{"id":116359,"date":"2026-09-21T22:04:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T02:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/?p=116359"},"modified":"2026-09-21T22:04:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T02:04:39","slug":"who-was-joseph-of-arimathea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/bible-resources\/bible-stories\/who-was-joseph-of-arimathea\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Was Joseph of Arimathea? The Secret Disciple Who Went Public on the Worst Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>13 Minute, 14 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><p>Maybe you know the feeling. You believe something about Jesus. You really do. But at work, around certain family members, in certain rooms, you keep it to yourself. Not because you doubt it. Because saying it out loud would cost you something, and you are not sure you can afford it yet.<\/p>\n\n<p>So you wonder, quietly: does a faith like mine even count?<\/p>\n\n<p>There is a man in the Bible who lived right inside that question. His name was Joseph of Arimathea. All four Gospels mention him, but only for a few verses each, and almost always at the same moment. So who was Joseph of Arimathea? John calls him a secret disciple. Mark tells us the day he finally stepped into the open. And that day is the part worth sitting with.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Who Was Joseph of Arimathea? What the Four Gospels Say<\/h2>\n\n<p>Put the four short accounts side by side and a clear picture shows up.<\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>He was rich.<\/strong> Matthew calls him &#8220;a rich man of Arimathaea&#8221; (Matthew 27:57).<\/li>\n<li><strong>He was powerful.<\/strong> Mark calls him &#8220;an honourable counsellor&#8221; (Mark 15:43). Luke calls him &#8220;a counsellor&#8221; too. That means he sat on the ruling council in Jerusalem, the same council that put Jesus on trial.<\/li>\n<li><strong>He was a good man who was waiting.<\/strong> Luke says he &#8220;was a good man, and a just&#8221; and that he &#8220;waited for the kingdom of God&#8221; (Luke 23:50-51). Mark says the same thing about the waiting.<\/li>\n<li><strong>He was a follower of Jesus.<\/strong> Matthew says he &#8220;himself was Jesus&#8217; disciple&#8221; (Matthew 27:57).<\/li>\n<li><strong>But he kept it hidden.<\/strong> John adds the detail the others leave out: he was &#8220;a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews&#8221; (John 19:38).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>A quick word about that phrase in John. Joseph was Jewish himself, and so was every disciple. When John writes &#8220;the Jews&#8221; in scenes like this one, he means the religious leaders in Jerusalem, the people who could throw someone out of the synagogue. Joseph was afraid of his own colleagues on the council. That is a very human kind of fear.<\/p>\n\n<p>And where was Arimathea? Honestly, nobody knows for sure. Luke only calls it &#8220;a city of the Jews.&#8221; Some old traditions link it to Ramathaim, the hometown of the prophet Samuel, but that is a guess, not a fact. What matters more is that Joseph was not from Jerusalem, yet he owned a tomb there.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"884942602c\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/884942602c\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>A Secret Disciple on the Council That Condemned Jesus<\/h2>\n\n<p>Here is something most people read right past. Mark describes the night trial of Jesus this way: &#8220;they all condemned him to be guilty of death&#8221; (Mark 14:64). All of them.<\/p>\n\n<p>But Luke, writing about Joseph, slips in a small note in brackets: &#8220;The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them&#8221; (Luke 23:51).<\/p>\n\n<p>So which is it? The Bible does not tell us exactly how both are true. Maybe Joseph was not in the room that night. Maybe his &#8220;no&#8221; was drowned out. Maybe he stayed silent and simply never agreed in his heart. We do not know, and it is better to say so than to guess.<\/p>\n\n<p>But notice what that means. Joseph watched the people he worked with decide to kill the man he believed in. Whatever he did or did not say at that trial, it was not enough to stop it. If anyone had a reason to feel like his quiet faith had failed, it was Joseph.<\/p>\n\n<p>John tells us he was not alone in that place, either. Earlier in his Gospel, John writes: &#8220;Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue&#8221; (John 12:42). There were others like Joseph. Believers in the room, keeping quiet. One of them was <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/bible-resources\/bible-characters\/who-was-nicodemus-in-the-bible\/\">Nicodemus, the ruler who first came to Jesus by night<\/a>, and you will meet him again at the tomb.