Matthew 27:27-31Mark 15:16-20Compare John 19:2-3The story is familiar to us, and we often pass over it without really permitting it to enter fully into our minds. But this cruel mockery of a man who has already been condemned to death, and who will soon die in one of the most agonizing possible ways, is shocking and horrific. Matthew 27:31-32Mark 15:20-21Luke 23:26-32John 19:17Compare Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27; John 19:18Simon of Cyrene came from the city of Cyrene, a Greek colony in North Africa that had a very large Jewish-minority population. Its ruins survive in today’s Libya, and that region of the country is still often called Cyrenaica even today. The fact that Simon’s sons Alexander and Rufus are mentioned in Mark suggests that they were known to Mark’s audience (possibly in Rome), and, very likely, that they (and perhaps Simon himself) had become Christians.

Source: Libya Today May 29, 2019 21:00 UTC