Note 1 at Mr 15:21: There is a possibility that since Mark mentioned these men by name, they were known among the first-century Christians. There is an Alexander mentioned in Ac 19:33 and a Rufus mentioned in Ro 16:13, but there are no indications that these were the same men as these sons of Simon.

Note 2 at Mr 15:21: Cyrene was a city in North Africa where extensive ruins still exist near the modern-day Shahhat in Libya. Many Jews had moved to the area of Cyrene in the third century B.C., and it is probable that Simon was a Jew from that area who had come to Jerusalem for Passover.