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Mark 15:43: The Day Joseph Went Public<\/h2>\n\n<p>Now read the verse this whole story turns on. It is our anchor:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Joseph 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.&#8221; (Mark 15:43, KJV)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>The word &#8220;boldly&#8221; is worth slowing down for. In Mark&#8217;s Greek it is a word that means he &#8220;dared.&#8221; Mark is telling you this took nerve. Joseph did something he was scared to do, and he did it anyway.<\/p>\n\n<p>Think about when this happened. Jesus had just died on a Roman cross, the kind of death Rome saved for people it wanted to shame. His closest friends were gone. Mark says it flatly a chapter earlier: &#8220;they all forsook him, and fled&#8221; (Mark 14:50). The crowds who had cheered were gone. From the outside, it looked like the whole Jesus movement had lost.<\/p>\n\n<p>And that is the exact moment the secret disciple stops being secret.<\/p>\n\n<p>He did not go public when Jesus was feeding thousands. He did not go public when people were laying branches on the road. He went public on the one day it could win him nothing, and could cost him nearly everything. He walked into the office of the Roman governor who had just signed the death order, and asked for the body of the man Rome had executed. Everyone on the council would know by nightfall whose side he was on.<\/p>\n\n<h2>What It Actually Cost Him<\/h2>\n\n<p>It is easy to picture this as a sad but simple errand. It was not. The Gospels show at least four prices Joseph paid that afternoon.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>1. His reputation.<\/strong> Asking for the body tied his name to Jesus in front of Pilate and in front of his own council. There was no more hiding after this.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>2. His own tomb.<\/strong> Matthew says Joseph &#8220;laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock&#8221; (Matthew 27:60). Luke and John both add that no one had ever been laid in it. This was a family grave Joseph had paid to have cut for himself. He gave it away.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>3. His money.<\/strong> Mark notes that &#8220;he bought fine linen&#8221; (Mark 15:46). And Nicodemus, who came with him, &#8220;brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight&#8221; (John 19:39). This was a burial fit for someone honoured, not someone disgraced.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>4. The holy day itself.<\/strong> This is the detail almost no one mentions. God&#8217;s law said plainly: &#8220;He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days&#8221; (Numbers 19:11). The sun was going down. It was &#8220;the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath&#8221; (Mark 15:42), and John says that sabbath &#8220;was an high day&#8221; (John 19:31) in Passover week.<\/p>\n\n<p>Now hold that next to what the other leaders did that same morning. John says they would not even walk into Pilate&#8217;s hall, &#8220;lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover&#8221; (John 18:28). They guarded their ritual purity carefully while they handed Jesus over to die.<\/p>\n\n<p>Joseph and Nicodemus did the opposite. They took the body down with their own hands, wrapped it and carried it. By the very law they had studied all their lives, that would leave them unclean through the holiest week of the year. They chose Jesus over their own standing in the feast.<\/p>\n\n<h2>The Linen Nobody Notices<\/h2>\n\n<p>One more detail, and it may be the most beautiful one in the story.<\/p>\n\n<p>On the night Jesus was arrested, Mark tells a strange little story. A young man was following Jesus &#8220;having a linen cloth cast about his naked body.&#8221; When the guards grabbed him, &#8220;he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked&#8221; (Mark 14:51-52). We have written about <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/bible-resources\/bible-stories\/weirdest-verses-in-the-bible\/\">why that is one of the weirdest verses in the Bible<\/a>. Nobody knows for certain who that young man was.<\/p>\n\n<p>But in Mark&#8217;s Greek, the word for that linen cloth is the same word Mark uses a day later for the &#8220;fine linen&#8221; Joseph bought to wrap the body of Jesus (Mark 15:46).