JASON

(Jaʹson) [One of the Greek forms of Joshua, “Jehovah is salvation”].

A prominent Christian in Thessalonica who had ‘received Paul and Silas hospitably’ on their first journey into Macedonia. A mob of jealous Jews set about to take Paul and Silas from Jason’s house, but, not finding them there, they took Jason instead, and made him the principal defendant in charges of sedition against Caesar. Jason and the others with him were released after giving “sufficient security,” perhaps in the form of bail.—Acts 17:5-10; 1 Thess. 2:18.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, written from Corinth on his next trip through Macedonia and Greece, Jason is one whose greetings are included. (Rom. 16:21) If he is the same person as the Jason in Thessalonica, he apparently had come to Corinth, possibly with Paul. He is called a ‘relative’ of Paul, which can mean that he was a “fellow-countryman,” though the primary meaning of the Greek word is “blood relative of the same generation.” If a close fleshly relative of Paul, he was naturally the one with whom Paul would stay in Thessalonica. The name Jason, one of the Greek equivalents of Joshua, was adopted by many Jews living under the influence of Greek culture.