Clopas

Not to be confused with Cleopas.

Clopas (also known as Cleophas (KJV or Clophas) is a figure of early Christianity. The name appears only once in the New Testament, specifically in John 19:25:

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

His identity and relationship to Jesus has been a topic of debate among Christian scholars.

Interpretations

The most common interpretation is that Clopas is the husband of this Mary and subsequently the father of her children, but some see him as the husband of Saint Anne and the father of "Mary of Clopas".^[1]

He is often identified with another figure of a similar name, Cleopas, one of the two disciples of Emmaus Luke 24:13-27.

Clopas is also identified with Alphaeus, the father of James and Matthew, based on the identification of Mary, the mother of James with Mary, the wife of Clopas. The Catholic Encyclopedia suggest that etymologically, the names "Clopas" and "Alphaeus" are different, but that they could still be the same person.

Clopas also appears in early Christian writings such as the 2nd century writers Papias and Hegesippus as a brother of Joseph, the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus, and as the father of Simeon, the second bishop of Jerusalem. Eusebius of Caesarea relates in his Church History (Book III, ch. 11), that after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Christians of Jerusalem

"all with one consent pronounced Symeon, the son of Clopas, of whom the Gospel also makes mention; to be worthy of the episcopal throne of that parish. He was a cousin, as they say, of the Saviour. For Hegesippus records that Clopas was a brother of Joseph."^[2]

Among those modern writers that identify Mary of Clopas with Jesus' mother, the religious scholar James Tabor has postulated that Clopas, whom he accepts as a brother of Joseph, became the second husband of Jesus' mother. Tabor argues that Clopas married Mary according to the Levirate law, which however would only apply in case of a childless widow - though this view is not widely accepted.^[3]

Notes

1. ^  "St. Anne". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
2. ^ Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History, Book III, ch. 11.
3. ^ Tabor, James D. (2006). The Jesus Dynasty: A New Historical Investigation of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743287231.