<\/p>\n\n<p>Mark puts the two scenes side by side, only a chapter apart. A follower who had been out in the open drops the linen and runs. A follower who had been hiding buys linen and walks toward the body. The one who looked brave ran. The one who looked afraid came.<\/p>\n\n<h2>The Turn: Hidden Faith Is Not Disqualified Faith<\/h2>\n\n<p>Here is what Joseph&#8217;s story quietly says to anyone who has kept their faith in the shadows.<\/p>\n\n<p>God did not write Joseph off for his secret years. The Bible does not scold him. Matthew still calls him a disciple. Luke still calls him good and just. Mark still says he was waiting for the kingdom of God. The hidden years were real faith, even while they were hidden.<\/p>\n\n<p>But notice what finally brought it into the open. It was not a win. It was a loss. When everything Joseph hoped for seemed to be lying dead on a cross, his faith did not shrink. It stood up.<\/p>\n\n<p>That turns the usual picture upside down. We tend to think courage shows up when things are going well, when it feels safe, when we are sure of the outcome. Joseph shows us something else. Sometimes the faith that has been quiet for years is exactly the faith that shows up when everyone else has left. Maybe that is part of why it was quiet. It was being saved for that day.<\/p>\n\n<p>And here is the part Joseph could not see. He thought he was preparing a grave. He was preparing the place where, three days later, God would raise Jesus from the dead. The tomb he gave away became the most famous empty tomb in history. His hardest, costliest act of faith was the one God used most.<\/p>\n\n<p>Your quiet faith may be heading toward its own Mark 15:43 moment. It probably will not come on a good day. It may come on a day when believing looks foolish, when the people around you have gone silent, when it looks like hope has lost. That is often the day a hidden disciple matters most.<\/p>\n\n<p>If you are not sure where you stand with God right now, the free <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/how-to-get-closer-to-god\/\">How Close Am I to God?<\/a> check-in takes a few minutes and is a gentle, honest place to start.<\/p>\n\n<h2>A Word About the Legends<\/h2>\n\n<p>If you search for Joseph of Arimathea, you will find stories about him sailing to Britain, planting a thorn bush at Glastonbury, or carrying the Holy Grail. These are later legends, written many centuries after the Gospels. There is no evidence for them in the Bible or in the earliest Christian writings. They make good stories, but they are not the Joseph of the Gospels. The real man is actually more helpful: an ordinary, frightened believer who found his courage on the worst day.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Actions to Take Today<\/h3>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Name your &#8220;council.&#8221;<\/strong> Take one minute and write down the one place or group where you keep your faith most hidden. A job, a friend group, a family table. Just naming it honestly is a start.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Find the &#8220;hard day&#8221; person near you.<\/strong> Think of one person you know who is having a terrible week, the kind of week where most people go quiet around them. Send them a short message today: &#8220;I&#8217;m thinking of you and praying for you.&#8221; Joseph&#8217;s courage showed up for someone at their lowest. Yours can too.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Take one small step into the open.<\/strong> In the place you named, do one visible thing this week. Say &#8220;I&#8217;ll pray for you&#8221; out loud instead of just thinking it. Mention that you go to church or read the Bible when it comes up naturally. It does not need to be a speech. Joseph&#8217;s big step was just one request.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h3>Journaling Prompts<\/h3>\n\n<ul>\n<li>When you think about the years you kept your faith quiet, do you feel more shame or more hope? Where do you think that feeling comes from?<\/li>\n<li>What is one thing you are afraid it would cost you to follow Jesus openly? Write it down, then write what you think Joseph would say to you about it.<\/li>\n<li>Can you remember a hard season when your faith surprised you by showing up stronger than you expected? What was different about that time?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h3>A Prayer You Can Pray Right Now<\/h3>\n\n<p><em>God, I have kept a lot of my faith hidden, and some days I wonder if it even counts. Thank You that You did not give up on Joseph, and that You have not given up on me. When the hard day comes, when it looks like hope has lost and everyone else goes quiet, give me the nerve to show up anyway. Take whatever I have been holding back and use it for something I cannot see yet. