APPHUS (1Ma_2:5).The surname of Jonathan the Maccabee. The name is usually thought to mean dissembler; and some suppose that it was given to Jonathan for his stratagem against the tribe of the Jambri, who had killed his brother John (1Ma_9:37-41).
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
af?us, ap?fus: A name borne by Jonathan, the fifth son of Mattathias (Ἀπφούς, Apphoús, 1 Macc 2:5). All the brothers, according to this passage, had double names; John is said to have been called Gaddis; Simon, Thassi; Judas, Maccabeus; Eleazar, Avaran; Jonathan, Apphus (1 Macc 2:2-5). The latter were probably the names which Mattathias gave his sons, while the former were received later when they became ?leaders of the people.? The common explanation of the word ?Apphus? relates it to the Syriac חפּוּשׂ, ḥoppūs, ?the dissembler?; but Torrey (article ?Maccabees,? Encyclopedia Biblica) points out that we have no means of ascertaining with what guttural consonant the word began, or what Semitic consonant the Greek ς, ?s? represents. Both the form and meaning of the name are, therefore, still to be explained.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Apphus
(pron. Af'fus, Α᾿πφοῦς [and so Josephus, Ant. 12, 6,1] v. r. Σαφφοῦς or Σαπφοῦς), the surname (1Ma_2:5) of Jonathan Maccabseus (see Ewald, Gesch. Isr. 3, 2:353), apparently (Frankel, Vorstud. zur LXX, p. 96) from the Syro-Chald. חִפּוּשׂ, chappus', crafty (Grimm, Handb. in loc.).
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.