{Where Document name is cited first, it is Quoted}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| SIMON OF CYRENE� ENDNOTES OF SCHOLARLY SOURCES {Where Document name is cited first, it is Quoted} |
|||||||||
| [1]������ Watchtowers were erected in fields and vineyards out in the country.� In the spring guards watched out all night for thieves, mischief by a landowner's enemies, or for wild animals.� In the autumn guards watched out all night for thieves of the ripened crop or for wild animals.� The guards had to be strong and brave enough to chase the enemy away. | |||||||||
| [2]������ Aristotle lived around 300 BC.� The earliest manuscript we have of his writings was penned 1400 years later and we have 49 copies done at various times since them.� Still, no one doubts that Aristotle's writings are valid. | |||||||||
| The earliest complete manuscript we have of the New Testament was penned 250 years after Jesus, and many fragments covering the entire New Testament were penned the same century as Jesus.� We have 40,000 ancient copies. | |||||||||
| [3]������ THE BIBLE, PSALM 119:17-20 - Bless me with life so that I can continue to obey you.� Open my eyes to see wonderful things in your Word.� I am but a pilgrim here on earth: how I need a map - and your commands are my chart and guide.� I long for your instructions more than I can tell. | |||||||||
| [4]������ THE BIBLE, MATTHEW 27:33 - ...at Golgotha, the place they call "Skull Hill." | |||||||||
| [5]������ THE BIBLE, ISAIAH 52:15 - They shall see my Servant beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know it was a person standing there.� So shall he cleanse many nations. | |||||||||
| [6]������ The upright vertical beam was always left at the place of execution.� It was only the crossbeam that was carried by the prisoner.� Even then, it was near the size of a railroad tie and very heavy. | |||||||||
| [7]������ THE BIBLE, ISAIAH 53:8 [predicted about 700 years before Jesus] - By oppression and judgment he was taken away.� And who can speak of his descendants?� For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. | |||||||||
| [8]������ THE BIBLE, PSALM 69:15 - Don't let the floods overwhelm me, or the ocean swallow me; save me from the pit that threatens me. | |||||||||
| [9]������ At crucifixions, the condemned was forced to carry both the instrument of his torturous death ~ the crossbeam ~ but also a sign publicly declaring his crime. | |||||||||
| [10]����� THE BIBLE, JOHN 19:19-22 - Pilate wrote a sign and had it placed on the cross.� It read:� JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.� Many of the Jews read the sign because the place where Jesus was crucified was right next to the city.� It was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.� The Jewish high priests objected.� "Don't write," they said to Pilate, " ''The King of the Jews.'� Make it, 'This man said, "I am the King of the Jews." ' " � Pilate said, "What I've written, I've written." | |||||||||
| [11]����� THE BIBLE PSALM 118:6 - He is for me!� How can I be afraid?� What can mere man do to me? | |||||||||
| [12]����� Cyrene was a major city of Libya on the other side of Egypt in northern Africa near the Sahara Desert, and straight across the Mediterranean Sea south of Greece.� Begun as a Greek colony in 630 BC, it was the home of Callimachus the poet; Carneacles, founder of the New Academy at Athens; and Eratosthenes the mathematician.� Ptolemy I transported Jews to Libya and by the time of Jesus, there was a large Jewish representation there.� Some of the later Jewish Christians here became missionaries to Syria, establishing a congregation at Antioch. | |||||||||
| [13]����� THE BIBLE, MARK 15:21 - There was a man walking by, coming from work, Simon from Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.� They made him carry Jesus' cross.� | |||||||||
| [14]����� THE BIBLE, LUKE 23:27 - A huge crowd of people followed, along with women weeping and carrying on. | |||||||||
| [15]����� THE BIBLE, LUKE 23:28-31 - At one point Jesus turned to the women and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, don't cry for me.� Cry for yourselves and for your children.� The time is coming when they'll say, 'Lucky the women who never conceived!� Lucky the wombs that never gave birth!� Lucky the breasts that never gave milk!'� Then they'll start calling the mountains, 'Fall down on us!' calling to the hills, 'Cover us up!'� If people do these things to a live, green tree, can you imagine what they'll do with deadwood?" | |||||||||
| [16]����� FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, WARS OF THE JEWS [AD 70], BK 5, CH 11 - BK 6, CH 9 - [Citizens of Jerusalem]...were then crucified before the wall of the city...every day five hundred....the hands of many of those that were caught should be cut off....upper rooms were full of women and children that were dying by famine....cast them [bodies] down from the walls into the valleys....snatching up her son who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, "O thou miserable infant...be thou my food"....then roasted him, and ate the one half...[soldiers] came in presently...show them what food she had...."This is mine own son...come eat of this food....Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother"....After which those men went out trembling....those already dead were esteemed happy....thus was the holy house [Temple] burnt down....throw themselves into the fire, and were burnt together with the holy house....in the outer court of the Temple, whither the women and children...fled, in number about six thousand....Nor did any one of these escape with his life....Now the number of those that...perished during the whole siege [of Jerusalem], eleven hundred thousand. | |||||||||
| [17] THE BIBLE, MARK 15:22 - The soldiers brought Jesus to Golgotha, meaning "Skull Hill."� | |||||||||
| ���� NOTE:� The word "brought" comes from the Greek word "phere" meaning to carry like a bowl. | |||||||||
| [18]����� Rufus and Alexander are mentioned here as being Simon's sons.� Rufus turns up 25 years later in Rome.� The Apostle Paul said of him in ROMANS 16:13 [NIV] "Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too."� Simon's whole family must have become Christians. | |||||||||