MATTHIAS  , the

disciple elected by the primitive Christian community to fill the place in the Twelve vacated by Judas Iscariot (Acts i . 21-26) . Nothing further is recorded of him in the New Testament . Eusebius (Hist . Eccl., I. xii.) says he was, like his competitor, Barsabas Justus, one of the seventy, and the Syriac version of Eusebius calls him throughout not Matthias but Tolmai, i.e . Bartholomew, without confusing him with the Bartholomew who was originally one of the Twelve, and is often identified with the Nathanael mentioned in the Fourth Gospel (Expository Times, ix . 566) . Clement of Alexandria says some identified him with Zacchaeus, the Clementine Recognitions identify him with Barnabas, Hilgenfeld thinks he is the same as Nathanael . Various works—a Gospel, Traditions and Apocryphal Words—were ascribed to him; and there is also extant The Acts of Andrew and Matthias, which places his activity in " the city of the cannibals " in Ethiopia . Clement of Alexandria quotes two sayings from the Traditions: (I) Wonder at the things before you (suggesting, like Plato, that wonder is the first step to new knowledge) ; (2) If an elect man's neighbour sin, the elect man has sinned .