The name of a companion of Saint Paul in the New Testament. It is probably a short form of Silvanus, a name that Paul calls him by in the epistles. It is possible that Silvanus and Silas were Latin and Greek forms of the Hebrew name Saul (via Aramaic).As an English name it was not used until after the Protestant Reformation. It was utilized by George Eliot for the title character in her novel Silas Marner (1861).