Hi
Did Joseph of Arimathea Exist?
The Question Did Joseph of Arimathea Exist? Has been debated from when the anonymous author of Mark published the manuscript (MSS) the Gospel of Mark c. 70CE. Most of the scholarship agrees that the story of Joseph of Arimathea originated from Mark. With the rest of the Synoptics and the Gospel of John copying the story. Also, where is Arimathea? The placename has given many scholars severe problems over the years, on its location.
Eusebius in his onomasticon on Arimathea wrote it is in a place called Rouma (Arima also). Where “Abimelech sat” as in Judges. Now, called Remphis (Remthis) in the region of Diospolis, which is called by many Arimathaea.
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_onomasticon_02_trans.htm#R_JOSUE, check under placename Rouma note 785] Arimathea is Greek (Ancient Greek: Ἀριμαθαία: Arimathaía),
Today Diospolis (City of Zeus) is renamed Lod is a city 15 km (9.3 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv, Israel.
Google earth put Arimathea, in this case, Rame 106 km northeast of Tel Aviv. The https://bibleatlas.org/arimathea.htm biblical maps show Arimathea between 20 km and 30 km west of Joffa/Jaffa or west southwest, depending on whichever site map one check. Jopp/Jaffa is today a district now in Tel Aviv.
Petrus Comestor or Pierre le Mangeur (died 1178), was a twelfth-century French theological writer and university teacher. Petrus places Ramathaim-Zophim/Sophim as Arimathea and is located, 7 km northwest of the centre of Jerusalem. Also, biblical scholars have identified Ramathaim-Sophim with Ramathem in 1 Maccabees 11:34.
If you think you are confused now wait till you hear where the Crusaders placed Arimathea in what is now Ramla 10 km southwest of Joffa. The Encyclopedia of Islam has argued, that Crusaders identified Ramla, a medieval town founded circa AD 705–715 by the Umayyads on land in what had once been the allotment of Dan. With both Ramathaim and Arimathea, and changed the name of the town to Arimathea. As I have previously said, on Google map of Israel by clicking on Arimathea, you are sent 106 km to northeastern Israel. There is no place then, or now named Arimathea, it is Greek! See Joseph of Arimathea below.*
On the burial of Jesus, two Jesuits Gerald O’Collins and Daniel Kendall in their works Did Joseph of Arimathea Exist? Wrote:
Nevertheless, every now and then the burial story is dismissed as non-historical, a story created by the evangelist Mark. In three recent books, John Dominic Crossan has argued Inter alia (among other things) that the tradition about Joseph of Arimathea originated with Mark and was then derived from him. Essentially four arguments come into play to support Crossnan’s position…Denying incidentally the presence of the female disciples at Jesus’ death and burial, Crossan draws an important conclusion from his position that Jesus’ enemies were totally in charge not only of his execution but also of his burial: “those closest to Jesus had fled his Crucifixion and had no idea how or where he was buried.” In The Historical Jesus he makes the same claim more rhetorically: “With regard to the body of Jesus, by Easter Sunday morning, those who cared did not know where it was, and those who knew did not care.)[Citation O’Collins, Gerald, and Daniel Kendall. “Did Joseph of Arimathea Exist?” Biblica, vol. 75, no. 2, 1994, pp. 235–241. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42611381. Accessed 17 Jan. 2021. ( ) brackets are mine
We know from the witnesses of the synoptic gospel to the crucifixion (Matthew 27:55-56; Mark 15:40-41; Luke 23:49) that Mary the mother of Jesus did NOT attend the crucifixion of Jesus. (John 19:25-27 however, is the only gospel and last of the canonical gospels to be written, which adds Mary the mother of Jesus as a witness to the crucifixion.) See link https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27%3A55-56%2CMark+15%3A40-41%2CLuke+23%3A49%2CJohn+19%3A25-27&version=NIV What is more, none of the Bible verses for the witnesses of the crucifixion of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea as a witness.
*What is odd is that John 19:38 states that Joseph of Arimathea feared the Jews or feared the Jewish leaders in whichever translation you read. Well, Luke 23:50 attests that Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the council. That means that he was a member of Sanhedrin or a member of the Magic Circle. I kid you not! Not only that, formal meetings of the Sanhedrin usually took place in a hall known as the Lishkat La-Gazit (Chamber of Hewn Stones), located in the Stoa of the Temple. The Royal Stoa was destroyed by the Roman army, during the sack of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Its site was on the Temple Mount Esplanade, part of the sacred 2nd Temple (515 BCE-70 CE), Jerusalem. That would mean the Joseph of Arimathea would have had to of resided in Jerusalem. To attend the meetings of the Sanhedrin along with the other 70 members. One has to remember that there were no planes trains or automobiles in the time stated.
Do you believe the Joseph of Arimathea story?
Do you believe that there is a place name in Israel called Arimathea?
Do you believe it was a made-up story by the author of Mark?
Keep safe!
Cofion
Jero Jones
Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/discuss/