Mary of Cleophas

This title occurs only in John, xix, 25. A comparison of the lists
of those who stood at the foot of the cross would seem to identify
her with Mary, the mother of James the Less and Joseph ( Mark, xv,
40; cf. Matt., xxvii, 56). Some have indeed tried to identify her
with the Salome of Mark, xv, 40, but St. John's reticence
concerning himself and his relatives seems conclusive against this
(cf. John, xxi, 2). In the narratives of the Resurrection she is
named "Mary of James; ( Mary, xvi, 1; Luke, xxiv, 10) and "the
other Mary" (Matt., xxvii, 61; xxviii, 1). The title of "Mary of
James" is obscure. If it stood alone, we should feel inclined to
render it "wife of (or sister of) James", but the recurrence of
the expression " Mary the mother of James and Joseph" compels us
to render it in the same way when we only read " Mary of James".
Her relationship to the Blessed Virgin is obscure. James is termed
"of Alpheus", i.e. presumably "son of Alpheus". St. Jerome would
identify this Alpheus with Cleophas who, according to Hegesippus,
was brother to St. Joseph (Hist. eccl., III, xi). In this case
Mary of Cleophas, or Alpheus, would be the sister-in-law of the
Blessed Virgin, and the term "sister", adelphe, in John, xix, 25,
would cover this. But there are grave difficulties in the way of
this identification of Alpheus and Cleophas. In the first place,
St. Luke, who speaks of Cleophas (xxiv, 18), also speaks of
Alpheus (vi, 15; Acts, i, 13). We may question whether he would
have been guilty of such a confused use of names, had they both
referred to the same person. Again, while Alphas is the equivalent
of the Aramaic, it is not easy to see how the Greek form of this
became Cleophas, or more correctly Clopas. More probably it is a
shortened form of Cleopatros.

HUGH POPE
Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas

Dedicated to Mary Thomas

From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the  entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this  worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For  more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.

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