Cyrene

Cyrene is a coastal city of Libya, the chief settlement of the Cyrenaica region west of Egypt on the North African shore. In the parts of scripture carried by UPDV the place itself appears once — as the southernmost addressee in a Hellenistic diplomatic list — and otherwise enters the narrative through one of its inhabitants, the man whom Roman soldiers compelled to carry the cross of Jesus.

Cyrene in the Hellenistic List

The single naming of the city in scripture comes at the close of the Roman consul's letter on behalf of the Jews. The circular is sent "to all the countries: and to Lampsacus, and to the Spartans, and to Delos, and Myndus, and Sicyon, and Caria, and Samos, and Pamphylia, and Lycia, and Halicarnassus, and Cos, and Side, and Aradus, and Rhodes, and Phaselis, and Gortyna, and Cnidus, and Cyprus, and Cyrene" (1Ma 15:23). Cyrene stands at the end of the nineteen-country list, the furthest-south addressee — the Libyan polity at the western edge of the eastern Mediterranean order whose courts the Roman notice on behalf of the Jews has reached. It is recognized here as one named state among others, lying within the same diplomatic horizon as Cyprus, Rhodes, and the cities of Asia Minor.

Simon of Cyrene

The other appearances of Cyrene in scripture come not by way of the city but by way of a man identified by it. As the soldiers lead Jesus out to be crucified, Mark records: "And they compel one passing by, Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go [with them], that he might bear his cross" (Mark 15:21). The detail is concrete — Simon is a passer-by, just in from the country, named together with two sons whom Mark's audience evidently knew.

Luke gives the same scene without the family detail but with the same identification: "And when they led him away, they laid hold on one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and laid on him the cross, to bear it after Jesus" (Luke 23:26). The qualifier "of Cyrene" is the only thing the two Synoptic accounts say about the man's origin. The Libyan city, otherwise on the far edge of the Hellenistic list, is brought into the passion narrative by way of one of its sons whom the soldiers seize on the road to Golgotha.