Who Was Simon of Cyrene and What Does the Bible Say about him?
Everything recorded in the Bible is factual. From the truth of all reported words and events to the truth of Jesus as the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6), the Bible wastes no words. The Holy Spirit superintended the words of Scripture to reflect God’s purposes, and everything it contains has meaning. Therefore, when we read short accounts of people, they are in the Word for a purpose. With that in mind, we should ask, “who was Simon of Cyrene and why is he mentioned in the Bible?”
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An erroneous notion permeates Christian thought which has us believe we don’t always need words to preach the Gospel that our deeds will speak what we don’t. But faith comes by hearing. It can
only come by hearing (Romans 10:17). The Apostle Peter, in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, spoke Scriptural truth as he quoted Joel and David and testified about what he had seen and heard from Jesus Christ. That large Jerusalem crowd he addressed heard him and, by his preaching, “about three thousand souls were added to them” (Acts 2:41).
Paul, in addition to many other places, preached Christ to Greek philosophers at the Areopagus, keynoting on their altar “to the unknown God.” Some scoffed, some wanted further reasoning, and some “were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas,” themselves becoming proclaimers of the Truth (Acts 17:1-4).
1 Timothy is the first of the three “pastoral” epistles as they are called which also include 2 Timothy and Titus. The books of Timothy were written by Paul to his disciple, Timothy his son in the faith who had ministered with Paul in Berea (Acts 17:4), Athens (Acts 17:15), and Corinth (Acts 18:5; 2 Corinthians 1:19). Timothy also went with Paul to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4). In 1 Timothy, Paul lays out the how’s and why’s of godly leadership within the church. Imprisoned in Rome, Paul realized his end was near, and he was, in effect, passing along the responsibility of ministry to Timothy.
Paul begins this letter by telling Timothy to remain in Ephesus to confront and correct those who are