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JOSEPH OF ARIMATHAEA

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 514 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOSEPH OF ARIMATHAEA ,1 in the New Testament, a wealthy See also:Jew who had been converted by Jesus See also:Christ. He is mentioned by the Four Evangelists, who are in substantial agreement concerning him: after the Crucifixion he went to See also:Pilate and asked for the See also:body of Jesus, subsequently prepared it for See also:burial and laid it in a See also:tomb. There are, however, See also:minor See also:differences in the accounts, which have given rise to controversy. See also:Matthew (See also:xxvii. 6o) says that the tomb was Joseph's own; See also:Mark (xv. 43 seq.), See also:Luke (See also:xxiii. 50 seq.) say nothing of this, while See also:John (xix. 41) simply says that the body was laid in a See also:sepulchre " nigh at See also:hand." Both Mark and Luke say that Joseph was a " councillor " (evvxipµwv QoeXevrips, Mark xv. 43), and the See also:Gospel of See also:Peter describes him as a " friend of Pilate and of the See also:Lord." This last statement is probably a See also:late invention, and there is considerable difficulty as to " councillor." That Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin is improbable. Luke indeed, regarding him as such, says that he " had not consented to their counsel and See also:deed," but Mark (xiv. 64) says that all the Sanhedrin " condemned him to be worthy of See also:death." Perhaps the phrase " See also:noble councillor " is intended to imply merely a See also:man of See also:wealth and position. Again Matthew says that Joseph was a See also:disciple, while Mark implies that he was not yet among the definite adherents of Christ, and John describes him as an adherent " secretly for fear of the See also:Jews." Most likely he was a disciple, but belonged only to the wider circle of adherents.

The See also:

account given in the See also:Fourth Gospel suggests that the writer, faced with these various difficulties, assumed a See also:double tradition: (I) that Joseph of Arimathaea, a wealthy disciple, buried the body of Christ; (2) that the See also:person in question was Joseph of Arimathaea a " councillor," and solved the problem by substituting Nicodemus as the councillor; hence he describes both Joseph and Nicodemus (xix. 39) as co-operating in the burial. Some critics (e.g. See also:Strauss, New See also:Life of Jesus, ch. 96) have thrown doubt upon the See also:story, regarding some of the details as invented to suit the prophecy in Isa. liii. 9, " they made his See also:grave with the wicked, and with the See also:rich in his death " (for various See also:translations, see See also:Hastings's See also:Diet. See also:Bible, ii. 778). But in the See also:absence of any reference to this prophecy in the Gospels, this view is unconvincing, though the See also:correspondence is remarkable. The striking See also:character of this single See also:appearance of Joseph of Arimathaea led to the rise of numerous legends. Thus See also:William of See also:Malmesbury says that he was sent to See also:Britain by St See also:Philip, and, having received a small See also:island in See also:Somersetshire, there constructed " with See also:twisted twigs " the first See also:Christian See also:church in Britain—afterwards to become the See also:Abbey of See also:Glastonbury. The See also:legend says that his See also:staff, planted in the ground, became a See also:thorn flowering twice a See also:year (see GLASTONBURY).

This tradition—which is given only as such by Malmesbury himself—is not confirmed, and there is no mention of it in either See also:

Gildas or See also:Bede. ' Generally identified with Ramathaim-Zophim, the See also:city of Elkanah in the hilly See also:district of See also:Ephraim (1 Sam. i. 1), near Diospolis (Lydda). See Euseb., Onomasticon, 225. 12. Joseph also plays a large See also:part in the various versions of the Legend of the See also:Holy See also:Grail (see GRAIL, THE HOLY).

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