Man living at the time of the New Testament
Lucius of Cyrene was a prophet and teacher in the church at Antioch who was involved in sending Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey.
🗺 Places mentioned alongside Lucius on the map →
Lucius of Cyrene is mentioned in Act.13.1 as one of the prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch, alongside Barnabas, Simeon (called Niger), Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch), and Saul (later known as Paul). Cyrene was a city in modern-day Libya, North Africa, indicating that Lucius may have been of African origin. As a prophet and teacher, Lucius would have been involved in proclaiming God's word and instructing the believers in Antioch. It was during a time of worship and fasting that the Holy Spirit called Barnabas and Saul to be set apart for the work of spreading the gospel to the Gentiles. Lucius, along with the other leaders, laid their hands on Barnabas and Saul and sent them off on their first missionary journey, which marked a significant expansion of the early Christian church. Additionally, Lucius is mentioned in Rom.16.21 as a companion of Paul who sends greetings to the church in Rome, further indicating his involvement in the ministry of the early church.
Part of: Paul's Circle
Acts lists the Antioch leaders: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch), and Saul. The list mixes a Cypriot Levite, a man from Cyrene, and one raised alongside Herod's court circle.
Sources: Scripture
More background: search Wikipedia ↗
Of Cyrene, a Christian teacher at Antioch (Acts 13:1), and Paul’s kinsman (Rom. 16:21). His name is Latin, but his birthplace seems to indicate that he was one of the Jews of Cyrene, in North Africa.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
2 verses in 2 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s G3066
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.
Timothy, my fellow worker, sends you greetings, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow countrymen.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.