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JASON.—This Greek name was adopted by many Jews whose Hebrew designation was Joshua (Jesus). 1. The son of Eleazar deputed to make a treaty with the Romans, and father of Antipater who was later sent on a similar errand, unless two different persons are meant (1Ma_8:17; 1Ma_12:16; 1Ma_14:22). 2. Jason of Cyrene, an author, of whose history 2 Mac. (see 2Ma_2:23; 2Ma_2:26) is an epitome (written after b.c. 160). 3. Joshua the high priest, who ousted his brother Onias iii. from the office in b.c. 174 (2Ma_4:7 ff.), but was himself driven out three years later, and died among the Lacedæmonians at Sparta (2Ma_5:9 f.). 4. In Act_17:6 ff. a Jason was St. Paul’s host at Thessalonica, from whom the politarchs took bail for his good behaviour, thus (as it seems) preventing St. Paul’s return to Macedonia for a long time (see art. Paul the Apostle, § 8). The Jason who sends greetings from Corinth in Rom_16:21, a ‘kinsman’ of St. Paul (i.e. a Jew), is probably the same man.
A. J. Maclean.