Alexander and Rufus

F. F. Bruce was a renowned New Testament scholar from Scotland. His book, New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? (1943) was voted by Christianity Today (2006) as one of the fifty most influential books that shaped American evangelicalism. He taught at the universities of Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, and Sheffield.

He proposed an interesting theory about Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21; Rom 16:13). Mark and Romans were written to those in Rome. Only in these two books do we see the name “Rufus.” In Romans, Paul wrote, “Greet Rufus, the chosen one in the Lord, and his and my mother,” implying Rufus was his brother and Rufus’s mother was his mother; they both were in Rome. Mark, similarly, had no reason to list the father and sons’ names unless those in Rome were familiar with them. Putting all these together, F. F. Bruce proposed that Simon from Cyrene, the father of Rufus and Alexander, was Saul/Paul’s father, and Saul/Paul’s first name, praenomina, was Alexander. Being a companion of Saul/Paul on various travels (including the first missionary travel where the name Paul became prominent), Mark would have known Paul’s other names, and his audience would have known whom Mark was referring to. F. F. Bruce proposed this theory only to dismiss it. Nevertheless, it leaves us wondering why Mark said Simon had two sons: Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21).

After torturing Jesus, the soldiers led him to be crucified (Mark 15:20b). On the way, they forced Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming from his field (agros), to carry the cross for Jesus (15:21). Perhaps Jesus was too weak to carry the cross, or the soldiers wanted to pick on someone socially oppressed. Whatever the reason, Simon bore the cross until a place called Golgotha, i.e., “the skull” (15:22).

Although the soldiers wouldn’t have known the importance of what they did, Jesus’s disciples would have. Earlier, he had told them,

“If anyone wishes to follow after me, s/he must deny himself/herself and take up his/her cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)

Simon had done just that without or without his preplanning. Jesus also said,

“Amen, I tell you: no one who has left his/her home, brother, sister, mother, father, children, or field (agros) for me and the gospel will go without receiving hundredfold houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields(agros) in this world and the world to come, while they endure persecution.” (Mark 10:29–30)

Symbolically, Simon was leaving his field (agros) to receive a hundredfold of fields through his sufferings. If he were Saul/Paul’s father, he and his son would endure traveling many fields through his missionary journeys while enduring countless persecutions.

Historically, several political rulers did good or bad actions that brought glory to God. YHWH even called Cyrus, a Persian ruler, his anointed servant (Isa 44:23–45:8). Similarly, even the soldiers visibly demonstrated what a faithful follower would be by forcing Simon, who was coming from his field, to carry the cross for Jesus’s sake.

When we fear the world is out of control, we stop and remind ourselves: even soldiers work for God, unintentionally sometimes. That should give us hope to keep on trusting God’s rule.