JOSEPH OF ARIMATHAEA  ,1 in the New Testament, a wealthy Jew who had been converted by Jesus Christ . He is mentioned by the Four Evangelists, who are in substantial agreement concerning him: after the Crucifixion he went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, subsequently prepared it for burial and laid it in a tomb . There are, however, minor differences in the accounts, which have given rise to controversy . Matthew (xxvii . 6o) says that the tomb was Joseph's own; Mark (xv . 43 seq.), Luke (xxiii . 50 seq.) say nothing of this, while John (xix . 41) simply says that the body was laid in a sepulchre " nigh at hand." Both Mark and Luke say that Joseph was a " councillor " (evvxipµwv QoeXevrips, Mark xv . 43), and the Gospel of Peter describes him as a " friend of Pilate and of the Lord." This last statement is probably a 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 deed," but Mark (xiv . 64) says that all the Sanhedrin " condemned him to be worthy of death." Perhaps the phrase " noble councillor " is intended to imply merely a man of wealth and position . Again Matthew says that Joseph was a 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 Jews." Most likely he was a disciple, but belonged only to the wider circle of adherents .

The

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

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