# Simeon Called Niger ## Intro Simeon called Niger was one of the five "prophets and teachers" who led the church at Antioch in Syria, the first church where followers of Jesus were called Christians. His nickname, Niger, is the Latin word for "black." He is listed next to Lucius of Cyrene, a man from North Africa. Together with Barnabas, Manaen and Saul (Paul), they were worshipping and fasting when the Holy Spirit told them to set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work of mission. They laid hands on them and sent them out ([Acts 13:1-3](/codex/acts-13-1-3/)). So Paul's first missionary journey was commissioned by a leadership team that included at least one African and very probably two. And the church they led had been started, in part, by unnamed believers from Cyrene who were the first to preach about Jesus to non-Jews in Antioch ([Acts 11:20](/codex/acts-11-20/)). ![Ruined stone walls, a doorway and Doric columns with headless marble statues at the ancient Greek city of Cyrene in Libya](/codex/assets/cyrene-sanctuary-of-apollo.jpg) *Ruins in the sanctuary of Apollo at Cyrene (Shahhat, Libya), home city of Lucius of Cyrene and of the Cyrenian preachers of [Acts 11:20](/codex/acts-11-20/). Photo: Koperczak, 1981, public domain ([Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cyrene_Apollo_temple.jpg)), resized.* ## In full [Acts 13:1](/codex/acts-13-1/) names the leaders of the Antioch church: "Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul" ([Acts 13:1](/codex/acts-13-1/), KJV). In the following verses the Holy Spirit says, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them" ([Acts 13:2](/codex/acts-13-2/), KJV), and the group fasts, prays, lays hands on the two, and sends them away. The list is striking for its range. Barnabas was a Levite from Cyprus ([Acts 4:36](/codex/acts-4-36/)). Simeon bore a Latin nickname meaning "black." Lucius came from Cyrene in North Africa. Manaen had been raised at the court of Herod Antipas. Saul was a Pharisee from Tarsus in Cilicia. Luke shows a church whose leadership reflected the Mediterranean world it was about to reach. ## Simeon "called Niger" - **The name.** Luke writes *Symeōn ho kaloumenos Niger*, "Simeon, the one called Niger." *Symeōn* is the Greek form of the Hebrew Shimon, so he was almost certainly Jewish. *Niger* is Latin for black or dark. - **What the nickname shows.** Latin nicknames that described appearance were common, and Niger was also an ordinary Roman family name (the emperor-claimant Pescennius Niger, AD 193, is one example). The nickname most naturally indicates a dark complexion, and many commentators infer an African origin, especially given his place next to Lucius of Cyrene. The text does not state where he came from. - **Is he Simon of Cyrene?** Some interpreters have suggested that Simeon Niger is [Simon of Cyrene](/codex/simon-of-cyrene/), the man who carried Jesus' cross, since *Simōn* and *Symeōn* render the same Hebrew name and Cyrenians were active at Antioch. No ancient source makes the identification. It is an attractive guess, not a finding. ## Lucius of Cyrene - **Origin.** Lucius (a Latin name) came from Cyrene, the chief city of Cyrenaica in what is now eastern Libya, which had a large Jewish community. See [Simon of Cyrene](/codex/simon-of-cyrene/) for the history of the Jews of Cyrene. - **Possible other appearances.** Paul sends greetings from "Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen" ([Romans 16:21](/codex/romans-16-21/), KJV), possibly the same man. Some have suggested Lucius is Luke the evangelist, but Luke's Greek name (*Loukas*) is a different form, Luke never names himself in Acts, and the identification has little support. See [Luke the Evangelist](/codex/luke-the-evangelist/). ## The Cyrenians who started the Gentile mission [Acts 11:19-21](/codex/acts-11-19-21/) tells how the believers scattered by the persecution after Stephen's death spoke the word "to none but unto the Jews only." Then: "some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus" ([Acts 11:20](/codex/acts-11-20/), KJV). A great number believed. Jerusalem sent Barnabas, who brought Saul from Tarsus, and "the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch" ([Acts 11:26](/codex/acts-11-26/), KJV). - **Greeks or Greek-speaking Jews?