the New Testament. It is commonly referred to as Acts and outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
11:20. On the other hand, Simon's name does not prove he was Jewish, and Alexander and Rufus were both common names and may have referred to others.
Simon's act of carrying the cross for Jesus is the fifth or seventh of the
Stations of the CrossStations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St...
. Some analyze the passage that Simon was chosen because he may have shown sympathy with Jesus, but others point out that the text itself says nothing, that he had no choice, and there is no basis to consider the carrying of the cross an act of sympathetic generosity.
According to some
GnosticGnosticism refers to diverse, syncretistic religious movements in antiquity consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect god, the demiurge; this being is frequently identified with the...
traditions, Simon of Cyrene, by mistaken identity, suffered the events leading up to the crucifixion, and died on the cross instead of Jesus. This is the story presented in the
Second Treatise of the Great SethSecond Treatise of the Great Seth is an apocryphal Gnostic writing discovered in the Codex VII of the Nag Hammadi Codices. This writing sticks out among Early Christian writings in that it depicts a Jesus who did not die on the cross...
, although it is unclear whether Simon or another actually died on the cross. This is part of a belief held by some Gnostics that Jesus was not of flesh, but only took on the appearance of flesh (see also
BasilidesBasilides was an early Christian religious teacher in Alexandria, Egypt. He is believed to have written over two dozen books of commentary on the Christian Gospel , making him one of the earliest Gospel commentators...
and
IrenaeusSaint Irenaeus , was a Christian Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire . He was an early church father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology...
). This belief is also held by many
MuslimsIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
(see
Islamic view of Jesus' deathThe issue of Jesus' death is important to Muslims as they believe that Jesus will return at the end of time. Muslims believe Jesus was not crucified but was raised bodily to heaven by God, which is in opposition to the consensus among Western Scholars that he did die.Depending on the interpretation...
).
A burial cave in
Kidron ValleyThe Kidron Valley is the valley on the eastern side of The Old City of Jerusalem which features significantly in the Bible...
discovered in 1941, belonging to Cyrenian Jews and dating before AD 70, was found to have an ossuary inscribed twice in Greek "Alexander Son of Simon." It cannot, however, be certain that this refers to the same person.
The Cyrenian or Simon movement, centered in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and the
Republic of IrelandIreland is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. It is a parliamentary democracy and a republic...
, takes its name from Simon of Cyrene. It has as its guiding principle 'sharing the burden' which it uses to explain its approach to providing services to homeless and other disadvantaged groups in society, often using volunteers.
Characters playing Simon of Cyrene appear in the silent
The King of KingsThe King of Kings is a silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It is a religious movie about the last weeks of Jesus before his crucifixion. H. B. Warner starred as Jesus...
(1927, played by
William BoydWilliam Lawrence Boyd was an American film actor best known for portraying Hopalong Cassidy.-Biography:Born was born in Hendrysburg, Ohio, located 26 miles east of Cambridge and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1918, he went to Hollywood, where he became famous as a leading man in silent film...
)
King of KingsKing of Kings is an American motion picture epic made by Samuel Bronston Productions and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus from his birth to his crucifixion and Resurrection.-Synopsis:...
(1961, played by Rafael Luis Calvo)
The Greatest Story Ever ToldThe Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 U.S. motion picture epic produced and directed by George Stevens and distributed by United Artists. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity through the Resurrection....
(1965, played by
Sidney PoitierSir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian-American actor, film director, author, and diplomat. He broke through as a star in acclaimed performances in American films and plays, which, by consciously defying racial stereotyping, gave a new dramatic credibility for black actors to mainstream film...
) and
The Passion of the ChristThe Passion of the Christ is a film co-written, co-produced and directed by Mel Gibson. It is based on the New Testament accounts of the arrest, trial, torture, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, events commonly known as The Passion. The film’s dialogue is in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew, with...
(2004, played by Jarreth J. Merz). Also there is a play about Simon by the poet
Ridgely TorrenceFrederick Ridgely Torrence is an American poet, and editor.-Life:Son of Findley David Torrence and Mary Ridgely Torrence.He attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and Princeton University....
by the name of
Simon the Cyrenian. Among the actors performing Simon of Cyrene in productions of this play is
Paul RobesonPaul LeRoy Bustill Robeson was an internationally renowned American basso profundo concert singer, scholar, actor of film and stage, All-American and professional athlete, writer, multi-lingual orator and lawyer who was also noted for his wide-ranging social justice activism...
(in a 1920 YWCA production directed by
Bob Cole'sRobert Allen "Bob" Cole was an American composer, actor, playwright, and stage producer and director.In collaboration with Billy Johnson, he wrote and produced A Trip to Coontown , the first musical entirely created and owned by black showmen. The popular song La Hoola Boola was also a result of...
sister Dora). Christian singer
Ray BoltzRay Boltz is a contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter, whose songs often tell stories of faith and inspiration. He was raised by his parents William and Ruth Boltz, and was married to his wife Carol for over 30 years prior to coming out as gay in 2008...
's song "Watch the Lamb" is about Simon of Cyrene's role in Christ's crucifixion.