Lives of Scripture

Rufus appears by name only once with any description: in Paul's long list of personal greetings closing his letter to the Romans, he writes, "Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine" (Romans 16:13). The commendation is brief but personal -- Paul singles him out from the many names in that chapter for a specific compliment on his character, and adds the striking detail that Rufus's mother had, at some point, cared for Paul as her own son. Many readers connect this Rufus to the son of Simon of Cyrene, the man Roman soldiers forced to carry Jesus's cross to Golgotha: Mark's Gospel names Simon's sons, Alexander and Rufus, as if its original readers -- likely a Roman congregation -- would recognize them (Mark 15:21). If the identification holds, it means a family swept into Jesus's crucifixion by force became, within a generation, a household Paul knew and loved in the Roman church -- an ordinary family transformed by standing unexpectedly close to the cross.