JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA WHO ALLEGEDLY GOT JESUS ENTOMBED

Take a look at the stranger Joseph of Arimathea who buried Jesus and even provided the tomb!  This is important for the tomb was supposedly found empty as a result of Jesus rising from the dead.  Many feel Jesus was not buried but thrown on the dump for criminals.

None of Jesus family or disciples or friends buried him. It was an acquaintance, Joseph of Arimathea, a man who was unwilling to support Jesus publicly at the worst time when he was on trial for his life and facing a death too horrible to imagine. Josephus writes how a man was not buried for his loved ones were too afraid. Was Jesus buried at all? It is insane to imagine that Joseph who would not support Jesus did so in the worst possible way at such a convenient time. Without him there would be no reason to assume Jesus was buried.

As Josephus wrote about somebody else, “The terror that was upon the people was so great, that no one had courage enough either to weep openly for the dead man that was related to him, or bury him”. That could apply to Jesus!
 
The gospels allege that this man who buried Jesus was a member of the Sanhedrin and a secret follower of Jesus. Yet the gospels say the whole Sanhedrin plotted to get Jesus put to death and succeeded. Was Joseph of Arimathea part of the conspiracy to destroy and condemn Jesus? Maybe he joined the Pharisees after this condemnation in the hope of reforming them. But though he is called a secret disciple of Jesus the fact remains he was a hypocrite and had joined the Pharisees under false pretences and was presumably silent whenever Jesus was condemned by them. He was perhaps a disciple but not a good one. With a deceiver like that handling the body of Jesus anything could have happened.
 
Joseph had been a secret disciple and so a deceiver. What else did he deceive us about? He supposedly put Jesus in a fancy tomb he had for he was very rich. Perhaps he didn't bury him in it at all? The gospels never actually say that the witnesses could prove Jesus was put in it. It may have only looked that way. Did they bury what seemed to be a body but which was actually an imposture in the shape of a body created from cloths stiffened by spices and ointments?
 
Joseph of Arimathea is one of the handful of people who could say where Jesus was entombed. We are not told if anybody asked him. Surely the people burying had agreed to keep the tomb a secret?
 
We do not know what Joseph thought of the empty tomb business. Nobody asked him that either.
 
It is possible that Joseph feared he would get in huge trouble from Jesus' many ruthless and powerful enemies for being so kind and had the body removed in secret and reburied or dumped. Nobody can question that possibility for they were not there and do not know the whole story. Perhaps Joseph had to make it a temporary burial to get a chance of keeping out of trouble.
 
What did he do with the thieves who died with Jesus? Perhaps he put them and Jesus in the tomb and it was one of them who left the tomb alive somehow and it was guessed that it was magic man Jesus who rose? Nobody knows what happened to the two men who died with Jesus. It is assumed that Joseph let the Romans deal with their bodies. What if a switch had taken place? That would be enough to create a missing body mystery as far as Jesus is concerned.

Jesus was supposedly buried on Passover eve.  Joseph of Arimathea was to eat the Passover but how could he if he touched the body of Jesus and entered into Pilate’s presence? It would be a grave scandal if he partook and he supposed to be a top Sanhedrin member. Ritual uncleanness was a disqualification. In the real world, he would have got a gentile slave to handle the body and sent an emissary to Pilate. The gospel of Mark which makes the claims that he broke his rules is definitely lying. The scheme is to make out that somebody reliable and good handled Jesus’ body. Why?  The gospel is being defensive.  Was Mark afraid of people suggesting the burial was only a sham?

Another problem is that the story is unreliable if Joseph of Arimathea never existed. Nobody knows where Arimathea is.