CLOPAS (Κλωπᾶς).—Mentioned in [Joh 19:25] as a relative, probably the husband, of one of the women who stood by the cross (Μαρία ἠ τοῦ Κλωπᾶ). By Chrysostom he was identified with Alphaeus; but this is improbable (See Alphaeus). For his connexion with Joseph and the family of Jesus, see art. Brethren of the Lord and Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , vol. i. p. 322. According to certain apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, he is the same as the Cleopas of [Luk 24:18]. In that case the devotion which kept Mary of Clopas near the cross till the end finds a counterpart in her husband’s sorrow at the Crucifixion. But the identification rests on the derivation of both names from a common Greek original, Cleopatros, and is denied by those who regard Clopas as a Semitic name (see Deissmann, Bible Studies, English translation p. 315, n. [Note: note.] 2).
C. T. Dimont.
