Saint Matthias Saint Matthias Matthias (Hebrew transliteration: "Mattityahu"; Koine Greek: Μαθθίας; ; died c. 80 AD) was, according to the Acts of the Apostles, the apostle chosen to replace Judas Iscariot following Judas' betrayal of Jesus and his (Judas') subsequent death. His calling as an apostle is unique, in that his appointment was not made personally by Jesus, who had already ascended into heaven, and it was also made before the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the early Church. There is no mention of a Matthias among the lists of disciples or followers of Jesus in the three synoptic gospels, but
Judas Iscariot it would be redundant for them to call him "the false one" before immediately stating that he was a traitor. Some have proposed that the word derives from an Aramaic word meaning "red color," from the root סקר. Another hypothesis holds that the word derives from one of the Aramaic roots סכר or סגר. This would mean "to deliver," based on the LXX rendering of Isaiah 19:4 – a theory advanced by J. Alfred Morin. The epithet could also be associated with the manner of Judas's death, i.e., hanging. This would mean Iscariot derives from a kind of Greek-Aramaic hybrid: