Jairus

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

JAIRUS. — 1 . The name Ἰάειρος occurs in  Mark 5:22 and in the Lukan parallel ( Luke 8:41), but not in Mt. ( Matthew 9:18). Such variants as Ἰάηρος, Ἰάιρος, Ἰάϊρος (as Cod. א) are also to be met with in the MSS [Note: SS Manuscripts.] . It cannot be positively identified with the Heb. name יָאִיר (as in  Judges 10:3, = prob. ‘Jahweh enlightens’), the LXX Septuagint equivalent of which is variously Ἰαείρ, Ἰαήρ, Ἰαΐρ by simple transcription. In favour of regarding Ἰάειρος as the Grecized form of the Heb. name is the fact that this form occurs in LXX Septuagint in  Esther 2:5 for יָאִיר, the father of Mordecai (Cod. A, by a curious slip, has ἰατρός), as also in the Apocrypha (Est 11:2), where the Authorized and Revised Versions has ‘Jairus’ as the name of the same person. In any case, however, analogy permits the adoption of ‘Jair’ as the English equivalent of Ἰάειρος; and were the name in familiar vogue, like such names as ‘Paul,’ this would naturally be its form. The Authorized Version ‘Jairus’ follows the Vulgate (Wyclif, ‘Jayrus’). Note the Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘Jaïrus,’ fixing it as a trisyllable; and cf. other modes of transcription, as e.g. ‘Jaeirus’ ( Twentieth Cent. NT , ed. 1904).

Cheyne ( Ency. Bibl . ii. s.v.) regards the name as unauthentic, ‘the spontaneous invention of a pious and poetic imagination.’ He rejects its identification with OT יָאִיר, and yet he does not hesitate to explain it by reference to יָצִיר, simply because the meaning of the latter term, as he gives it (‘he will awaken’), suits his theory of a fanciful creation to fit the drift of the story. This is quite arbitrary and precarious. (Note, the name יָצִיר occurs in  1 Chronicles 20:5 as the Keé; Authorized and Revised Versions ‘Jair’).

2 . Jairus is described in Mk. as εἶς τῶν ἀρχισυναγώγων ( Mark 5:22) and similarly afterwards as ἀρχισυνάγωγος. Lk.’s ἄρχων τῆς συναγωγῆς ( Luke 8:41) is perhaps simply explanatory of this term which he himself uses later ( Luke 8:49). Mt. has ἄρχων alone ( Matthew 9:18); but there is no need to suppose that this is intended to represent Jairus as a member of the Sanhedrin, or in any other capacity than that indicated in the other Gospels. The brevity and conciseness of the form in which Mt. gives the story probably explain this loose use of ἄρχων. Wyclif’s ‘prince’ here is due to the Vulgate princeps , and elsewhere he invariably uses ‘prince of the synagoge’ as = ἀρχισυνάγωγος. The Vulgate, however, uses archisynagogus in the Markan passage, whilst in  Luke 8:49 it has principem synagogae , perhaps through the influence of the phrase in  Luke 8:41. The Gr. term exactly = the Heb. title רא̇שׁהַכּנֵסֵח, and the office held by Jairus had well-defined functions. Pre-eminently the ‘ruler’ ( al . ‘president’ or ‘leader’) was the director of public worship. Schürer holds that generally there was ‘but one archisynagogus for each synagogue’ ( HJ P [Note: JP History of the Jewish People.] ii. ii. 65). The expression used in  Mark 5:22 quite agrees with this, as it describes the class to which Jairus belonged (one of the ‘synagogue-rulers’ or ‘synagogue-presidents’) rather than a particular body of ‘rulers’ of which he was a member. The locality of the synagogue in which he held office is not definitely indicated. See artt. Ruler and Synagogue.

