ON ST. JOSEPH, WHO IS ALSO CALLED BARSABAS AND JUSTUS.
First Century.
The cult of the Saint, his Acts, his confusion with others, a miracle.
Joseph, who is also called Barsabas and Justus (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR P. B.
The Church of Rome long ago assigned this day as a feast to St. Joseph, as is clear both from her very ancient martyrology, which we are wont to call the Old or Little Roman; where on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of August he is announced in these words: The ancient cult of this Saint in the Roman Church on 20 July, Joseph, who was surnamed Justus, who, having suffered many things from the Jews for Christ, rested a victor in Judea. This elogium, on the same day, Ado in his Martyrology enlarges in this manner: The birthday of the blessed Joseph, who was surnamed Justus: who, together with blessed Matthias, that he might fill up the number of twelve, was appointed by the Apostles. But Matthias filling the place of Judas the traitor, blessed Joseph nevertheless, serving in the office of preaching and sanctity, and sustaining much persecution from the Jews for the faith of Christ, rested with a most victorious end in Judea. Of whom it is reported that he drank poison, and suffered nothing sad from it, on account of the faith of the Lord. Usuardus and Notker on this day nearly copy Ado; and (to pass over other more recent ones) the present Roman martyrology agrees.
[2] which day the Ethiopians and Copts also keep; not the Greeks and Syrians. Among the Greeks I have not found a day peculiar to him; yet he is celebrated with the other Apostles and disciples of Christ on 30 June, when in the great Menaia he is thus noted: Ἰωσὴφ, ὁ καὶ Ἰοῦστος, καὶ Βαρσαβᾶς· ὁ καὶ σύμψηφος γενόμενος, τῶν μαθητῶν ὑπάρχων εἷς. That is, Joseph, who is also Justus and Barsabas: who also with others cast his vote (namely, when an Apostle was to be chosen who should fill the place of Judas the traitor), being one of the seventy disciples. I have rendered it who with others cast his vote; because those words σύμψηφος γενόμενος sound thus; although I suspect that this is asserted from Eusebius book 1 chapter 12, which is here said in the Menaia; and so the sense is passive, and signifies τὸν σὺν αὐτῷ τῇ ὁμοίᾳ ψήφῳ τιμηθέντα, that is, Joseph, who with Matthias was honored by an equal vote, as Eusebius has it. Yet the day 20 July the Ethiopians keep in their Calendar in Ludolf, as also the Copts in Selden, where they call him Joseph Justus. But the Syrians, in the Syriac Calendar printed at Rome in 1624, on 20 June celebrate the memory of the Apostle Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, of the seventy-two. And so much for the cult.
[3] It is clear that this is that St. Joseph whose elogium is by far the chief in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 1 from verse 15, This is he who with St. Matthias was brought forward to the apostolate, where the history of his election and of St. Matthias is described in these words: In those days (which flowed between the Lord's Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit) Peter, rising up in the midst of the brethren, said (now the number of persons together was almost a hundred and twenty): Men, brethren, the Scripture must needs be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was the leader of them that apprehended Jesus, who was numbered with us, and had obtained a part of this ministry… For it is written in the book of Psalms: Let their habitation become desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein: and his bishopric let another take. Wherefore of these men who have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us, beginning 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. And they appointed two, Joseph, who was called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And praying, they said: Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen, to take the place of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave them lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles.
[4] It is not for me to bring in here all the things which, for explaining this text, may be read quite copiously in any of the interpreters of the sacred Writings at hand. and was one of the 70 disciples of Christ, Meanwhile it may be gathered hence that not rashly is St. Joseph reckoned among the Martyrologists among the seventy-two disciples of Christ. For what else do these words of St. Peter mean: Wherefore of these men who have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, until the day wherein he was taken up from us, one to be made a witness with us of his resurrection? So certainly Eusebius pronounces of St. Joseph, Ecclesiastical History book 1 chapter 12: And that other, who with Matthias was honored by an equal vote, report has it that he too was of that company of the seventy
disciples. The same hands down St. Epiphanius in those things which he subjoins concerning Christ in the twentieth heresy, when he reckons Justus among the disciples; the same also the venerable Bede in the Retractation on the Acts of the Apostles at this place, where for this opinion he also appeals to St. Clement of Alexandria. There are moreover also those who from the cited words conjecture that he was present at the marriage of Cana of Galilee.
[5] It is clear besides from the same text with how excellent a virtue among the disciples of Christ St. Joseph was held; a man of approved sanctity. since by the common vote of the Apostles he was chosen with Matthias for the apostolate, and indeed named in the first place. Nor does it matter that God preferred Matthias to him: for it was not a question of holiness of life alone, but also of the apostolic office, which required besides the other endowments of body and mind, with which perhaps St. Matthias was better furnished. Nay, on this head St. Joseph obtained the amplest praise, that he so willingly acquiesced in the divine judgment, when the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles: For neither did that other, being passed over, grieve, says of Joseph St. John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on the Acts of the Apostles; which he confirms from the silence of sacred Scripture, when he adds: The Apostles did not conceal it, if they had anything less perfect, they who indeed were not afraid to say of the chief ones themselves that somewhere they were moved; and that not once, but once and again and oftener. These then let us too imitate, and the rest which follow to the end of the homily, in which that Golden Mouth, by the example of holy Barsabas, assails the ambition of those who too greedily seek ecclesiastical dignities.
