Acts 1:15-20
His bishoprick let another take
Peter stands up among about a hundred and twenty and reads the vacancy out of the Psalms. The field bought with the betrayal money is named first.
People of the Bible
Matthias
Was chosen by lot to fill a place nobody wanted, and is never mentioned again.
Between the ascension and Pentecost there are about a hundred and twenty people in an upper room and one empty place among the twelve. Peter reads the requirement out of the Psalms and then states the qualification: it has to be a man who was with them the whole time, from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up. Two men meet it, Joseph called Barsabas and Matthias, which means both of them had followed from the beginning without ever being named until now.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Matthias
- 01
- 02
Acts 1:21-23
Beginning from the baptism of John
The qualification is time served, not ability. Two men have it, and the text names Joseph Barsabas Justus and Matthias for the first and almost the last time.
- 03
Acts 1:24-26
The lot fell upon Matthias
They pray, cast lots, and he is numbered with the eleven apostles. Nothing more is recorded of him anywhere in the New Testament.
Why it matters
The method is the strangest thing in the chapter. They pray, they ask the Lord who knows the hearts of all to show which of the two, and then they cast lots, and the lot falls on Matthias. It is the last time in Scripture anyone decides anything that way; after Acts 2 the Spirit is given and the lot disappears from the book. What Matthias is for is the number. Twelve was not decoration, it was the count of the tribes, and the church walks into Pentecost whole.
1 song
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
