Evidence for an early gospel - Simon of Cyrene

One piece of evidence for an early dating of the Gospels are found in all of the synoptic gospels, Simon of Cyrene. When Jesus is being led to his execution, Simon is forced to help him carry his cross.

Matthew 27:32 As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross.

Mark 15:21 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.

Luke 23:26 And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.

Why is this significant?

Because this Simon of Cyrene is a nobody. He is never mentioned anywhere else but in this passage.So why would the authors waste valuable paper on including this nobody?

Mark gives a hint. Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus. Rufus is later mentioned in Romans 16:13 along with his mother as members of the Church of Rome. Hence we can understand why the authors mentions this person: Apparently he, or at least his wife and one of his sons, were or became followers of Christ.

So what the authors are doing here is name dropping some of the famous earlier disciples of Jesus as a testimony that the story is true. What they are saying to new believers who read this is: “If you don’t believe us, go ask Simon, his wife, Alexander and Rufus. They were there, they can tell you everything! Simon even carried Jesus’ cross!” This is a challenge to any doubters to go check it out themselves.

But this challenge is only useful as long as Simon, his wife, Alexander and Rufus are still alive. This proves that all of these gospels were written well within the rough life span of these people. And seeing as that the average lifespan in the first century was around 35 years maxing out at around 60-70 yearss, that means that giving the gospels a dating of 70 AD and after is rather unreasonable. ((A copy of the study: average-lifespan-in-first-century-35-years.pdf)) if Simon (or his wife) was in his 30s when this happened, a 70AD+ date would mean that he and his wife would be 70-100 years old before this message could reach many Christians. To us that is feasible, but in those days statistically Simon and his wife (and probably their sons too) would most likely be dead before that. However if the synoptic gospels were written before 70AD, it would be much more likely that they would still be alive.

Since both Simon, Alexander and Rufus are mentioned it is reasonable to conclude they all became Christians. However Romans 16:13 only mentions Rufus and his mother, which could be an indication that Simon and Alexander died before Romans was written, which would even date the synoptic gospels before 57 AD when the book of Romans was written.

Also the Gospel of John, written in the 90’s, does not mention Simon. Perhaps by then Simon was dead, so it wouldn’t make sense to inquire of him.

_{Image courtesy of JeffJacobs1990}