Sunday, August 01, 2021

Joseph of Arimathea (Feast Day August 1) in Scripture and Legend


  

“When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead for some time. When he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. Then Joseph bought a linen cloth, and taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid.”

-Mark 15: 42-47 (NRSV)

Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned in all four Gospels, but Mark, the earliest to be written, succinctly explains his role in the burial of Jesus. Matthew (27:57-60) adds that he was a rich man and a disciple of Jesus, and that he buried Jesus in a tomb meant for himself. Luke (23:50-53) mentions that while Joseph was a member of the council (the Jewish Sanhedrin), he did not agree to their plan and action—to turn Jesus over to the Roman authorities. John (19:38-42) that Joseph was a secret disciple “for fear of the Jews,” and that Nicodemus assisted him in preparing Jesus’ body for the tomb.

From the Gospels’ accounts of Joseph, we learn that Jesus had at least one ally in the Sanhedrin and Joseph had the courage to ask Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, for the body of Jesus, whom Pilate himself had sentenced to death for sedition against Rome. Had it not been for Joseph’s intervention, Jesus’ body might have been left on the cross to become the food of birds and dogs. Joseph’s insistence of giving a Jesus proper burial was crucial to the story of the Resurrection.

Naturally, legends arose about this key figure in Christian history. He was, according to one legend, Mary’s uncle, and thus the great uncle of Jesus. The story, which has the ring of plausibility, is based on a Jewish tradition that the senior male relative of a deceased person had the responsibility to give him or her a proper burial. And from that story, plus another that Joseph had made his fortune as a merchant, came the legend that he had taken the teenaged Jesus with him on a voyage to the tin mines of western Britain. It inspired William Blake’s “From Milton,” which begins:

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?

In 1916 Sir Hubert Parry set the poem to music as “Jerusalem,” which was voted the United Kingdom’s most popular hymn in 2019.

Another legend says Joseph of Arimathea returned to Britain with the Holy Grail. The story, though, originated in late twelfth-century France, with Robert de Boron’s “Joseph d'Arimathie.” The word “grail,” from the Old French “graal,” which meant any kind of a vessel, from a chalice to a cauldron, was virtually unknown until the Arthurian tale, “Perceval, the Story of the Grail,” by another late twelfth century French poet, Chrétien de Troyes. In Chrétien’s poem, the grail is not holy, but is something the knight Percival witnesses. Robert expands the tale and declares the Grail, now the Holy Grail, to be the chalice Jesus drank from at the Last Supper. In Robert’s poem, Joseph is imprisoned because he is accused of stealing Jesus’ body from the tomb. The resurrected Christ presents Joseph with the Grail, which sustains him for years until the Emperor Vespasian releases him from prison many years later.

In Robert’s narrative, it is Joseph’s brother-in-law, Bron, who brings the Grail to Britain. But in English lore, especially in and around the town of Glastonbury in Somerset, Joseph himself brought the Grail to Britain, where he hid it in a Glastonbury well, now called the Chalice Well. In a related myth, Joseph planted his pilgrim’s staff on Glastonbury’s Wearyall Hill, which grew into a thorn tree. Joseph is said to have founded Glastonbury Abbey, which became major pilgrimage site largely because of the legends surrounding the area. Pilgrimages to Glastonbury continued, even after 1539, when the abbey was destroyed and looted on the orders of Henry VIII.

But even without the legends—and there are many more—we honor Joseph of Arimathea chiefly for his courage in asking Pilate for Jesus’ body and then placing it in his own tomb.

 

Merciful God, whose servant Joseph of Arimathea with reverence and godly fear prepared the body of our Lord and Savior for burial, and laid it in his own tomb: Grant to us, your faithful people, grace and courage to love and serve Jesus with sincere devotion all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

-Prayer from Forward Movement Daily Prayer

Image: William Blake, St. Joseph of Arimathea preaching to the inhabitants of Britain