***Roman soldiers who crucified him gambled for his expensive undergarments.****
This reminds me of the debate in THE NAME OF THE ROSE.
“The world waits with bated breath over what we decide here. Did Christ, or did he not, own the clothes that he wore!”
Forget the source of this posting, and forget the prosperity gospel crap.
Joseph of Arimathea was Jesus’ uncle - a very rich man. Wealth was in the family. Jesus was born into a wealthy family.
I don’t think he was rich or poor. He had what he needed for the time he was here. His focus was not the accumulation of earthly wealth. He owned the universe and knew it. Anyone who could call up a fish to deliver a gold coin to pay his taxes was not poor.
Have you ever noticed that just prior to Christmas and Easter, CNN releases some bit of “news” challenging the Christian faith (secret Gospels, new crappy Bible translations, amazing speculations about Jesus being married/gay/rich/poor/an accountant/Swedish/etc), but no other religion’s holy days are subject to such breaking “news?”
Mary was cousin to Elizabeth whose husband was a priest. Mary and Joseph had connections and were probably “middle class”.
Jesus said something about... fox’s have dens but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head...doesn’t sound wealthy to me.
To summarize.
Going by the bible there is a lot of logic to apply to the verses that Jesus was related to Joseph of Arimathea being Mary’s young uncle as spoken of in the Jewish Talmud and that therefore His family had connections to wealth.
At the age of 12 Joseph the carpenter, Mary, and Jesus went to Jerusalem for Passover in Luke 2. In Judaea you had Jerusalem, Joseph of Arimathea’s town 8 miles north of Jerusalem, and then Jesus’ town Nazareth 82 miles north of Jerusalem. The verses say that after Passover Joseph and Mary travelled one day’s journey back toward Nazareth before realizing Jesus wasn’t with the extended family. If the meeting place for the extended family was Joseph of Arimathea’s estate, then that would be where the mix-up was realized. The time and distance is about right. Jesus was probably supposed to be with Zecharias, Elizabeth, and John (who was six months older than Jesus) and found a way to join Joseph of Arimathea who probably would be at the temple doing his Sanhedrin duties. While at the temple, Jesus took the opportunity to do His “Father’s business” teaching with questions and answers (a lot of His teaching in His ministry was with questions). The people hearing were astonished so his answers were not of the normal variety they were used to hearing from the rabbis. This proves that Jesus would have taught before the age of 30.
Joseph the carpenter would have died shortly after that and Joseph of Arimathea would have been made the guardian of the family.
Being a great businessman, the Romans kept Joseph in his business and made him Decurion of mines to keep the tin and copper flowing to make bronze. Some of the tin mines were in Cornwall of Britain, tin having been mined there for more than two thousand years and the Phoenicians passing the trade routes down to the Judaeans after having such a close relationship with Solomon a thousand years earlier. A lot of the miners would have been Jews, their ancestors brought in by the Phoenicians to run the mines.
When Joseph the carpenter died, it was an opportunity for Jesus to join His guardian Joseph of Arimathea on his business trips to the mines and prepare the Jews in the outposts for the ministry. Jesus would have helped in the work of the mines also and Joseph and Jesus would have supported Mary back home. This was done for 18 years. Britain was the only place not conquered by the Romans during this time and so that was the most fertile place for teaching.
When the time came for Jesus’ ministry, the people of Nazareth acted as if Jesus was not a carpenter. They ask in Matt 13 and Mark 6 “Is this not the “carpenter’s son”?” If Jesus had been a carpenter for 18 years having took over when his step-father died, they would have said “Is this not the “carpenter”?” In a small town everyone knows who the carpenter is if that man does carpentry for 18 years.
At the trial of Jesus, the chief priests have to accuse Jesus of treason against Rome to get him convicted. Most of the disciples have fled but John. Joseph is there and went “boldly” to Pilate to retrieve the body. This shows that Joseph was the kinsman. No doubt the chief priests wanted Jesus’ body dumped into a public buriel pit. But Joseph, having legal claim to the body, was able to keep the body from being dumped. Why was this a bold act? Because by proving he was part of Jesus’ family he was done being a Sanhedrin and done being Decurion of mines.
Before Jesus expired, he knew Joseph would be in deep trouble and so asked John to take care of His mother.
Legend has it Joseph and several others were set adrift from Judaea. Where would Joseph go?...he’d go to where the Romans weren’t, Britain, and where he and Jesus were well-loved by the miners and their aquaintances. Arriving in 37AD Joseph continued the publishing of the Word in Britain and because of this, Britain became the first land to accept Jesus as Messieh.