Bible Strands
Matthew 27:32
Along the way they found a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross of Jesus.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Roman soldiers escorting Jesus to crucifixion intercept Simon, a man from Cyrene, along the route to Golgotha.
The words — The Greek εὗρον (heuron) denotes the soldiers' active discovery of Simon, while τοῦτον (touton) identifies him as the specific individual designated to bear the cross.
The thread — This event runs parallel to Mark 15:21 and Luke 23:26, which both record soldiers seizing Simon as he arrived from the countryside, and stands in contrast to Matthew 16:24’s instruction for disciples to voluntarily take up their cross.
Why it lands — The text states that soldiers compelled a bystander to carry the cross, establishing the physical burden of Jesus’s execution before any theological inference about discipleship or substitution.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.
Cross-references
- Mark 15:21 Now Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and the soldiers forced him to carry the cross of Jesus.
- Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
- Luke 23:26 As the soldiers led Him away, they seized Simon of Cyrene on his way in from the country, and they put the cross on him to carry behind Jesus.
- Acts 2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome,
- Acts 6:9 But resistance arose from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and men from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. They disputed with Stephen,
- Acts 11:20 But some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus.
- Acts 13:1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch), and Saul.
- Leviticus 4:12 all the rest of the bull—he must take outside the camp to a ceremonially clean place where the ashes are poured out, and there he must burn it on a wood fire on the ash heap.
- 1 Kings 21:13 And the two scoundrels came in and sat opposite Naboth, and these men testified against him before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king!” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death.
- John 19:17 Carrying His own cross, He went out to The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.