CHUSA (Χουζέ). — A high-ranking dignitary of Herod Antipas (v. ANTIPA JULIUS HERODES), mentioned by Lk. 8:3, where ἐπίτροπος means something like “prime minister” (cf. Flavius Josephus, Bell. Ind., I, 24, 6, where the term is applied to Syllaios, prime minister of Aretas, king of the Nabataeans). His wife Joanna was among the pious and wealthy women who followed Jesus (Lk. 8:3), in order to provide for his and the Apostles’ needs. As an influential official of the tetrarch of Galilee, C. must have been well disposed toward Jesus. His Aramaic name occurs in Nabataean inscriptions (M. Lidzbarski).
BIBL.: E. Levesque, Chusa, in DB, II, col. 746; J.-M. Lagrange, Evangile selon s. Luc, 4e ed., Paris 1927, p. 235. Francesco Spadafora