Joseph of Arimathea

Wealthy member of the Sanhedrin from Arimathea who was a secret disciple of Jesus, described as “a good and righteous man” who had not consented to the council’s decision to condemn Jesus (Luke 23:50-51). After the crucifixion, Joseph went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body—a courageous act that revealed his discipleship publicly. With Nicodemus, he prepared Jesus’s body for burial with spices and linen, and placed him in his own new tomb cut from rock, located in a garden near Golgotha (John 19:38-42). By providing his personal tomb, Joseph fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy: “They made his grave… with a rich man in his death” (Isaiah 53:9).