Sanied them. On that occasion Jesus tarried in erusalem, after Joseph and Mary, thinking He was with them in the company, had left the city. AVhen they had gone a day's journey they found He was not with them, and they turned back to Jerusalem. After three days they found Him in the temple among the doctors, and they were amazed. Mary's words, ' Son, why hast thou thus dealt mth us ? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing, ' called forth an answer which Josepli and Mary did not understand. But after the in- cident in Jerusalem, Jesus went with them tn Nazareth and 'was subject unto them' (Lk 2^'-''). Mary's words and the record of the subjection of Jesus to her and Joseph indicate that Joseph stood to Jesus in tlie place of an eartlily father. How long that relationship continued is unknown, since the time of the death of Joseph is not stated in the Gospels. It may be accepted as a certainty that he was not alive throughout the period of tlie
Sublic ministry of Jesus, seeing that he is not irectly or indirectly mentioned along with His mother and brothers and sisters (Mk 3'' 6^).
6. Josejih of Arimathrea ('Ioio-tj^ 6 dirt) 'Api/iaSala?, see ARIMATH.EA). — A rich and pious Israelite (j\lt 27"), a member of the Sanhedrin (Mk 15«), who, secretly for fear of the Jews, was Jesus' disciple (Jn liP). He had not consented to the deatli of Jesus (Lk 2.3*'), and could not therefore have been present at the Council, where they all condemned Him to be guilty of deatli (Mk 14"). The timidity which prevented him fi-om openly avowing his disci])lpsliii), and perhaps from defending Jesus in the Sanhedrin, fled when he beheld the death of
(Edersheini, The Life and Times of Jestis the Messiah, i. 19.S).
the Lord. Jewish law required that the body of a person who had been executed should not remain all night upon the tree, but should ' in any wise ' be buried (Dt 21--- =^). This law would not bind the Roman authorities, and the custom in the Em- l^ire was to leave the body to decay upon the cross (cf. Hor. Ep. I. xvi. 48 ; Plautus, Alii. Glor. II. iv. 19). But at the crucifixion of Jesus and of the two malefactors, the Jews, anxious that the bodies shoulil not remain upon the cross during the S.ililiath, besought Pilate that the legs of the enicilieil might be broken and death hastened, and tliat then the bodies might be taken away (Jn 19''). According to Roman law, the relatives could claim the body of a person executed {Digest, xlviii. 24, ' De cadav. punit.'). But which of the relatives of Jesus had a sepulchre in Jerusalem where His body might be placed ? Joseph, wishing the burial not to be ' in any wise ' (cf. Jos 8^), but to be according to the most pious custom of his race, went to Pilate and craved the body. The petition required boldness (Mk lo-**), since Joseph, with no kinship in the flesh with Jesus, would be forced to make a confession of discipleship, which the Jews would note. Pilate, too, neither loved nor was loved by Israel, and his anger might be kindled at the coming of a Jew, and the member of the Sanhedrin be assailed with insults. Pilate, however, making sure that Jesus was dead, gave the body. Perhaps he had pity for the memory of Him he had con- demned, or perhaps the rich man's gold, since Pilate, accorcling to Philo (Op. ii. 590), took money from suppliants, secured what was craved. Joseph, now with no fear of the Jews, acted openly, and had to act with speed, as the day of preparation for the Sabbath was nearly spent. Taking down the body of Jesus from the cross (and other hands must have aided his), he wrapped it in linen which he himself had bought (Mk 15-^). In the Fourth Gospel it is told how Nicodemus, bringing a mix- ture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight, joined Joseph, and how they took the body and wound it in linen clothes with the spices (Jn 19*). Near the place of crucifixion was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, which Joseph had hewn out in the rock, doubtless for his own last resting-place ; and in that sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid, was placed the body of Jesus prepared for its burial (Mt 27"°, Jn 19-"). In the court at the entrance to the tomb, the prepara- tion would be made. All was done which the time liefore the Sabbath allowed reverent hands to do ; and I lien Joseph, perhaps thinking of the pious uHices that could yet be done to the dead, rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre and de- parted (Mt 27"°). On late legends regarding Joseph of Ariniathaea see Hastings' DB, vol. ii. p. 778. J. HERKLESS. JOSES ('laio-^s, 'ci% a shortened form of IDV, ' he adds " ; cf. Gn 30". The identity of the two names is doubted by Lightfoot [Gn?.* 261, note 1], cliielly on the ground of the use of ditt'erent forms in the Peshitta; but Dalraan [Gram. Aram. 75] rightly views 'ov as a dialectical, and probably Galiloean, abbreviation of qov. The names are apparently interchangeable [cf. Mt 13°* with Mk 63] ; in Mt 27*" WH and Nestle with Tisch. read 'Ia)(7770, and in all the passages there is textual evidence, sufficiently strong not to lie overlooked, for the name rejected). — 1. A brother of Jesus (Mk 6'). This brother is not mentioned anywhere else except in the above passage of Matthew (27*"). For views as to his real relationship see Hastings' DB i. 320 f}"., and art. Brethren of the Lord in present work. 2. The brother of James the Little (Mt 27*", Mk IS*- •"). The name of Joses stands alone in the last passage, but that of his better known lnother is substituted by the 'Western' text.