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Joseph of Arimathea: Difference between revisions
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When the Roman soldier Longinus pierced Jesus’ side with a [[Spear of Longinus|lance]], Joseph raised the cup and caught the sacred blood which flowed from the wound. (According to John 19:34, there flowed therefrom water and blood.) Joseph preserved the cup and its contents, and the Grail became his guardian and comforter. | When the Roman soldier Longinus pierced Jesus’ side with a [[Spear of Longinus|lance]], Joseph raised the cup and caught the sacred blood which flowed from the wound. (According to John 19:34, there flowed therefrom water and blood.) Joseph preserved the cup and its contents, and the Grail became his guardian and comforter. | ||
[[File:2009CB7500 2500.jpg|thumb|Ivory panel depicting the crucifixion of Christ (c. 860–870, France). Joseph of Arimathea is shown on the left holding up the Holy Grail to catch the blood issuing from the side of Jesus.]] | [[File:2009CB7500 2500.jpg|thumb|Ivory panel depicting the crucifixion of Christ (c. 860–870, France). Joseph of Arimathea is shown on the left holding up the Holy Grail to catch the blood issuing from the side of Jesus. This and other similar carvings show that the belief that Joseph caught the blood of Jesus can be traced back centuries before the first Grail romances.]] | ||
== Earlier sources for the Grail romances == | == Earlier sources for the Grail romances == | ||
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They say that he had been to England many times before on business—that he was a tin merchant. The tradition is strongest in Cornwall, a mining county in the extreme southwest of England. It lingers also in the Mendip Hills not far from Glastonbury, in Gloucester, and in the West of Ireland. | They say that he had been to England many times before on business—that he was a tin merchant. The tradition is strongest in Cornwall, a mining county in the extreme southwest of England. It lingers also in the Mendip Hills not far from Glastonbury, in Gloucester, and in the West of Ireland. | ||
[[File:Glastonbury Tor 3.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Much of the valley around modern-day Glastonbury would have been under water when Joseph and his band sailed up the river Brue. Glastonbury Tor was a landmark rising up from the marshy ground and visible for many miles. Crowning the Tor, a tower is all that remains of a fourteenth-century chapel dedicated to St. Michael.]] | |||
== Connection with the tin trade == | == Connection with the tin trade == | ||
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The traditions of Joseph in Cornwall and the mining districts do not point to any permanent resting place. The weight of evidence says his ministry was in Glastonbury, site of an ancient Christian abbey, home of Grail legends and, incidentally, only twelve miles from the site some archaeologists favor as Arthur’s castle—Cadbury. | The traditions of Joseph in Cornwall and the mining districts do not point to any permanent resting place. The weight of evidence says his ministry was in Glastonbury, site of an ancient Christian abbey, home of Grail legends and, incidentally, only twelve miles from the site some archaeologists favor as Arthur’s castle—Cadbury. | ||
[[File:Glastonbury Lake Village langing stage by Forestier 1911.jpg|thumb|upright=1. | [[File:Glastonbury Lake Village langing stage by Forestier 1911.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Artist’s reconstruction of Glastonbury Lake Village, which flourished from about 50 <small>B</small>.<small>C</small>. to about <small>A</small>.<small>D</small>. 80.]] | ||
== The first settlements at Glastonbury == | == The first settlements at Glastonbury == | ||
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<blockquote>In the upshot I see no reason to doubt that by 1190 a Celtic Joseph legend, preserved in Wales, had returned to the Abbey, and that this was the common source for [Grail romancer] Robert de Borron and the ''De Antiquitate interpolator''.<ref>Ashe, ''Quest for Arthur’s Britain''.</ref></blockquote> | <blockquote>In the upshot I see no reason to doubt that by 1190 a Celtic Joseph legend, preserved in Wales, had returned to the Abbey, and that this was the common source for [Grail romancer] Robert de Borron and the ''De Antiquitate interpolator''.<ref>Ashe, ''Quest for Arthur’s Britain''.</ref></blockquote> | ||
If the passage about Joseph is indeed a forgery, a more reliable passage admits the early Christian settlement of Glastonbury, but leaves the settlers unnamed. William of Malmesbury wrote that “there are also letters worthy of belief to be found at St. Edmund’s to this effect: ‘the hands of other men did not make the church at Glastonbury, but the very disciples of Christ, namely those sent by St. Philip the apostle, built it.’” | If the passage about Joseph is indeed a forgery, a more reliable passage admits the early Christian settlement of Glastonbury, but leaves the settlers unnamed. William of Malmesbury wrote that “there are also letters worthy of belief to be found at St. Edmund’s to this effect: ‘the hands of other men did not make the church at Glastonbury, but the very disciples of Christ, namely those sent by St. Philip the apostle, built it.’”<ref>Scott, ''The Early History of Glastonbury''.</ref> | ||
[[File:101004M-medres.jpg|thumb|Joseph and the boy Jesus sail up the Brue River to Glastonbury, from the banner of the parish church of Pilton, 6 miles east of Glastonbury.]] | |||
== Jesus in Britain == | == Jesus in Britain == | ||
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A reputed sarcophagus of Joseph does exist today in Glastonbury. A fourteenth-century monk, Roget of Boston, recorded an epitaph attached to it found after it was exhumed in 1345. It read in Latin, “To the Britons I came after I buried the Christ. I taught, I have entered my rest.”<ref>Ibid., p. 94.</ref> | A reputed sarcophagus of Joseph does exist today in Glastonbury. A fourteenth-century monk, Roget of Boston, recorded an epitaph attached to it found after it was exhumed in 1345. It read in Latin, “To the Britons I came after I buried the Christ. I taught, I have entered my rest.”<ref>Ibid., p. 94.</ref> | ||
== See also == | |||
[[Druids]] | |||
[[Lost years of Jesus]] | |||
== For more information == | == For more information == | ||