Jonas
Jo'nas (Ι᾿ωνᾶς, for the Heb. Jonah), the Graecized form of the name of three men in the Apocrypha and New Testament.
1. The prophet JONAH (2 Esdr. 1, 39; Tobit 14:4, 8; Mt 12:39-41; Mt 16:4; Lu 11:29-30,32).
2. A person occupying the same position in 1 Esdr. 9:23 as ELIEZER in the corresponding list in Ezr 10:23. Perhaps the corruption originated in reading אליעיני for אליעזר, as appears to have been the case in 1 Esdr. 9:32 (compare Ezr 10:31). The former would have caught the compiler's eye from Ezr 10:22, and the original form Elionas, as it appears in the Vulg., could easily have become Jonas.
3. The father of the apostle Peter (Joh 21:15-17). In Joh 1:42 the name is less correctly Anglicized "Jona" (some MSS. have Ι᾿ωάννης). A.D. ante 25. SEE BAR-JONA. Instead of Ι᾿ωνᾶ (genitive) in all the above passages, good codices have Ι᾿ωάννου or Ι᾿ωάνου, which latter Lachmann has introduced into the text. Perhaps Jonas is but a contraction for Joannas (Lu 3:27), which is the same as John.
