1. Mark 15:21 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Who was Simon of Cyrene?

Mark 15:21 (ESV)

21 And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.

Simon was a Jew on his way to the city for the Passover celebrations.1 He came from Cyrene, a town in Libya and thus quite far away from Jerusalem.