Is Alexander in the Bible? Yes, Several New Testament Men Share the Name

Yes. The New Testament names four or five different men called Alexander, among them a son of Simon of Cyrene, the man made to carry Jesus’ cross (Mark 15:21), and a metalworker who opposed Paul (2 Timothy 4:14). The name is Greek, Alexandros, “defending men,” and spread through the fame of Alexander the Great.

Who is Alexander in the Bible?

Alexander was a common name in the Greek-speaking world of the first century, and it appears in five New Testament passages. Spanish Bibles give it as Alejandro, and Portuguese and French Bibles as Alexandre.

Mark’s Gospel says that Simon of Cyrene, the man coming in from the country whom the soldiers forced to carry the cross, was “the father of Alexander and Rufus” (Mark 15:21). Matthew and Luke mention Simon but not his sons. Mark names them without saying who they were, and many scholars take this to mean that his first readers knew them. Paul greets a Rufus in his letter to the Romans (Romans 16:13), but no one knows whether he is the same man.

Acts names an Alexander among the members of the high priest’s family who met in Jerusalem with Annas and Caiaphas when Peter and John were questioned (Acts 4:6). Another Alexander appears in the riot at Ephesus in Acts 19, when the craftsmen who made silver shrines of the goddess Artemis stirred up the city against Paul. “The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander to the front,” and he motioned for silence to make a defense. “But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’” (Acts 19:33–34).

Paul’s letters to Timothy mention an Alexander twice. In the first, Paul names Hymenaeus and Alexander among those who have “suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith,” and says he has “handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme” (1 Timothy 1:19–20). In the second he warns, “Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message” (2 Timothy 4:14–15). The King James Version and the ESV call him “the coppersmith.” These two may be the same man. Timothy was at Ephesus when the first letter was written (1 Timothy 1:3), so the Alexander of the riot could be the same man as well, but the texts do not say.

Is Alexander the Great in the Bible?

He is not named in the Protestant Bible, but scholars agree that the Book of Daniel describes him. In Daniel 8 a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes comes from the west, “crossing the whole earth without touching the ground,” and shatters a two-horned ram; at the height of its power the great horn is broken off, and four horns grow in its place (Daniel 8:5–8). The angel explains that the ram “represents the kings of Media and Persia” and that “the shaggy goat is the king of Greece, and the large horn between its eyes is the first king” (Daniel 8:20–21). The first king is Alexander, who conquered the Persian Empire, and the four horns are the generals who divided his empire after him.

The Catholic and Orthodox Old Testament names him outright. The First Book of Maccabees opens: “After Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came from the land of Kittim, had defeated King Darius of the Persians and the Medes, he succeeded him as king” (1 Maccabees 1:1). It records that he divided his kingdom among his officers while he was still alive and died after reigning twelve years (1 Maccabees 1:6–7). Later chapters feature another king of the same name, “Alexander Epiphanes, son of Antiochus” (1 Maccabees 10:1). Protestant Bibles place 1 Maccabees among the Apocrypha, when they print it at all.

The city Alexander founded in Egypt in 331 BC, Alexandria, appears in the New Testament as well. Apollos was “a native of Alexandria” (Acts 18:24), and Paul sailed toward Rome on “an Alexandrian ship” (Acts 27:6). The Jewish community of Alexandria had earlier produced the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, beginning with the five books of Moses in the third century BC.

What does Alexander mean, and is it a Hebrew name?

Alexander is the Latin form of the Greek Alexandros, from alexō, “to defend, help,” and anēr, “man” (genitive andros). It means “defending men,” and it is often given as “defender of men” or “defender of mankind.” In Greek mythology it was another name for Paris, the Trojan prince.

The name is not Hebrew and has no Hebrew meaning. Jews took it up in the centuries after Alexander’s conquests. The Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus, who ruled Judea from 103 to 76 BC, was born Jonathan, and his Hebrew name was Yannai. By the first century it was a Jewish name as well as a Greek one: the Alexander in the high priest’s family and the Alexander at Ephesus were both Jews.

Is Alexander a Christian name?

Christians have used the name for centuries. Eight popes have taken it, and the Russian Orthodox Church honors Alexander Nevsky (1221–1263), prince of Novgorod, whom it canonized in 1547. In the United States, Alexander ranked 30th among boys’ names in 2025, down from a peak of fourth in 2009.

Related reading

• Catholic vs Protestant Bibles: What Sets Them Apart?
• Diana Is in the Bible: the Goddess of Ephesus in Acts 19
• Is Your Name in the Bible? A Directory of 231 Names