[6] Some confuse him with Barnabas; others with Jose, the brother of the Lord, There are also other things which some have thought to follow from the adduced place of the Acts, not without great confusion of persons: as when, from the name Joseph, some gathered that this same man is St. Barnabas, of whom there is treatment in Acts 4 verse 36, whom Baronius refutes at the year of Christ 34 number 237, and other later writers; others, and indeed the most noble interpreters of sacred Scripture everywhere, make this same man to be that Joseph who was called the brother of the Lord, in Matthew chapter 13 verse 55, and chapter 27 verse 56; and Mark chapter 6 verse 3, and chapter 15 verses 40 and 47. But since the name Joseph, when it is attributed to our Saint in the Acts of the Apostles, is in the Greek text, according to any exemplars at hand, expressed Ἰωσὴφ; but when it is attributed to the brother of the Lord in the Gospel at the cited places, in all the editions I have been able to consult it is constantly written in Greek Ἰωσῆς, or in the genitive case Ἰωσῆ, and so also Chrysostom writes it, Homilies 48 and 88 on Matthew according to the edition of Savile; and St. Jerome in the Questions to Hedibia §4, and against Helvidius, where he inflects it in the oblique case Josetis, and likewise St. Gregory of Nyssa, Oration 2 on the Resurrection, where he also intimates clearly enough the distinction of the names Joseph and Jose, which one may also perceive from the Syriac text of the Gospels and Acts; it can scarcely be doubted that by the different names a different person is signified; and so our St. Joseph is not the same as he who is called the brother of the Lord. Therefore Augustinus Calmet roundly pronounces, in his commentary on the first chapter of Acts verse 23, that Joseph Barsabas is not known in the Gospel. Consult also Tillemont volume 1 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments note 7 on St. Peter. I do not deny, however, that our Elders once inclined to another opinion, as may be seen on 1 May page 21 number 8 and elsewhere.
[7] [others with Justus bishop of Jerusalem; from whom, however, he seems to be distinguished.] Another confusion is fetched, if I am not mistaken, from the same source, from the surname of Justus, which is attributed to our Joseph in the cited text. For hence the author of the Paschal Chronicle, commonly called the Alexandrian, at the year of Christ 107, thought this same man to be that Justus who was the third bishop of Jerusalem, of whom we too have treated both in the chronological History of the bishops of Jerusalem volume III of May, and in the Passed Over on 5 May; but this opinion is contradicted, among other things, by the testimony of Hegesippus in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History book 3 chapter 32 according to the edition of Valesius, where he intimates that the last of the apostolic men who had seen Christ was St. Symeon, who preceded Justus in the see of Jerusalem. From the same surname of Justus, Clichtoveus gathers, in his dissertation on Mary Magdalen, published at Paris in the year 1519 page 77, that this our holy Joseph is the evangelical Jose, and the brother of James Adelphotheus; since he too was called Justus in Josephus, Hegesippus, Eusebius, and all the ancients. But surely St. James is called Just in one way, St. Joseph in another: for James in Greek is called δίκαιος, but Joseph Ἰοῦστος: this latter therefore seems a proper name; the former an epithet of virtue and holiness. But if you would also have Ἰοῦστος, as some interpret, to be an epithet given to our Saint by the Latins living in Palestine on account of his holiness, which the Greeks too, like not a few other words (for instance custodia, titulus, flagellum, denarius, praetorium, etc.), used in the same signification as the Romans; by what reasoning, I beseech you, does it hence follow that James and Joseph were brothers?
[8] What the Martyrologies add concerning the poison which St. Joseph drank without harm, It is known that he drank poison unhurt. The rest is nearly obscure. this also St. Papias attests in Eusebius book 3 last chapter, where it is thus read: Another great miracle also he (Papias) reports of Justus, who was surnamed Barsabas; who, when he had drunk a deadly draught, yet, aided by the grace of God, received no harm therefrom. Whence also that is easily gathered which the same Martyrologies affirm concerning the persecutions borne by him. But the other things which are there noted concerning his death, we read not elsewhere: nor that which pseudo-Dorotheus and pseudo-Hippolytus in the Vatican apograph which we have say of him, that he was bishop of Eleutheropolis in Palestine. Of this Saint too our Salmeron and Corderius would have understood that place of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, or whoever is the author of the book On the Divine Names, chapter 11 near the beginning: Concerning the divine peace and silence itself, then, which the holy Justus calls the soundlessness and immobility toward every emanation which is known, etc.; and from that they think it consequent that some St. Joseph wrote something concerning peace and silence, which has now perished. And these are all the things which we could find concerning holy Barsabas.