Tired, injured and full of wounds, Jesus of Nazareth was heading to Golgota, where he would be crucified by order of Poncio Pilate. This, in a symbolic act, offered to the Jewish people the option of freeing Jesus Oa Barrabás.
Theologians explain that the Bible mentions, in three passages, a man who helped carry the Madero on the way to the Golgotha ”place of the skull.” The Scriptures report the suffering of Jesus during the passion, death and resurrection, and point out that, after being hit by the Romans and after the audience with Pilate, he was sentenced to death at the request of the Pharisees.
During his way to Calvary, it is described that a man helped him take the cross. This character is mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew, Marcos and Lucas as Simon de Cirene.
His name was Simon and it is known that he came from a region in North Africa called Cyrene, today Libya, which was an old colony controlled by the Roman Empire. In that area an important Jewish community inhabited. As Jesus was identified as “de Nazareth,” the term “Cyrene” was used to indicate the place of origin of this biblical character.
What does the Bible say about Simon de Cirene?
What does the Bible say about this man?
Although in films like The Passion of Christ This man is presented as someone willing to help, the gospels describe another version.
In Matthew 27:32, he reads: «They found a Cyrene man named Simón. They forced this man to take the cross ».
This verse suggests that it was intercepted along the way and forced by the soldiers to help.
In Marcos 15:21, more details are added: “They forced a passer -by, Simón de Cirene, who returned from the countryside, father of Alejandro and Rufo, to take the cross.”
This story indicates that Simon was not part of the crowd gathered by the holiday, but was in the area for work ..
The text also adds the name of Simon’s children, to give a loyalty that this character existed and that had offspring.
In Luke 23:26 it was exposed: “And while they took it, they took a Cyrhene Simon, who returned from the countryside, and put the cross on him to take her behind Jesus.”
This verse adds that Simon walked behind Jesus carrying the cross, in an act that has been interpreted by many as an image of discipleship and forced compassion.
Cross debate
Talking about Simon of Cyrene is entering a debate that theologians and historians have sustained for centuries: Jesus loaded the whole cross or just the horizontal wood that formed it?
The Scriptures indicate that, before loading the cross, Jesus was stripped of his clothes inside the atrium of the Pilate Court. There he was whipped, dressed in a purple mantle and crowned with thorns.
In Marcos 15:20 it is reported:
“After having escorted him, the purple undressed, and put his own dresses, and took him to crucify him.”
Next, the text indicates that they forced Simon of Cynene to take the cross.
This passage has generated questions between scholars about whether Jesus really charged the complete cross or if it was Simon who took it entirely.
According to the La Vanguardia portal, in Jesus the cross form that agrees with the Roman iconography of the time was the cross -shaped cross, that is, a wooden structure composed of two crossbars.
It is explained that this cross consisted of the Stipes – the vertical beam, usually already set in the place of execution – and the Patibulum, the horizontal beam that Jesus presumed during his path to the Golgotha.
Therefore, some experts argue that, in reality, both – Jesus and Simon – took part in the cross.