I wanted to know more about “a man of Cyrene, Simon by name”. A man coming to Jerusalem on Pentecost, but chosen out of the multitude to follow in the footsteps of the true Lamb of God into His suffering. He had no idea that his life would change that day outside the gate as he carried the burden of this innocent Man.
I wonder how long it took Simon to have a change of heart. Imagine being pulled out of the crowd because he was different than others being from Cyrene, identified as Niger. First the feeling of contempt, who knows how far he had just traveled as their paths crossed with Simon entering into the city. He possibly didn’t know what was all the commotion concerning this Man, was he evil? Did he deserve this sentence? Why was even the religious screaming “crucify Him”, yet a large multitude followed crying for him?
Then the feeling of the weight this scourged Man had been forced to carry… identifying with His heavy load. The trip was not short, plus it was up hill. He had much time to think.
Then realizing the weight of the Cross that Jesus bore was much more than physical weight. Coming to celebrate Passover, he was familiar with the scriptures. At some time during this event, Jesus must have locked eyes with Simon. We also know that the Lord will never put on us more than we can bear. We will never accuse the Lord that we did more than He did. But Simon of Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus, Simeon called Niger, was chosen for such a time as this.
It is possible that Simon had no knowledge of who Jesus of Nazareth was until this moment in time, but this changed his life, his family’s life and many others outside of Jerusalem because of his personal testimony with:
THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
As the first one in my personal family to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ; I am so thankful that though I was headed in a different direction, I was chosen to pick up His Cross and follow Him.
Thank you for your research and knowledge of the scriptures and connection of history. Family trees always change direction when we come face to face with the KING of kings and LORD of lords.

wonderful lines, this comes to my mind the immortality of memory to every follower of Jesus. Like Simon of Cyrene, in us is the identity of Jesus if we commit our life to Him, denying our self, take up the cross and follow Him. to God be the glory!

THanks for the insight above. As it relates to Simeon, Acts 13:1 says he was “called Niger”. Which gives us clues. If Niger was simply the country he was from, the scriptures generally will say, such and such is “of … said country” Niger in our case. But the scripture states that he was “called Niger” which literally means black. The Louw-Nida lexicon explains the definition of the term Niger in this semantic domain. Niger was an additional name or we call it a surname. His surname was “black”. In some cultures, people get surnames based on physical traits such as “Red”.

93.279 Νίγερ m: an additional name of Συμεών 4, the prophet—‘Niger’ (Ac 13:1).

Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 828). New York: United Bible Societies.

Powerful in real as well as symbolic value. Despised and scorned by the Romans but recognized, honored and redeemed by God, Simon temporarily held the cross, yet permanently God allowed him to destroy a stigma, reverse centuries of opprobrium, celebrate equality with his forebears’ brothers, and to enter forever the ranks of the chosen, on a par with the disciples and prophets, without ever preaching a sermon, writing a book or uttering a word!