the Law of Attraction

http://ayahuascameghan.blogspot.com/

Energetic Mechanisms: Attraction


By Meghan Shannon

6/25/12



Most of us in the “Western Spiritual World” are familiar with the Law of Attraction. Books and movies like The Secret and What the Bleep Do We Know? have become commonplace in discussing how this energetic phenomenon works. While these stories are inspirational, at a certain level (for me anyway) I felt I wanted to go deeper than they could realistically go for a movie for the masses (fair enough!) Luckily, as I continued my Ayahuasca (sacred plants) shamanic apprenticeship in the Amazon, I was taught more during ceremonies about the mechanisms of energy systems and how they work - and for me, understanding it from a more “technical” standpoint was what really helped it to click, which helped me to release my skepticism and allow the whole thing to actually work.





So quick background - the Law of Attraction, in simple terms, means that like attracts like. Okay, great. But when you dig down to the deeper levels and application of it (and one can only go as far as their own psyche will allow - more on that later) it really is truly astounding, and one of the cornerstones of leading a successful life (whatever that may mean to you.)





We use the term “energy” often and loosely in spiritual discussion. Since I am not a scientist, it is unclear to me if the same energy I can feel very physically on my body if a person is emitting a certain emotion, for example, is the same energy that quantum physicists are studying (though it’s hard for me to imagine how it would not be). But if quantum mechanics studies the micro - the tiniest level of energy (which they seem to think is a vibration), I imagine eventually at least, these things will be considered one and the same (look into String Theory if you haven’t already.) I will explain energy as I have come to understand it.

At core of every molecule is an energy, vibrating at a certain frequency. Some vibrate faster (high frequency), and some slower (low - meaning longer, slower wavelengths.) On the light spectrum, red wavelengths are the slowest, longest-length waves, up to violet, which are quicker, higher frequency (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_spectrum) I’m not saying that “energy” in the sense that I’m using it is necessarily the same or not, but looking at how light frequency works gives a good visual (at the very least, as an analogy).


So I use this as a way to understand the energies I’m exploring here. Let’s take the energy of food. How do you feel after eating an orange in comparison with a hamburger? Of course, there are many other factors at play, such as quantity of food, quality of meat (addition of hormones/antibiotics), personal digestion, etc. Some say that the nature of how the animal was raised, as well as how it was killed effects the energy of the food as well (which would explain why Kosher meats are, from what I understand, killed more ceremonially and humanely than standard factory farms.) An orange was recently in the ground (pure energy, minus contaminants in the soil or from pesticides, etc) and is still “alive”. A hamburger grew into an animal, lived, then died, meaning the amount of time between its conception to your mouth is longer (add on freezing, etc.) I am not here on a “no-meat” kick (I eat some meats, depending on the situation). But it’s just something to mull over in understanding energy.



Some people seem to be able to feel these energies more acutely than others. Some may even be able to see them (in the form of a color, or a symbol, etc - hence “readers.”) Personally, the area where I am the most attuned relates to emotional energies and communication, especially when something is blocking the normal flow that emits from the person. Say you have a friend who emits a very “sparkly” energy most of the time (even people who don’t consider themselves highly attuned to energies can feel them, and easily become more attuned - walk into a place and most people can recognize a “bad vibe”). If that friend is tired, in a crappy mood, very full, stressed, etc - their “sparkle” is generally diluted by a layer of gray, diminishing their sum-total energy that they are emitting at that moment. If they are normal and sparkly one moment, then the conversation hits a trigger, or touchy subject - generally a defense mechanism will automatically erect to protect the weak area.These tend to fall into the natural categories of “fight” (anger, “defensiveness”, etc) or “flight” (have to leave the room, quick change of subject, etc.) Energies like stress, anger, etc feel very “prickly” on my skin (I’m not how they feel to others who feel them physically.) The point is, they affect the room, especially if it is funneled at me (if someone is yelling at me and I tune in, I’ll feel their anger strongly. Luckily part of the skill is being able to turn the “tuner” up or down depending on the situation - this can be a challenge to some if they have this as a natural ability and are not aware of it.)For me, the way I am able to “read” or “intuit” people (if we’re doing process work, etc) is to feel if there is a change from their normal flow when a certain subject is raised. I can often feel it very physically (depending on how “clear” I am - more oranges and less hamburgers helps to keep my energetic pallet more clear. Ayahuasca ceremonies clear the sludge to feel more acutely, as well as other lifestyle aspects.) I also have to be very careful, because if the energy that is stimulated in the other person is also a trigger in me, I can blind myself and project my own onto the person (so it’s definitely an art, and requires a lot of self-awareness to be responsible.)





