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What the Bible says about Joseph of Arimathea
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Ezekiel 9:4

In order to sigh and cry successfully, we must believe God. This is vital! In this context, it means that we need to believe how He defines sin. For instance, we must never come to think that "weeping for Tammuz" (Ezekiel 8:13-14) is really not all that bad. God calls it an abomination! If He calls it that, that is exactly what it is, and we need to accept His definition.

To use a more contemporary example, many "good" folk in the world observe Christmas, sincerely believing that they are worshipping God. They will actually say, "This is how I worship God," but we understand that how they worship God does not amount to a hill of beans! Only God can define how we are to worship Him, and it is for us to follow Him and act accordingly. We need, then, not just to know the law, but also to believe that it defines sin for all time.

Some people can see sin right before their eyes, they can hear it around them, they can live amidst it, but they can never sigh and cry over it because they refuse to allow God's law to be the standard of their behavior. History is replete with examples of this, but we will look only at one. Who of the Jewish leadership—except for Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and perhaps a few others—sighed and cried over the perpetration of an illegal trial that resulted in Christ's death?

In John 16:20, where He is speaking to His disciples on the evening before His crucifixion, Jesus says, "Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice." The world, rejecting God's standards, rejoices at injustice and sin. Human nature can and does rationalize large-scale sin and social injustice, such as the Holocaust, sin that fills the land with vast violence. It can simply rationalize such atrocities on racial, economic, and religious grounds.

We in God's church must come to avoid partiality, mentioned in Leviticus 19:15, as we interpret the news and the social injustices that we see around us. After all, God did not ask Ezekiel to identify Israel's sins in his tour of Jerusalem in Ezekiel 8. God identified the sin for him, even when it was committed in secret. God calls out the sins in His Word, defining the abominations in His law, and we need to know those laws and believe that they are indeed sin. And we need to cry and sigh.

Charles Whitaker
The Torment of the Godly (Part Two)

Matthew 27:57-60

This fulfils Isaiah's prophecy (Isaiah 53:9). Joseph, a rich man and a disciple of Christ, took the body of Jesus, hastily prepared it for burial, and laid it in his own tomb. Matthew mentions that Joseph was from Arimathea, a town whose location is a matter of some dispute. Some scholars believe that it is the town of Ramah, Samuel's birthplace, lying about six miles north of Jerusalem in the land of Benjamin. Another candidate is a town called Aramathea about 16 miles east of Joppa.

Mike Ford
Joseph of Arimathea

Mark 15:42-46

Several points stand out in this passage:

» Evening was beginning—at best Joseph had only about three hours before sunset, when the Sabbath would begin. The task of preparing and applying the spices for burial required work, which is expressly forbidden on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-10). Additionally, Deuteronomy 21:22-23 demands that an executed criminal be buried before nightfall, and the Jewish law of the time required all dead bodies to be buried before a Sabbath or a feast day (John 19:31).

» Before he could take the body down, Joseph had to go before Pilate and receive permission. At first Pilate did not believe Jesus had died so quickly, so he called the centurion of the crucifixion detail to verify it (Mark 15:44-45). This delay must have taken at least a half hour.

» After being granted the body, Joseph went to a local shop and bought several yards of fine linen in which to wrap Jesus. With the help of Nicodemus, he then took the body down, wrapped it in the linen—along with about a hundred pounds of spices—and placed it in the tomb (John 19:39-41).

With all this activity and work between the various locations, Joseph and Nicodemus must have had very little daylight left when they finally rolled the stone over the entrance to the tomb. On this point all the accounts again concur; sunset was very near (Matthew 27:57; Luke 23:54; John 19:31).

No one disputes that Jesus was laid "in the heart of the earth" at sunset. If, as we have shown, He was buried for exactly 72 hours, He was also resurrected at sunset—not at dawn!

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
'After Three Days'

Mark 15:43-46

Joseph was "waiting for the kingdom of God." Well versed in the Old Testament, he anticipated the reign of the promised Messiah. Barnes writes:

But this expression means more than an 'indefinite' expectation that the Messiah 'would' come, for all the Jews expected that. It implies that he believed 'Jesus' to be the Messiah, and had 'waited' for HIM to build up the kingdom of God. . . .

Mark emphasizes that Joseph exhibited "great courage" in going before Pilate to request Jesus' body. Of the four accounts, only Mark adds that he went "boldly" in to Pilate. Much is left unsaid here, such as how did Joseph get in to see Pilate? The procurator was not a man that would receive just anyone, especially without a prior appointment. Joseph, however, "went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus." Before deciding, Pilate sought more information. Summoning the centurion in charge of the crucifixion would take time. In all likelihood, Joseph remained and talked with Pilate while awaiting the centurion's arrival. Upon learning that Jesus "had been dead for some time," Pilate seems not to have hesitated to release His body to Joseph. Did they perhaps know each other?

Mike Ford
Joseph of Arimathea

Luke 23:50-53

What council was Joseph a member of? None other than the Sanhedrin, the 71 "elders, men of age and experience, and scribes, lawyers, or those learned in the Jewish law" that made up "the supreme council of the Jewish people" (Smith's Bible Dictionary). This same group condemned Christ, yet Luke calls Joseph "a good and just man." Herbert Lockyer's All the Men of the Bible, p.204, comments:

As the Bible never uses words unnecessarily, there must be a distinction between "good" and "just." As a "good man" we have his own internal disposition—what he was in himself. As a "just man" we have his external conduct—what he was towards others. His just dealings were the fruit of the root of his goodness. His was the belief that knew how to behave.

Luke also informs us that he had "not consented to their [the Sanhedrin's] counsel and deed." This could mean that he had simply not voted with the majority, or it could mean that he had gone so far as to speak out against their actions. The Interpreter's Bible suggests, "Whether he merely withheld his vote or actively disagreed with his colleagues in the determination to be rid of the troublesome prophet from Nazareth is not clearly stated" (vol. 8, p. 414). In their commentary, Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown feel that "he had gone the length, perhaps, of dissenting and protesting in open council against the condemnation of our Lord." The Ambassador College Correspondence Course (1986 ed., Lesson 25, p. 11) concludes that Joseph may not even have attended the Sanhedrin's trial of Jesus. Luke's wording could be taken to mean that he disagreed by not attending, or that he was there under protest yet did not vote (see Mark 14:64: "they all condemned Him").

Mike Ford
Joseph of Arimathea

Related Topics: Joseph of Arimathea | Sanhedrin


 

Luke 23:55-56

If we continue in Luke's account, we get the impression that the women hurried to a spice shop, bought the spices and oils, prepared them, and then rested on the Sabbath (verse 56). But we would be wrong!

We have to go to Mark 16:1 for some vital information: "Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him." Logistically, the sequence of events cannot be otherwise. If Joseph barely had time to bury Jesus' body before sundown, how much less time would the women have had to do all that they needed to do!

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
'After Three Days'

John 19:38-40

Joseph was a believer, but in secret! Why was he afraid of the Jews? For the same reason Peter denied Christ—for fear that they too would be killed. More than that, Joseph was a respected pillar of the community, a man who had worked a lifetime to achieve what he had. To come out publicly as a disciple would have meant the destruction of the life he and his family enjoyed.

John says Joseph "took the body of Jesus." Taking a lifeless body down from a stake is no one-man task. Nicodemus, another secret disciple, also a member of the Sanhedrin, helped him. This is the same Nicodemus who came to Jesus "by night" to ask Him some pointed questions and received some pointed answers (John 3:1-21).

Mike Ford
Joseph of Arimathea


 




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