Acts 1:23

ἔστησαν, not ἔστησεν : the latter reading, “nimium Petro dat, nihil concilio relinquit” (Blass). “They put forward,” R.V., not “appointed,” A.V., for the appointment had not yet been made. Ἰωσὴφ τὸν καλ. Βαρσαβᾶν, “Joseph called Barsabbas”. We cannot identify him with Joseph Barnabas (Acts 4:36), or with Judas Barsabbas (Acts 15:22). Barsabbas may have been a patronymic “son of Sabba,” but cf. Enc. Bibl., I., 487, 1899. It is only a conjecture that he was the brother of Judas Barsabbas just mentioned. The name Justus is probably a Roman surname, as Ἰοῦστος indicates, adopted after the custom of the time, just as the second Evangelist took the Roman name Marcus in addition to the Hebrew John. Nothing more is said of him in the N.T. Eusebius ranks him with Matthias as one of the Seventy, H.E., i., 12, and Papias is said to have related concerning him that he drank deadly poison but escaped all harm, Euseb., H.E., iii., 39. On the connection of this tradition with Aristion see Nestle, Einführung in das G. N. T., p. 240, and Zahn, Einleitung, ii., p. 231. If the reading of Blass in [110], supported by the Latin, τὸν καὶ Ἰοῦστον (qui et Justus) may claim acceptance, it affords, as Belser notes, an interesting parallel with the Σαῦλος ὁ καὶ Παῦλος of Acts 13:8. On the spelling of the word, see W.H [111] Appendix p. 166, and also Winer-Schmiedel, pp. 56, 57. Ματθίαν. Nothing more is known of him with certainty than that he must have fulfilled the qualifications required by St. Peter. Both Eusebius and Epiphanius rank him in the Seventy, and he is said to have suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia. An apocryphal Gospel was ascribed to him, Euseb., H.E., iii., 25, and from Clem. Alex., Strom., iv., 6, 35, we find that the words of Zacchæus, Luke 19:8, were supposed to be his; so too Hilgenfeld, Actus Apost., p. 202, 1899.

[110] R(omana), in Blass, a first rough copy of St. Luke.

[111] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.