Joseph called Barsabas was one of the two persons whom the primitive church, immediately after the resurrection of Christ, nominated, praying that the Holy Spirit would show which of them should enter the apostolic band in place of the wretched Judas. On the lots being cast, it proved that not Joseph, but Matthias, was chosen.
Joseph bore the honorable surname of Justus, which was not improbably given him on account of his well-known probity. He was one of those who had 'companied with the Apostles all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them, beginning from the baptism of John,' until the ascension ( sq.). Tradition also accounted him one of the Seventy.