It had a Jewish community, where 100,000 Judean Jews settled during the reign of Ptolemy Soter (323–285 BC), and was an early center of Christianity.

[8] Some also link Simon himself with the "men of Cyrene" who preached the Gospel to the Hellenized Jews (Greek: Ελληνιστάς)[9] in Acts 11:20.

[7] A burial cave in the Kidron Valley discovered in 1941 by E. L. Sukenik, belonging to Cyrenian Jews and dating before AD 70, was found to have an ossuary inscribed twice in Greek "Alexander son of Simon".

He states the teaching that Christ, in Jesus, as a wholly divine being, could not suffer bodily pain and did not die on the cross; but that the person crucified was, in fact, Simon of Cyrene.

[15] — Irenaeus, Against Heresies[16]Orthodox Muslim theology teaches Jesus ascended to Heaven without dying on the cross.

[18] Sidney Poitier was cast as Simon of Cyrene in The Greatest Story Ever Told that was directed by George Stevens and released in 1965.

A seemingly pious and generous man offers to one of the condemned carrying a cross, "Brother, let me shoulder your burden."

The film The Passion of the Christ portrays Simon (Jarreth Merz) as a Jew who, having been forced by the Romans to carry the cross, is initially unwilling but comes to show compassion to Jesus and helps him.