The Candidate Not Chosen
After the betrayal and death of Judas Iscariot, the apostles sought to restore their number to twelve. Two men were qualified, having companied with the disciples throughout the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among them, from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up. These were Joseph called Barsabbas, surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
By the account in Acts 1:21–26, the apostles prayed and cast lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, who was numbered with the eleven apostles. Justus, though equally qualified by his long companionship with the Lord, was not selected. Both candidates had followed Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist through to the Ascension.
Names and Identity
He is known by several names. His Greek designation renders "Joseph called Barsabbas," and the surname Justus derives from the Greek Ioustos, meaning "righteous" or "just." He is sometimes called Joseph the Just or Justus of Eleutheropolis.
Saint Paul refers to a figure of this name in the Epistle to the Colossians (4:11) as "Jesus, which is called Justus," and some traditions identify the two. He appears in the thirteenth-century Book of the Bee's list of the Seventy as entry fourteen: "Justus, that is Joseph, who is called Barshabba." Christian tradition numbers him among the Seventy disciples whom the Lord sent out, as recorded in Luke 10:1–24.
Episcopate and Martyrdom
Tradition holds that Justus became Bishop of Eleutheropolis, where he eventually died as a martyr.
The historical setting is difficult: in the first century Eleutheropolis was only a village known as Betaris, destroyed by Vespasian in AD 68. The city was refounded around AD 200 by Septimius Severus, and its first documented bishop, Macrinus, appears only in the fourth century.
Traditional Accounts
The fourth-century historian Eusebius preserves a story attributed to Papias in the early second century, who is said to have learned it from the daughters of Philip the Evangelist at Hierapolis: that Justus drank poison yet, by the Lord's grace, suffered no harm.
Commemoration
The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates Justus on October 30 as Justus of the Seventy, where he is named alongside the Apostles Tertius, Mark, and Artemas of the Seventy, and again on January 4 with the assembly of the disciples.
The Roman Catholic Church commemorates him on July 20; the Roman Martyrology confines its account to the facts given in Acts and avoids the legendary material.
