THE events which concern this person’s connection with the apostolic
company, are briefly these. Soon after the ascension of Jesus, the
eleven disciples being assembled in their “upper room,” with a large
company of believers, making in all, together, a meeting of one hundred
and twenty, Peter arose and presented to their consideration, the
propriety and importance of filling, in the apostolic college, the
vacancy caused by the sad defection of Judas Iscariot. Beginning with
what seems to be an apt allusion to the words of David concerning
Ahithophel,――(a quotation very naturally suggested by the striking
similarity between the fate of that ancient traitor, and that of the
base Iscariot,) he referred to the peculiarly horrid circumstances
of the death of this revolted apostle, and also applied to these
occurrences the words of the same Psalmist concerning those upon whom
he invoked the wrath of God, in words which might with remarkable
emphasis be made descriptive of the ruin of Judas. “Let his habitation
be desolate,” and “let another take his office.” Applying this last
quotation more particularly to the exigency of their circumstances, he
pronounced it to be in accordance with the will of God that they should
immediately proceed to select a person to “take the office” of Judas.
He declared it an essential requisite for this office, moreover, that
the person should be one of those who, though not numbered with the
select twelve, had been among the intimate companions of Jesus, and had
enjoyed the honors and privileges of a familiar discipleship, so that
they could always testify of his great miracles and divine instructions,
from their own personal knowledge as eye-witnesses of his actions, from
the beginning of his divine career at his baptism by John, to the time
of his ascension.
Agreeably to this counsel of the apostolic chief, the whole company of
the disciples selected two persons from those who had been witnesses
of the great actions of Christ, and nominated them to the apostles, as
equally well qualified for the vacant office. To decide the question
with perfect impartiality, it was resolved, in conformity with the
common ancient practice in such cases, to leave the point between these
two candidates to be settled by lot; and to give this mode of decision
a solemnity proportioned to the importance of the occasion, they first
invoked, in prayer, the aid of God in the appointment of a person
best qualified for his service. They then drew the lots of the two
candidates, and Matthias being thus selected, was thenceforth enrolled
with the eleven apostles.
Of his previous history nothing whatever is known, except that,
according to what is implied in the address of Peter, he must have
been, from the beginning of Christ’s career to his ascension, one of
his constant attendants and hearers. Some have conjectured that he
was one of the seventy, sent forth by Jesus as apostles, in the same
manner as the twelve had gone; and there is nothing unreasonable in the
supposition; but still it is a conjecture merely, without any fact to
support it. The New Testament is perfectly silent with respect to both
his previous and his subsequent life, and not a fact can be recorded
respecting him. Yet the productive imaginations of the martyrologists
of the Roman and Greek churches, have carried him through a protracted
series of adventures, during his alleged preaching of the gospel,
first in Judea, and then in Ethiopia. They also pretend that he was
martyred, though as to the precise mode there is some difference in
the stories,――some relating that he was crucified, and others, that he
was first stoned and then dispatched by a blow on the head with an axe.
But all these are condemned by the discreet writers even of the Romish
church, and the whole life of Matthias must be included among those
many mysteries which can never be in any way brought to light by the
most devoted and untiring researches of the Apostolic historian; and
this dim and unsatisfactory trace of his life may well conclude the
first grand division of a work, in which the reader will expect to
find so much curious detail of matters commonly unknown, but which
no research nor learning can furnish, for the prevention of his
disappointment.