GESÙ, il GIUSTO. – A person mentioned only in Col. 4:11, with very few details serving to identify him. Like Aristarco and Marco, mentioned there, he was of Jewish origin (“of the circumcision”) and worked, while Paolo was a prisoner, for the cause of the Kingdom of God. He must have been well known to the Colossians, to whom he sends his greetings.
The name G., often Hellenized as Iason, was very common among the Jews. G. also bore another name, this one of Latin origin: Ἰωάντος, Iustus, which was likewise borne by Giuseppe Barsaba (Act. 1:23) and by a certain Tito (or Tizio), “colens Deum,” in whose house Paolo was received at Corinth (Act. 18:7). The practice of adding a Greek or Latin name to the Hebrew one was fairly frequent: names that produced a certain assonance were preferred, as with Paolo joined to Saulo.