CLEOFA. — A name which in the Vulgate (Cleophas) corresponds to two different names in the Greek New Testament. Whereas Κλεόπας (Lk. 24:18) is a Greek name (a contraction of Κλεόπατρος), Κλώπας (Jn. 19:25) is a Semitic form reproducing Alfeo (v.), although the Syriac version distinguishes Halfaj (Alfeo) and Klöfä, or the Aramaic pronunciation of Κλεόπας (Lagrange adduces the Palmyrene Qlöfä). The two names probably designate two distinct persons, whom Origen, however, identifies (cf. F. Maier, p. 171).
1. Κλεόπας (Lk. 24:18) is one of the two disciples (in communion with the Apostles: Lk. 24:9) Emmaus (v.); the other was called Simon (according to Origen, who sees in him the son of C. and future [2nd] bishop of Jerusalem, and St. Cyril of Alexandria) or Amaon (according to St. Ambrose). On the day of the Resurrection, while they were recalling the drama of Jesus’ Passion, they were instructed by Jesus, who had joined them along the way, and recognized him only at the “breaking of the bread”; then, in Jerusalem, they saw him appear to the Apostles (Lk. 24:13–36).
2. Κλώπας Alfeo (v.), following Theodoret (In Gal., I, 18; PG 82, 468) and the grammarian Papias (11th cent.). Beside the Cross stood Maria [wife] of C. (Jn. 19:25), presented by the Synoptics as Mary the mother of James the younger (Mk. 15:40 and 16:1; Mt. 27:56; Lk. 24:10); the father of the latter was Alfeo (Mt. 10:3; etc.). According to Hegesippus, on the other hand, C. was the brother of St. Joseph, the “father” of Jesus (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., III, 11, 2; PG 20, 248), and was the father of Simeon (or Symeon), the second bishop of Jerusalem (id., loc. cit., 32, 6); C. would therefore have been the father of Simeon and Judas, quite distinct from Alfeo, the father of James and José ('Ἰωσῆς'). For the various questions concerning the family of C., cf. F. Maier, pp. 169–74; V. FRATELLI DI GESU.