It is not easy to determine when Joseph died. That event may have taken place before Jesus entered on his public ministry. This has been argued from the fact that his mother only appeared at the feast at Cana in Galilee. The premises, however, hardly bear out the inference. With more force of argument, it has been alleged (Simon, Did. de la Bible) that Joseph must have been dead before the crucifixion of Jesus, else he would in all pn)l)ability have appeared with Mary at the cross. Certainly tlie absence of Joseph from the public life of Christ, and the failure of reference to him in the dis- courses and historj', while "Mary" and "his brethren" not unfrecpiently a])pear, afford evidence not only of Jo- seph's death, but of the inferior part which, as tlie legal father only of our Lord, Joseph might have been ex- pected to sustain. So far as our scanty materials ena- ble us to form an opinion, Joseph appears to have been a good, kind, simple-minded man, who, while he afford- ed aid in protecting and sustaining the family, would leave Mary unrestrained to use all the impressive and formative influence of her gentle, affectionate, pious, and thoughtful soul. B.C. cir, 45 to A,D, cir. 25,— Kitto ; Smith,
Further discussion of the above points may be seen in ]Meyer. Xum .los. tempore natir. C.fuerit senex de- crepitiis (Lips. 1762) ; comp. Reay, Xarratio de Jos. e s. codice desumpta (Oxon, 1823); Walther, Dass Jos, d.
JOSEPH
1020
JOSEPH
wahrc Vater Christi set (Berlin, 1791); Oertel, ^ «Ayo- gephisrtms (1792) ; Ilasse, Jos. verum Jesii patrein nonfu- iste (Kcpiom. 1792) ; Ludcwig, Hist. Krit. Unters. (Wol- fenb. 1831). The traditions respecting Joseph are col- lected in A ct. Sanci. iii, 4 sq. ; there is a Life of Joseph written in Italian by Affaitati (Mail. 1716). See also Volbeding, Index, p. 8 ; Hase, Leben Jesu (4th ed. 1854), p. 50. Comp. Jesls Christ.
17. Surnamed Caiaphas (q. v.), Jewish high-priest in the time of our Lord's ministry.
18. A native (not resident, as in Michaelis, Be</rdb- niss- und AuferstekunffSffesck.Chris({,p.4A) oi AiimathiBa. piatt. xxvii, 57, 59; Mark xv, 43, 45; Luke xxiii, 50; John xix, 38), a city, probably the Kamah of the O. T., in the territory of Benjamin, on the mountain range of Eijhraira, at no great distance south of Jerusalem (Josh. xviii, 25; Judg. iv, 5), not far from Gibeah (Judg. xix, 13 ; Isa. X, 29 ; Hos. v, 8). See Arimatilea.
Joseph was a secret disciple of Jesus — " an honorable counsellor (jiovXevrrjf;), who waited for the kingdom of God" (Jlark xv, 43), and who, on learning the death of our Lord, " came and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus." Pilate, having learned from the centurion who commanded at the execution that Jesus was actually dead, gave the body to Joseph, who took it down and wrapped his deceased Lord in fine linen which he had purchased for the purpose; after which he laid the corpse in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the scpidchre (Mark xv, 43 sq.). From the parallel pas- sages in Matthew (xxvii, 58 sq.), Luke (xxiii, 50 sq.), and John (xix, 38 sq.), it appears that the body was previously embalmed at the cost of another secret dis- ciple, Nicodemus, and that the sepulchre was new, '•wherein never man before was laid" (thus fulfilling Isa. liii, 9) ; also that it lay in a garden, and was the property of Joseph himself (comp. Origen, c. Cels. ii, p. 103, ed. Spenc. ; W'alch, Obseri: in Mutt, ex imcript. p. 84). Tliis garden was "in the place where Jesus was crucified." A.D. 29. See Golgotha. Luke describes the character of Joseph as "a good man and a just," adding that " he had not assented to the counsel and deed of them," i. e. of the Jewish authorities. From this remark it is clear that Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrim : a conclusion which is corroborated by the ej.ithet "counsellor," applied to him by Ijoth Luke and Mark. Whether Joseph was a priest, as Lightfoot (flor. J/eb. p. 609) tiiought, there is not evidence to deter- mine. Various opinions as to his social condition may be found in Thiess (Krit. Comment, ii, 149). Tradition represents Joseph as having been one of the Sovciity (It- tig, JJiss. de Put. Apostol. § 13 ; Asscniani, Jiihlioth. Ori- ent, lii, 1,319 sq.) ; and that Joseph. l»cing sent to Great Britain l)y the apostle Philip about the vear 63, settled witii his brotiier disciples at Glastonburv, in Somerset- sliirc, and tiiere erected of wicker-twigs"the first Chris- tian oratory in England, the parent of the majestic ab- bey which was afterwards founded on the same site Tiie local guiiles to this day show the miraculous thorn (said to bud and blossom every Christmas-dav) that si-ruug from the staff which .Joseph stuck in the' ground as he stopped to rest himself on the hill-top. (See Du-- <\&\^i Momislicon, i, 1 ; and Mearne, Hist, and Antiq of alaslonbury.) _ Kitto ; Smith. Other traditional no- tices may be seen in the Evu»!j. Nicod. c. 12 sq.; 4cta sunvlor JIart. ii, 507 sq. ; comp. the dissertations Be Jo- seplw ArimutLoi Bromel [TeutzelJ (Yiteb. 1683) and Bjornland (Aboii>, 1729). See Jesus Christ.