** Manuscripts differ between *Hellēnistas* (Greek-speaking Jews, the KJV's "Grecians") and *Hellēnas* (Greeks). Most modern scholars read the contrast with "Jews only" in the previous verse as decisive: these men preached to Gentiles. That makes the unnamed preachers from Cyprus and Cyrene the first, in Luke's account, to take the gospel deliberately to Greeks as a group. - **Africans at the turning point.** If this reading is right, North African Jewish believers were among the founders of the first mixed Jewish and Gentile church, the church that named itself Christian and sent out Paul. Cyrenians appear at every stage of Luke's story: at Pentecost ([Acts 2:10](/codex/acts-2-10/)), in the Jerusalem synagogue that opposed Stephen ([Acts 6:9](/codex/acts-6-9/)), as the founders of Gentile preaching at Antioch ([Acts 11:20](/codex/acts-11-20/)), and among the church's leaders ([Acts 13:1](/codex/acts-13-1/)). ## Why this matters - **African leadership in the first Gentile mission.** The commissioning of Paul and Barnabas, the start of the mission that took the gospel to Asia Minor and Europe, was done by a team that included Africans. - **A multiethnic church from the start.** The Antioch leadership list is the New Testament's clearest picture of a church led by people of different origins, cultures and classes. See [Church at Antioch](/codex/church-at-antioch/). - **An answer to the "white man's religion" charge.** The mission that eventually reached Europe was sent out, in part, by African believers in Syria. See [Christianity Is the White Mans Religion Objection Defeater](/codex/christianity-is-the-white-mans-religion-objection-defeater/). ## See also - [Church at Antioch](/codex/church-at-antioch/), the church Simeon and Lucius led - [Simon of Cyrene](/codex/simon-of-cyrene/), the cross-bearer sometimes identified with Simeon - [Paul the Apostle](/codex/paul-the-apostle/), commissioned by the Antioch prophets and teachers - [Luke the Evangelist](/codex/luke-the-evangelist/), sometimes speculatively identified with Lucius - [Apollos](/codex/apollos/), another African teacher of the apostolic church - [Ethiopian Eunuch](/codex/ethiopian-eunuch/), the first African convert recorded in Acts - [Africans in Scripture Argument](/codex/africans-in-scripture-argument/), the cumulative case for African presence in Scripture - [Africa and Christianity](/codex/africa-and-christianity/)
## Common questions this page answers **Q: Who was Simeon called Niger?** He was one of the five prophets and teachers who led the church at Antioch and sent out Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary journey ([Acts 13:1-3](/codex/acts-13-1-3/)). His nickname Niger is Latin for "black." **Q: Does Niger in [Acts 13:1](/codex/acts-13-1/) mean Simeon was Black?** *Niger* means black or dark in Latin, and it most naturally describes his complexion; many scholars think he was African, especially since he is listed with Lucius of Cyrene. It was also a common Roman surname, so the text does not prove where he came from. **Q: Is Simeon Niger the same as Simon of Cyrene?** Some have suggested it, because the names are the same in Hebrew and Cyrenians were active at Antioch. No ancient source says so, and it remains a guess. **Q: Who was Lucius of Cyrene?** Lucius was a teacher at Antioch from Cyrene, a city in what is now Libya ([Acts 13:1](/codex/acts-13-1/)). He may be the Lucius Paul calls his kinsman in [Romans 16:21](/codex/romans-16-21/). **Q: Who first preached to the Gentiles at Antioch?** [Acts 11:20](/codex/acts-11-20/) says unnamed believers from Cyprus and Cyrene, a city in North Africa, spoke to the Greeks at Antioch about the Lord Jesus, and a great number believed. **Q: Who sent Paul on his first missionary journey?** The Holy Spirit, through the prophets and teachers of the Antioch church: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen and Saul himself. They fasted, prayed and laid hands on Barnabas and Saul ([Acts 13:1-3](/codex/acts-13-1-3/)).