3 . In the triple narrative in which Jairus figures,  Mark 5:21-43 =  Matthew 9:18-26 =  Luke 8:40-56, the condensed form of Mt.’s account is most noticeable. In addition to the omission of the ruler’s name and the loose use of ἄρχων (see above), there is no mention of the servant who met our Lord and Jairus on the way with the news that the child was dead ( Mark 5:35 =  Luke 8:49). In harmony with this, whilst Mk. says she was in extremis (ἐσχάτως ἔχει), and Lk. that she ‘was dying’ (ἀπέθνησκεν), when her father came to Jesus, Mt. represents her as already dead (ἄρτι ἐτελεύτησεν). Perhaps, as a matter of structure, the prefatory link in  Matthew 9:18 may be compared with the phrase in  Mark 5:35 (=  Luke 8:49) ἔτι αὐτοῦ λαλοῦντος, with a bearing on this point.

Cheyne thinks the Mt. form of the story the most original, and explains the representation in Mk. on this point as due to the feeling of a later time that no one would have had a sufficiently bold faith to ask Jesus to restore one who was already dead. So far as that goes, however, the Markan account is parallel with the situation in the story of Lazarus (John 11); and we have no other instance in the Gospels besides this in Mt. of a request that one dead should be restored to life. Compression still best accounts for the form in Matthew. The account of the actual restoration to life is also given with the greatest brevity.

The effort to explain this incident as a case of restoration from trance is not quite successful. Mk.’s narrative would admit of such an interpretation, but Lk.’s definite phrases in vv. 53, 55 distinctly fix the sense otherwise. In the primitive tradition the daughter of Jairus was believed to have been brought back from death to life. The story as a whole is full of grace and beauty, and ‘belongs to the earliest stratum of the Gospel tradition’ (Cheyne, Ency. Bibl. ut supra ).

J. S. Clemens.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

JAIRUS (= Jair). This Greek form of the name is used in the Apocrypha (Ad. Est 11:2) for Mordecai’s father Jair (  Esther 2:5 ); and ( 1Es 5:31 ) for the head of a family of Temple servants. In NT it is the name of the ruler of the synagogue whose daughter Jesus raised from the dead (  Mark 5:22 ,   Luke 8:41 ). In || Mt. (  Matthew 9:18 ) he is not named. The story of this raising comes from the ‘Petrine tradition.’

A. J. Maclean.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Ja'irus. (Whom God Enlightens).

1. A ruler of a synagogue, probably in some town, near the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Matthew 9:18;  Mark 5:22;  Luke 8:41. (A.D. 28).

2.  Esther 11:2. See Jair, 3 .

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

"Jair." Ruler of a synagogue in a town near the lake of Gall lee, probably Capernaum. Jesus raised her to life immediately after death ( Matthew 9:18;  Mark 5:22;  Luke 8:41). The recurrence of the name in the same region, after the lapse of ages, is an undesigned coincidence, a mark of the truth of the sacred narrative.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Jairus ( Ja-Î'Rus ), Whom God Enlightens. 1. A ruler of a synagogue in some town near the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Matthew 9:18;  Mark 5:22;  Luke 8:41. (a.d. 28.) 2. Same as Jair. 3. Esth. 11:2.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A ruler of the synagogue at Capernaum, memorable for his faith in Christ. His deceased daughter, twelve years of age, was restored to life and health by the Savior,  Mark 5:33;  Luke 8:41 .

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Mark 5:22 Luke 8:41 Mark 5:43

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Ruler of a synagogue in Galilee, whose daughter the Lord restored to life.  Mark 5:22; Luke

8:41.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Mark 5:22

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( Ιάειρος , (See Jair) ), an otherwise unknown ruler of the synagogue at Capernaum, whose only daughter Jesus restored to life ( Mark 5:22;  Luke 8:41; comp.  Matthew 9:18). A.D. 27. Some have wrongly inferred from our Savior's words, "The maid is not dead(, but sleepeth" (Hautenberg, in the Hannov. Beitr '''''Ä''''' G. Z Nutz. U. Vergn '''''Ü''''' G'' 1761, p. 88; Olshausen, Comment. 1, 321), that the girl was only in a swoon (see Neander, Lebene Jesu, p. 347).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Ja´irus, a ruler of the synagogue at Capernaum, whose daughter Jesus restored to life .