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<h2>Discussion Question<\/h2>\n\n<p>Why do you think Joseph found his courage on the day Jesus died, instead of during the days of miracles and crowds? Share your thoughts in the comments. Someone who is still keeping their faith quiet may need to read your answer.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"884942602c\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/884942602c\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>Share This<\/h2>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Joseph of Arimathea hid his faith while Jesus was drawing crowds. He finally went public the day Jesus died, when it could win him nothing. Hidden faith isn&#8217;t dead faith. bgodinspired.com<\/li>\n<li>The disciple who looked brave dropped his linen and ran. The one who had been hiding bought linen and walked toward the cross. Mark tells both stories, one chapter apart. bgodinspired.com<\/li>\n<li>Joseph of Arimathea thought he was giving away his grave. He was giving away the place God would raise Jesus from the dead. Your costliest step of faith may be the one God uses most. bgodinspired.com<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h2>Questions People Are Asking<\/h2>\n\n<p><strong>Who was Joseph of Arimathea in the Bible?<\/strong><br>\nJoseph of Arimathea was a rich man and a respected member of the Jewish ruling council in Jerusalem who secretly followed Jesus. After the crucifixion, he asked the Roman governor Pontius Pilate for the body of Jesus, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in his own new rock-cut tomb. He appears in all four Gospels: Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Why was Joseph of Arimathea a secret disciple?<\/strong><br>\nJohn 19:38 says Joseph of Arimathea followed Jesus &#8220;secretly for fear of the Jews,&#8221; meaning he feared the religious leaders in Jerusalem, many of whom sat with him on the ruling council. John 12:42 explains that some rulers who believed in Jesus stayed quiet so they would not be put out of the synagogue.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Did Joseph of Arimathea vote to condemn Jesus?<\/strong><br>\nAccording to Luke 23:51, Joseph of Arimathea &#8220;had not consented to the counsel and deed of them,&#8221; meaning he did not agree with the ruling council&#8217;s decision to have Jesus killed. The Bible does not say whether he was absent from the trial, voted against it, or simply refused to agree.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>What did Joseph of Arimathea do for Jesus?<\/strong><br>\nJoseph of Arimathea asked Pontius Pilate for the body of Jesus after the crucifixion, bought fine linen, took the body down, and buried it in his own new tomb cut out of rock in a garden near the place of the crucifixion. Nicodemus helped him, bringing about a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes (John 19:38-42).<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Did Joseph of Arimathea really go to Britain?<\/strong><br>\nStories of Joseph of Arimathea travelling to Glastonbury in Britain or carrying the Holy Grail are medieval legends written many centuries after his lifetime. They do not appear in the Bible or in the earliest Christian writings, and there is no historical evidence that they are true.<\/p>        <div class=\"booster-block booster-reactions-block\">\n            <div class=\"twp-reactions-icons\">\n                \n                <div class=\"twp-reacts-wrap\">\n                    <a react-data=\"be-react-1\" post-id=\"116359\" class=\"be-face-icons un-reacted\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\">\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/booster-extension\/\/assets\/icon\/happy.svg\" alt=\"Happy\" title=\"\">\n                    <\/a>\n                    <div class=\"twp-reaction-title\">\n                        Happy                    <\/div>\n                    <div class=\"twp-count-percent\">\n                                                    <span style=\"display: none;\" class=\"twp-react-count\">0<\/span>\n                        \n                                       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John calls him a secret disciple. Mark says he dared to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus on the day it looked like all was lost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3541,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-characters","category-bible-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116360,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116359\/revisions\/116360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}