1. Information on Cyrene comes from a Wikipedia article:
https://archive.vn/9X8FR
h1. Some think that Mark liked to use Aramaic here and there for the dramatic effect it had on Greek speakers. One idea is that Jesus cried out in Hebrew because Eli is Hebrew for my God as well as for the short form of Elijah. The Greek text of Matthew uses Eli rather than the Aramaic Eloi. Yet, I would argue, that it appears that Matthew borrowed this scene from Mark, polishing it in his own way. In my estimate, bystanders could easily have mistaken Eloi for Elijah.
I suspect that the Marcan writer used Aramaic in this case to make clear the puzzlement of the hearers. In other cases he uses Aramaic to help underscore the reality of miracles. The miracle was so impressive that Jesus' exact words were remembered! I have generally not reproduced these Aramaisms, preferring for my purpose the meaning of what Jesus was saying.
Two Aramaisms used by Mark are talitha kumi, the words spoken by Jesus as he revived a dead little girl, and ephphatha, which was uttered by Jesus as he opened the ears of a deaf man.
Moreover, I note that the fact that the accepted Greek text of Matthew prefers a Hebraism may reflect the shift from Aramaic to proper Hebrew that occurred among Jews during the second major revolt against Rome in the Second Century on orders of the revolution's leader, Bar Kochba. That is, an earlier Matthew may have been corrected in conformity with that language shift.
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