The Traditions of Matthias (Fragments)

Sayings attributed to Matthias, the apostle chosen in place of Judas (Acts 1:26), in a lost book Clement of Alexandria calls the 'Traditions'; it may be the same as the 'Gospel according to Matthias' that Origen and Eusebius name, and Hippolytus says the followers of Basilides claimed Matthias as the source of secret teaching from the Saviour. Probably 2nd century AD; author unknown. Three short passages survive, all quoted by Clement (Stromateis ii, iii and vii): wonder as the first step to knowledge, the discipline of the flesh, and the chosen one who sins when his neighbour sins. This is M. R. James's translation (1924); a further passage that the scholar Zahn assigned to the book (Zacchaeus's promise, which some called Matthias) is not given, since James marks it as a conjecture. Not part of any church's canon.