who “was called Justus”: “This is a Latin name, meaning just, and was probably given him on account of his distinguished integrity.” The Anglican Bible scholar J. B. Lightfoot “supposes that he [Joseph Barsabbas] was the son of Alphaeus and brother of James the Less, and that he was chosen on account of his relationship to the family of the Lord Jesus.” The fourth-century church historian Eusebius reports a story he attributed to Papias from very early in the second century, which he had, in turn, learned in Hierapolis from the daughters of Philip the Evangelist. It was said "he drank poison but by the Lord's grace suffered no harm." Whether this story might have inspired one feature in the secondary longer ending of Mark's Gospel - "These signs will accompany those who believe:...they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all" - is possible but unproved. In Christian tradition, this Justus went on to become Bishop of Eleutheropolis, where he died a martyr and is venerated as Saint Justus of Eleutheropolis. The location provides a date for this legend, since the site of Eleutheropolis was a mere village called Betaris in the 1st century, whose inhabitants were slain and enslaved with others by Vespasian in AD 68 (Josephus). The site was refounded, as Eleutheropolis, in AD 200 by Septimius Severus. The first historical bishop, Macrinus, can be found in the 4th century, when Eleutheropolis was an important city. References Seventy disciples 1st-century Syrian bishops People in Acts of the Apostles Saints from the Holy Land 1st-century Christian martyrs James, brother of Jesus