In the Acts of the Apostles, Joseph Barsabbas (also known as Justus) is one of two candidates qualified to be chosen for the office of apostle after Judas Iscariot lost his apostleship when he betrayed Jesus and committed suicide. After the casting of lots he was not chosen, the lot instead favoring Matthias to be numbered with the remaining eleven apostles. 21Wherefore of these men who have companied with us, all the time that the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us, 22Beginning from the baptism of John, until the day wherein he was taken up from us, one of these must be made a witness with us of his resurrection. 23And they appointed two, Joseph, called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. 24And praying, they said: Thou, Lord, who knowest the heart of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, 25To take the place of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas hath by transgression fallen, that he might go to his own place. 26And they gave them lot, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. —Acts 1:21–26 D–R The English proper noun Justus shares the same origin than from ancient Greek Ioustos (with the capital letter); St Joseph, the father of Jesus, was named the "righteous" in , an English translation of the Greek honorific title dikaios, which occurs frequently in the Gospels. Both Joseph and Matthias had been followers of Jesus from the beginning of Jesus' public ministry after the baptism he received from John. He had continued as a member of the larger company of disciples even to the time that Jesus was taken up from them. Further identification of Joseph is uncertain. In Christian tradition he is numbered among the Seventy disciples mentioned in , although the biblical text mentions no names. "After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come." (10:1) Biblical scholar Robert Eisenman has read the shadowy figure of "Joseph Justus" as either a not-so-subtle cover for James the Just, or a cloned conflation who represents in a single figure all the Desposyni (Brothers of Jesus)—rejected, according to the author of Acts in favor of the otherwise-unknown Matthias. Barnes’ Notes on the Bible says that he was “surnamed Justus” or