Joseph Barsabbas Joseph Barsabbas 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. 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
Judas Iscariot to the Corinthians , in which Paul the Apostle does not mention Judas by name, but uses the passive voice of the Greek word "paradidōmi" (παραδίδωμι), which most Bible translations render as "was betrayed": "...the Lord Jesus on the night when he "was betrayed" took a loaf of bread..." Nonetheless, many biblical scholars argue that the word "paradidōmi" should be translated as "was handed over". This translation could still refer to Judas, but it could also instead refer to God metaphorically "handing Jesus over" to the Romans. In his book "Antisemitism and Modernity" (2006), the Jewish scholar Hyam Maccoby suggests