Cleophas

CLEOPHAS. - A name which in the Vulgate (Cleophas) corresponds to two different names in the Greek New Testament. While Κλεόπας (Lk. 24:18) is a Greek name (a contraction of Κλεόπατρος), Κλώπας (Jn. 19:25) is a Semitic form that reproduces either the original Halfai of Alphaeus (v.), although the Syriac version distinguishes Halfai (Alphaeus) and Klöfä, or the Aramaic pronunciation of Κλεόπας (Lagrange cites the Palmyrene Qlöfä). The two names probably indicate 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) of Emmaus (v.); the other was called Simon (according to Origen, who sees in him the son of C. and future [second] bishop of Jerusalem, and according to 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 came upon them along the way, and they 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 is identified by many with Alphaeus (v.), after Theodoret (In Gal., I, 18; PG 82, 468) and the grammarian Papias (11th cent.). Beside the Cross there was Mary [the wife] of C. (Jn. 19:25), presented by the Synoptics as Mary the mother of James the Less (Mk. 15:40 and 16:1; Mt. 27:56; Lk. 24:10); the father of the latter was Alphaeus (Mt. 10:3; etc.). According to Hegesippus, however, 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 Simon), the second bishop of Jerusalem (id., loc. cit., 32, 6); C. would therefore have been the father of Simeon and Jude, quite distinct from Alphaeus, the father of James and Jose ('Ἰωσῆς'). On the various questions relating to the family of C., cf. F. Maier, pp. 169-74; see also BRETHREN OF JESUS.