Why Simon's provenance was "from Cyrene"
Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2023 4:47 am
Not only Bauer thought so. Also Solomon Reinach thought that Alexander and Rufus were added in a second moment in Mark. The expression "Alexander and Rufus" appears only in current Mark and in the Acts of Peter and Andrew, in the same list where the name of 'Glaukias' appears (the same Glaukias said to be the teacher of Basilides). By making Simon the father of two early Christians, Simon is reduced to be a mere witness of the compassion by Roman soldiers towards the victim (Jesus). A different story talked about Jesus being persecuted hardly by the same Roman soldiers, but this suffering was only apparent: Simon was the real victim. Reinach is not able to explain why the provenance was 'Cyrene', but someone had already noted the occurrence of KRN in both 'Kyrene' and 'place of the kranion': the irony is that Simon was coming from the same place where at contrary he was directed in the original story.