RUFUS rōō’ fəs, Gr. ̔Ροῦφος, G4859, a Hellenized form of the Lat. name Rufus, “Red,” used frequently by Gr. authors of the 3rd and 2nd cent. b.c. The name appears twice in the NT. In the passion narrative (Mark 15:21) a Rufus is mentioned as the son of the Simon of Cyrene who carried the Savior’s cross. In the greetings of Romans 16:13, a Rufus is greeted as “eminent in the Lord, also his mother and mine.” Needless to say the romantic bent of 19th-cent. expositors was sufficient for the task of equating the two men and spinning a wonderful web about them. The fact that Rufus was a Lat. name, a Rom. military governor of Judea was so named, lends credence to the possibility that this same family might indeed find its way to Rome, and there play an active role in the church. The martyrdom of a Rufus is noted in Polycarp’s Epistle to the Philippians XI:1 c. a.d. 135.