Chuza
Chuza is a Judean of high society, close to Herod Antipas whose goods he manages. His father and grandfather already belonged to the court of Herod the Great.[1] Chuza is a handsome man, about forty years old. Not very tall, but well-built, with black hair graying at the temples, sharp dark eyes, a pale complexion, and a square beard.
He marries a princess of royal blood: Joanna, one of the holy Women.
He owns many properties in Tiberias, Jerusalem, and in the Decapolis, near the Tetrarchy of Philip which Herod asks him to oversee.[2] It is probably at this property that Joanna was taken before dying, until being healed by Jesus[3]. His steward is Jonathas, one of the shepherds of Bethlehem.
At Jesus' instigation, Chuza becomes the adoptive father of Mary and Matthias, abandoned orphans.[4]
Chuza is a courtier. Indecisive and calculating: "He seems to himself to be a king, because he is with the king... And he has fear of the royal disgrace."[5] However, he suffers from living in the toxic climate of the Court but endures it. He contentedly keeps his Woman away from it.
He is favorable to Jesus, who healed his wife. He is the one who evangelizes Manaen, milk-brother of Herod Antipas[6] and the royal officer[7] whose son will be healed.[8]
He decisively takes Jesus' side when the princess Salome makes a provocative intrusion during the Charity Banquet organized at his home by his wife.[9]
However, he remains a man of the Court. When the ambiguous words of Judas raise fears of a power grab by Jesus, he asks his Woman to break with Jesus: "He only told me in the name of his marital authority that I must leave you because he, an official of Herod, cannot allow his wife to conspire Against Herod."[10]
This does not prevent him from plotting himself: sidelined and humiliated by Herod, he dreams, along with Manaen, of seeing Jesus king instead of Herod.[11] For this, Chuza brings Jesus to his house in the Decapolis where about forty notables are gathered, ready to conspire: "No," Jesus responds categorically and withdraws.[12] and [13].
After his failed "coup d'état," Chuza keeps a low profile. Confident in Jesus’ forgiveness, he seems to awaken to faith after the spectacular resurrection of Lazarus: "Great! Great! He is truly God!" he exclaims.[14] But his faith does not withstand the Passion of Jesus: he forbids his Woman from professing faith in Jesus and expels his steward Jonathas.
His name
Chuza, Chuza, Cuza, Kouza, Kuza: Origin unknown.
Where is he mentioned in the work?
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Learn more about this character
Excerpts from the Dictionary of Gospel Characters, According to Maria Valtorta (Msgr. René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère, Salvator Editions, 2012):Chuza is mentioned by Flavius Josephus, who calls him a Sadducee. Dr. Johann Sepp, in his Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ[15] attributes to him an Idumean ancestry, the same as Herod’s.
Notes and references
Note: Quotations from the work of Maria Valtorta on this page currently use machine-translated text and will gradually be replaced by the official English translation. Until then, the official translation may be consulted through the reference link provided with each quotation.