JOSHUA of ARIMATHAEA. - A member of the Sanhedrin, native of Arimathaea (q.v.). He was rich, good, and just (Lk 23:50-51). A secret disciple of Jesus, fearing the Jews, while the other Sanhedrists condemned the Saviour to death he did not consent, though he did not openly declare himself (Lk 23:51; Jn 19:38). After the Crucifixion “he dared to go to Pilate and ask him for the body of Jesus” (Mk 15:43). With the help of Nicodemus he wrapped it in a shroud (q.v.), and laid it in his own new tomb, hewn out of the rock of Calvary, rolling a great stone to the entrance (Mt 27:59; Mk 15:46; Lk 23:53).
Legends about him are contained in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. According to these, J. of A. is said to have founded the church of Lydda. He is also said to have collected in a chalice the blood that flowed from the side of the Crucified.
The Greek Church celebrates his feast on 31 July, the Roman Church on 17 March. He has been in the *Martyrologium Romanum* since 1585.
An apocryphal Georgian work on J. of A. was translated into German by A. von Harnack in *Sitzungsberichte d. Preuss. Akad.*, Berlin 1901, pp. 920-21.