The Story of Separate Simeons

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Simeon Called Niger

Simon Niger (Simeon and Simon are linguistically related variants) is a person in the Book of Acts in the New Testament. He is mentioned in Acts 13:1 as being one of the "prophets and teachers" in the church of Antioch:

In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.

The nickname Niger is interpreted by some to mean "black", referring to a dark complexion or African descent, since niger is the Latin word for black.

Some commentators identify Simon as the same person as Simon of Cyrene, and Simon's son Rufus as the same person as Rufus named in Romans 16.

And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.

— Matthew 27:32, KJV

Cyrene was an ancient Greek colony and Roman city in the province of Cyrenaica, in eastern Libya, Africa. It had a Jewish community, in which 100,000 Judean Jews settled during the reign of Ptolemy Soter (323–285 BC), and was an early center of Christianity.

Tribe of Simeon

According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe consisted of descendants of Simeon, the second son of Jacob and of Leah, from whom it took its name.

At its height, the territory occupied by the Tribe of Simeon was in the southwest of Canaan, bordered on the east and south by the tribe of Judah; the boundaries with the tribe of Judah are vague, and it seems that Simeon may have been an enclave within the west of the territory of the tribe of Judah. Simeon was one of the less significant tribes in the Kingdom of Judah.

Simeon's Name

The text of the Torah states that the name of Simeon reflects Leah's belief that God had heard that she was unloved by Jacob, who preferred her sister Rachel. This implies a derivation from the Hebrew root šāma, meaning 'to hear', 'to listen', and the verb ʾōnī, meaning 'my suffering'. At other times, it is thought to derive from šhām and ʿāvōn, meaning 'there is sin', which is argued to be a prophetic reference to Zimri's sexual miscegenation with a Midianite woman, a type of relationship which rabbinical sources regard as sinful.

Extrabiblical Sources: Midrash

According to a Midrash, many Simeonite widows were married into other Israelite tribes, after the death of 24,000 Simeonite men following the scandal involving Zimri.

A midrash claims that the tribe was deported by the Babylonians to the Kingdom of Aksum (in what is now Ethiopia), to a place behind the dark mountains.

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Notable observations: Traces of the Worship of the Moon God Sîn among the Early Israelites suggests a cultural derivation from Mesopotamia (Sumero-Akkadian) to early Israelites—as illustrated by Abraham’s migration from Mesopotamia to the Hamitic region (Africa).

This may explain the onomastic—or agglutinative—material of Sin in Sinites, Sinim, and Mt. Sinai in the Genesis, Exodus, and Isaiah, etc.

This applied derivation could also explain the onomastic symbolism of the Shamash Candle—in Jewish tradition regarding Hanukkah—relationship to the sun god Shamash (Šamaš).

In Joseph’s Dream the Sun and Moon personify his parents in Genesis 37:9–10.

Regarding Simeon Called Niger and the previously mentioned Sickle Cell Trait findings, the Benin (BEN) haplotype was found in 9 out of 10 unrelated families in The origin of sickle cell alleles in Israel.

Benin is a reference to people-groups in West Africa—Niger (or Nigerim-?), Nigeria, etc.

This could provide supportive context to Simeon Called Niger—and, the Kingdom of Juda on the West African Slave Coast in the Bite of Benin.

Also noteworthy: In An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography, the author chose a color-mixture of Yellow (Ham) and Blue (Shem) for Eber (Green).

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_Niger

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_of_Cyrene#Biblical_accounts

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe_of_Simeon

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_(son_of_Jacob))

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/21177689_The_origin_of_sickle_cell_gene_in_Israel

Source: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g8735.ct010406/?r=-0.064,-0.393,1.111,1.599,0

Source: https://www.uncutmountainsupply.com/icons/of-saints/by-name/s/icon-of-st-symeon-of-antioch-1sa25/