L. The burial of Jesus (23:50–56)

All the Gospels agree that Joseph of Arimathea took the lead in Jesus’ burial and that some women were associated with him. We know nothing of him apart from what we learn in this incident.

50–51. The location of Arimathea is not known. But as Joseph had a tomb near Jerusalem he had evidently left his home town and come to live in the capital. He was a member of the Sanhedrin (the council ), but Luke makes it clear that he had not given his consent to the execution of Jesus. He must have been absent, for the vote was unanimous (note the ‘all’ of 22:70; Mark 14:64). Luke refers to his good character and to his looking for the kingdom of God. This is probably his way of telling us that Joseph was a follower of Jesus (cf. Matt. 27:57; John 19:38).

52–53. It was evidently necessary to get Pilate’s permission to bury Jesus and Joseph did this. He took the body from the cross and put it in a linen shroud (John speaks of strips or bandages, John 19:40; the shroud would have covered the whole). The tomb was rock-hewn and had not been used previously (tombs, being expensive, would tend to be given maximum use; surviving Jewish tombs of the period often have several chambers so that they can accommodate a number of bodies). Elsewhere we learn that Joseph had prepared this tomb for himself (Matt. 27:60).

54. The day of Preparation was Friday, the day when people prepared for the sabbath. Work could not be done on the sabbath, so, with Friday nearing its end and with the sabbath beginning when the sun went down, the burial had to be completed with some haste.

55–56. The faithful Galilean women saw things through to the end. The Jewish custom was to wrap spices and ointments with the body, but for this there was not adequate time. Actually it was not forbidden to anoint a body on a festival (Shabbath 23:5), but there were other restrictions such as those on preparing a coffin or grave (Shabbath 23:4), or on moving even a limb of the deceased (Shabbath 23:5). So the burial had to be hurried. They placed the body in the tomb and then the women went off to the places where they were staying and prepared the necessary ingredients for a proper anointing when the sabbath had passed. Their preparations completed, they complied with the Law and rested on the sabbath. In John the spices Nicodemus brought were buried with the body, in Luke the women prepared spices before the sabbath, in Mark they brought them after the sabbath, while in Matthew there is nothing about the spices at all. Perhaps we should understand all this to mean that the burial on the Friday had to be hurried, but that use was made of the spices that were to hand. Then the faithful women, before and after the sabbath, did what was necessary to complete the burial.

8. The resurrection (24:1–53)

None of the four Gospels describes the resurrection, which in any case no-one saw. But all emphasize its critical importance, though in widely differing ways. Some things are common to all the accounts, such as the empty tomb, the reluctance of the disciples to believe that Jesus had risen, the fact that the first appearances were to women, and the limited number of appearances. Even when they are describing the same appearance each Evangelist tells it in his own individual way (e.g. Luke 24:36ff.; John 20:19ff.). This kind of thing makes it difficult to arrange the appearances in a coherent sequence and some critics hold that discrepancies in the accounts make this impossible. That this is incorrect is demonstrated by the fact that Arndt and John Wenham, for example, have worked out possible harmonies1 (as have others). We may or may not feel able to accept the solution proposed by either, but it cannot be denied that each has worked out a sequence that includes all the appearances mentioned in the accounts. Luke’s treasure is the wonderful story of the walk to Emmaus. His other resurrection stories also bear his own stamp and they differ from what we read elsewhere. It is noteworthy that he concentrates on Jerusalem and says nothing about appearances of the risen Lord in Galilee.

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