The Apostolic Age · AD 4–70
Joseph of Arimathea
fl. AD 30 (death unrecorded) · Councillor · Buried the body of Jesus · Arimathea → Jerusalem
The Apostolic Age
Who Joseph of Arimathea was
**The only person named in all four Gospels who is not an apostle, a member of the family, or an opponent.** Each evangelist adds something: Matthew that he was rich and the tomb was his own, new-cut; Mark that he was an honourable councillor who waited for the kingdom of God and **went in boldly** to Pilate to ask for the body; Luke that he was good and just and had not consented to the council’s decision; John that he was a disciple **secretly, for fear of the Jews**, and that Nicodemus came with him.
That combination is worth pausing on. He was a member of the body that condemned Jesus, he had dissented, he had kept his allegiance hidden — and then, at the one moment when concealment was no longer possible, he went to the governor in person and asked for the corpse of a man executed for sedition. The burial is the one act the Gospels record of him, and it is the reason the tomb is identifiable at all.
A great deal accumulated around him afterwards, and the archive separates it by date. **Within the ancient period**: he appears in the *Gospel of Peter*, and in the *Acts of Pilate*; and Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian and Eusebius all mention him, adding details the Gospels do not have. Francis Gigot, writing in the *Catholic Encyclopedia*, judged the extra material in the *Acta Pilati* “unworthy of credence,” and the archive follows that caution.
**Well outside the ancient period**: the Grail. Joseph receiving the Grail and sending it to Britain first appears in **Robert de Boron’s *Joseph d’Arimathie***, a French verse romance of around 1200, and grows through the Arthurian cycle into the claim that he came to Britain himself and was its first bishop. That is medieval literature roughly twelve centuries after the burial, and it is recorded here as such — not as a tradition the archive weighs, but as the reason his name is better known in England than any other councillor’s.
Common questions
When was Joseph active?
Joseph of Arimathea is dated fl. AD 30 (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places Joseph in the Apostolic Age (AD 4–70).
Which early sources mention Joseph?
Joseph of Arimathea is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Mark, John and Luke. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Joseph from?
The archive associates Joseph of Arimathea with Arimathea, Jerusalem. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.
Who were Joseph’s contemporaries?
The archive links Joseph of Arimathea to 4 other figures, including Pontius Pilate, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Nicodemus the Pharisee and Jesus of Nazareth. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Scripture record
Primary-source mentions (3)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Mark 15:43–46
c. AD 30Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. … And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.Mark · read ↗
John 19:38
c. AD 30And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave.John · read ↗
Luke 23:50–51
c. AD 30And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just: (the same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.Luke · read ↗
Names proposed by later tradition
Joseph of Arimathea, keeper of the Grail and first bishop of Britain
A medieval growth, not an ancient tradition. Joseph receiving the Grail and sending it to Britain first appears in Robert de Boron’s *Joseph d’Arimathie* (c. 1200) and develops through the Arthurian cycle into the claim that he came to Britain himself. Some twelve centuries after the burial, and far outside the archive’s AD 500 horizon.
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Joseph.