BAR-JONA (Bariona). - Patronymic surname of the apostle Simon surnamed Peter (Mt. 16:17); it is an Aramaic form (bar Jōnā) to be translated "son of Jonah," jōnā (Heb. jōnāh) being "dove" (or a contraction of Jonathan or Jonadah?), the name of the well-known prophet (Jon. 1:1; II Kings 4:25).
St. Jerome (L. III in Mt.: PL 26, 121) sees implicit in "Filius columbae" the influence of the Holy Spirit, but he mentions the opinion of those who asserted "scriptorum vitio depravatum, ut pro Bar Ioanna h. e. filius Ioannis
Bar Iona scriptum sit una detracta syllaba." And Cod. 1424 (9th cent.) of the Gospels, in a marginal gloss, notes that τὸ ἰωδάκον has ulē Ἰωάννου.
The Fourth Gospel presented B. I. in two passages translated into Greek (1:42; 21:15-17 three times), but the critical reading is uncertain. The oldest codex (B) has in the two passages [ὁ υἱὸς] Ἰωάννου, and so too the Sinaitic codex in John 1:42; but the great majority of Greek codices always have Ἰωνᾶ. The Clementine Vulgate has filius Iona in John 1:42, but a dozen ancient codices of the Vulgate have filius Johanna (the "Western" reading of the codex of Koridèbhi); in John 21:15-17 all the Latin codices have Ioannis. Origen in Latin, citing the "Gospel according to the Hebrews," has fili Ionne (ed. E. Klostermann, X, Leipzig 1935, pp. 389-90) or fili Ioanne (PG 13, 1295). Ἰωάννης for Ἰωνᾶς in the Fourth Gospel is perhaps due to the influence of "Western" codices; many thought that Ἰωνᾶς in this case derived from a contracted Jōhānān.
Modern critics, from H. von Soden (Griechisches N. T., Göttingen 1913, pp. 184, 228 ff.) to A. Merk (Novum Test. gr. et lat., 4th ed., Rome 1942, pp. 309, 391) and J.-M. Bover (Novi Test. Biblia gr. et lat., Madrid 1942, pp. 274, 348), regard the reading Ἰωάννου instead of Ἰωνᾶ as certain in the Fourth Gospel. In any case, the Fourth Gospel would not thereby intend to affirm that Bar Jōnā must be translated "son of John (Jōhānān)": this is maintained by K. T. Keim, F. H. Chase, F. Zorell, A. Merk, E. Kalt, Th. Innitzer and others, but is denied by G. Dalman, M.-J. Lagrange, H. L. Strack-P. Billerbeck, D. Buzy, W. Bauer and others. If the form Ἰωάννου of the Fourth Gospel were critically certain, it would demonstrate not that Jōnān was understood as a derivative of Jōhānān, but only that B. I. was freely transposed into a very well-known equivalent of Greek cadence, familiar to the ethnic-Christian mass of readers, just as the Greek name Σίμων is used as corresponding to the Hebrew Sim'ōn. F. H. Chase admits as possible a double name (Jona-Jōhānān or Jonas-Jokumari) of the father of Simon Peter. H. Hirschberg, arguing from barjōnē, which in the Talmūd would designate Jewish Christians (barjōn would be "assassin," from bōrj "force"), sees in these the Ebionites, faithful disciples of Simon Peter, who would have named themselves objōnē from him, transforming B. I. into 'ābhī jōnāh ("father of the dove").
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Antonino Romeo