I submit to you that I have cracked the caper:JoeWallack wrote:
Strong's Transliteration Greek English Morphology [/tr] 2956 [e] Kyrēnaion Κυρηναῖον [1]of Cyrene, N-AMS
Textual Criticism:
[1]No genitive form here. The better translation is "Simon Kyrenian".
http://www.earlywritings.com/forum/view ... f=3&t=1356
In the Gospel of Mark's "Simon," we have a triple play: Simon as the family of Jesus, Simon as the first disciple, and Simon as some passerby who takes up the cross of Jesus. Both of the other ones are a cipher on the first. The first one is the one who is invented as the fountain of apostolic tradition. The second one mirrors the Barabbas scene and gives us a choice of whom to follow: Jesus Christ or this rebel, Simon? It is enough to say that Simon picked up the cross. Those who knew the fate of the Simon, son of Judas the Galilean, understood what was meant.
Why is he called a Cyrenian? The word Κυρηναῖον is a play on Κυρηνίου, "of Quirinius," the name of the man who started the census that led Judas to rebel.
Further, they need not scratch their heads about the sons of Simon, because the genealogical succession was very important for these brothers of the Lord. Alexander and Rufus must be the non-semitic names of the actual sons of the actual Simon, who was crucified, and thus grandsons of the actual Judas the Galilean, who was also killed by the state. One doesn't have to think that they themselves took any pride in these names. The author of the Gospel of Mark could have disguised their identities with these cognomens in order to envelop his narrative in a second layer of riddles for anyone who happens to chance upon his text and might mistakenly suppose that he is with them, the rebels. It is not unlike the hidden reference to Rome as Babylon in some other texts.
Luke 2:2
http://biblehub.com/interlinear/study/luke/2.htm
αὕτη ἀπογραφὴ πρώτη ἐγένετο ἡγεμονεύοντος τῆς Συρίας Κυρηνίου.
This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
Josephus Ant. 18.1
http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi ... 0AJ%2018.1
Κυρίνιος δὲ τῶν εἰς τὴν βουλὴν συναγομένων ἀνὴρ τάς τε ἄλλας ἀρχὰς ἐπιτετελεκὼς...
Now Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and one who had gone through other magistracies...
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=594&start=20
The name is Latin. Tacitus Ann. 3.48 refers to him as Quirinius in Latin, while Suetonius Tib. 49 calls him Quirinus, actually a different Latin name, so one of them is in error. Most have followed Tacitus, in agreement with the Greek writers.DCHindley wrote:Κυρίνιος is the Nomitive form while Κυρηνίου is the genitive form of the same Greek word.