Clopas
Clopas (also known as Cleophas (KJV or Clophas) is a figure of early Christianity

Early Christianity

Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....

. The name appears only once in the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

, specifically in John

Gospel of John

The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...

 19:25:
His identity and relationship to Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 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

Saint Anne

Saint Hanna of David's house and line, was the mother of the Virgin Mary and grandmother of Jesus Christ according to Christian and Islamic tradition. English Anne is derived from Greek rendering of her Hebrew name Hannah...

 and the father of "Mary of Clopas".

He is often identified with another figure of a similar name, Cleopas

Cleopas

Cleopas was a figure of early Christianity, one of the two disciples who encountered Jesus during the Road to Emmaus appearance in the Gospel of ....

, one of the two disciples of Emmaus .

Clopas is also identified with Alphaeus

Alphaeus

Alphaeus is mentioned in the New Testament as the father of two of the Twelve Apostles, namely:*Matthew Levi the Apostle*James, son of AlphaeusThere may have been two separate men named Alphaeus...

, the father of James

James, son of Alphaeus

Saint James, son of Alphaeus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. He is often identified with James the Less and commonly known by that name in church tradition....

 and Matthew, based on the identification of Mary, the mother of James with Mary, the wife of Clopas. The Catholic Encyclopedia

Catholic Encyclopedia

The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...

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

Hegesippus (chronicler)

Saint Hegesippus , was a Christian chronicler of the early Church who may have been a Jewish convert and certainly wrote against heresies of the Gnostics and of Marcion...

 as a brother of Joseph

Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....

, the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus, and as the father of Simeon

Simeon of Jerusalem

Saint Simeon of Jerusalem, son of Clopas, was a Jewish Christian leader and according to most Christian traditions the second Bishop of Jerusalem .-Life:Eusebius of Caesarea gives the list of these bishops...

, the second bishop of Jerusalem. Eusebius of Caesarea

Eusebius of Caesarea

Eusebius of Caesarea also called Eusebius Pamphili, was a Roman historian, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine about the year 314. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon...

 relates in his Church History (Book III, ch. 11), that after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70

70

Year 70 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Vespasianus...

 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."

Among those modern writers that identify Mary of Clopas with Jesus' mother

Mary (mother of Jesus)

Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...

, the religious scholar James Tabor

James Tabor

James D. Tabor is Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he has taught since 1989. He previously held positions at Ambassador College , the University of Notre Dame , and the College of William and Mary .-Background:Tabor was born in...

 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.