But however much we may respect the faith of Joseph, and gladly recognize, not only Paul the tent-maker and Peter the fisherman, but also Joseph the carpenter, as confessedly higli examples of the dignity of work, and of the spiritual reward that it receives, we can have little sympathy with teaching that stands in such lurid contra.st to the reticence of the Gospels and of the earlv Church. A. LuKVN AVilliams.
JOSEPH OF ARIMATH/EA ('luffij^ [6] dxA ' ApifiaOaiai). — A wealthy Israelite and member of the Sanhedrin (^onXf in-ijj) ; a 'good man and a ri'dit- eous' (Lk 2.'?^), who ' was looking for the kingdom of God' (Mk 15"). On the situation of his native place, see Ari.matH/EA and Araunah. He was ' Jesus' disciple ' (Mt 27'°), ' but secretly, for fear of the Jews ' (Jn 19^). He had not consented to the
i'udg'ment of the Sanhedrin against Jesus (Lk 23°'), laving either absented himself from the meeting (as Mk 14" suggests) or refrained from giving a vote. After Christ's death, the approach of sunset made it difficult for the apostles— unprejiared as they were, even if they hiul recovered their courage — to arrange duly for His reverent interment before the Sabbath began. Jo.seph, hitherto faint- hearted, rose to the occasion. He ajipenrs to have been present at the crucifixion, and his possession of a tomb, new and j'et unused, hewn out of a rock in a neighl>ouring garden, suggested to hiiri the thought of himself obtaining and bury- ing the body of Jesus. The spectacle of the crucified Saviour had quickened his faith and love, and combined, doubtless, with his shame for past faint -hearte<iness, to raise him above the fear of man. His boldness is the more notable, because, to all human appearance, be was showing
* On feasts of obllfration the faithful are hound to be&r maai and rest from ser\'ile work {Cath. Diet. art. ' Feasta'X
t Citth. i)ici. art. ' (>{tousals.'
1 The l>ccrv« maj b« found in LaIId aod Bnirltah lo ThomoMS laccU.y. 486.
778 JOSEPH OF ARLMATH^EA
J OSES
■j-mi)(ithj with a ruined cause, at the risk of persecution to death.* His request for the liody from rilate was successful, and he took or saw it taken down from the cross. According to the Acts of I'ilnte, Josepli sought the favour with tears and entreaties ; but even if I'ihite's humanity were not stimulatetl by a timely bribe, he would be dispoHcd to show his synipathy with a councillor who had taken no part in constraining him to condemn Christ.t Joseph's example, presumably, moved Nicodemua to similar courage. Together they received the body and laid it in the tomb, Joseph providing the hne linen {<rii'Sui>) and grave- bands (<5(?i>'ia), Nicodemus the abundant spices (Mt 27"'-, Mk 15«'-, Lk 23™-, Jn 19**'-, Gosp. of Pet. 3 f., 23 f., Actso/PU. 11. 12).
The minuteness of the Gospel record, its pre- servation by all the four evangelists, and its later apocryphal expansion, are due not so much to the fullilment of Is 53°, still less to the growth of a mytli (Strauss, Neto Life of Jes^ts, ch. xcvi.) based thereon (for the parallel, obscured by the Sept., is noted by no wTiter either of the apostolic or of the sub-apostolic age),t but to the desire, probably, (1) to signalize the adherence of a member of the hostile Sanhedrin ; (2) to render prominent an incident so closely connected with Christ's Resur- rection. None the less the correspondence with ' They made (or appointed) his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death,' if not ex- act, is striking ; and even if a ditlerent original reference be adopted, it is ditlicult to regard as accidental the fresh significance given to the verse by the circumstances of our Lord's burial. §
A legend, which first appears in William of Malmesbury (de Ant. Glast. Ecd. i.), represents Joseph as sent by St. Philip from GauJ to Britain, along with eleven other disciples, in A.D. 63; as obtaining from a British king a small island in Somersetshire (afterwards the site of Glastonbury) engirt by the river Brue ; and as buUding there, ' with twisted twigs,' the earliest Christian oratory in the land. Malmesbury, however, introduces the narrative with an ' ut ferunt,' in marked con- trast to his reference of other statements in the same chapter to earlier historians. The absence, also, of any allusion to Joseph's advent in the his- tories of Gildas and Bede is signiScant. Probably some other Joseph, who founded Glastonbury, has been confounded with Joseph of Arimatha'a. The story of Joseph bringing the Holy GraU to Endand dates from about 1200 A.D., and was probably composed by Walter Map. Ussher (Ant. Eccl. Brit. c. 16) mentions a tradition that Joseph
• Similar intervention nearly c08t ToWt his life (To 1"), and actually led to the martyrdom of Porphvriua, a slave of Pam- philus, in the persecution of Diocletian' (Eus. Mar. Pal. 11). The apocrjThal Acts of Pilate and Xarrative 0/ Joseph repre- sent the latter as imprisoned with a view to hie execution.
t The Uofpel of Peter represents Pilate as firet askinp Herod for the body. Keim's assertion (,Jes. 0/ Nat. vi. p. 266) that Jd 1938 contradicts Ift^l. 32, (j hj-pcrcritical ; Joseph arrived, pr«. sumably, before the soldiers had completed their work.