Keep an eye out for general verbiage used in everyday life denoting energy and mechanism. “Open or closed-minded”: energetic doors. “Good or bad vibes”: quite literally, fast or slow vibrations. “Getting over” something: transcending above the energy to a level above it, which happens naturally if you allow a “mourning” process to take place. It’s fun to keep your eyes peeled for commonplace terms that reflect energy!


Okay, so how does understanding all these ins and outs explain the laws of attraction? One time I was in out in the Amazon in an Ayahuasca ceremony. The plants we work with there allow us to “lift the veil”, and receive spiritual teachings directly from the plant teacher spirits, at the same time purging us of our blocks and sludgy energy that gets in the way (there’s much more to it than that, but that’s the short version.) I saw a vision to symbolize how the Law of Attraction worked.






There was a “river” above me of what I could best describe as “Flowing Abundance Energy.” It was open, roaring, and freely flowing with quite a strength. There were tons of little handles to grab ahold of in order to flow with this river. All I had to do was reach up and grab on, and I’m along for the ride.

There was a “river” above me of what I could best describe as “Flowing Abundance Energy.” It was open, roaring, and freely flowing with quite a strength. There were tons of little handles to grab ahold of in order to flow with this river. All I had to do was reach up and grab on, and I’m along for the ride.




So why doesn’t everyone just grab ahold? My question to the Medicine.



Why haven’t you so far? Because you doubt that you can. You limit the possibilities of life within your own mind. You feel you don’t deserve it, some of which comes from a deep belief system generally referred to as “White Guilt”. Your ego fears if you are prosperous, especially at spiritually-focus endeavors, you will be judged as someone “exploiting” spirituality. But all those thoughts, belief systems, limits - they are all inside your own mind, your own ego blocking, defending these weak areas. The more open the door is, the more the river can flow through you and take you along for the ride.





So how do you get that particular energetic frequency to you, and how does that translate to real life opportunities and prosperity? From here on out is where I believe these movies only do a half-assed job at an explanation. There are an infinite number of energy patterns and frequencies in the Universe (imagine tuning a dial to a radio - also waves). How do you find it? That’s where setting intention comes in. It’s basically just solid focus. Focusing on what you want emits your subconscious understanding of the same energy you are looking for - and, since like attracts like (like two drops of oil connecting naturally into one when they come in close contact), the similar energies quite naturally “find each other”, and anything with that energy embedded or attached to it comes with it. Let me give you an example.





I’d been holding the intention to be able to stay home with my new son, and create a free-flowing form of income that allows me to help others integrate their Ayahuasca work into everyday life, lead happier, healthier lives, as well as “take people with me” as far as financial prosperity goes. I knew the ‘what’, but the ‘how’ was beyond me (needing to know the ‘how’ is a huge block for many people - there does require a certain level of releasing control and allowing things to work naturally. For those spiritually focused, I figure we can only see about 2% of the picture, where the Divine can see the limitless potential, so set the intention, hold it, and let them formulate a plan.)

About a two weeks before the baby was due, I could feel an idea brewing around supporting people with their Aya work in everyday life. It finally “popped”. Then, about two days before he was born, the “how” of the free-flow, no ceiling, no “hourly payment” income presented itself. Then those two organically connected. This was about two months ago at this point. Pretty much every week since then, another piece of the puzzle has just popped into place, very naturally; a new epiphany every week. Things were flowing and on track.






Remember that all matter is made of energy at its core. At what frequency the sum-total of the entity vibrates at will determine what it attracts. This is how emitting an energy translates to attracting people, opportunities, etc in the physical world. There’s a bit of a lag time (sometimes due to sluggishness in the mind, other times just due to waiting for all the Divine pieces of the puzzles to be ready, including other people.) The important thing is to make sure the receiving door is open, hold the intention, and wait for all the pieces/people/etc to fall into place.





One of the personal struggles I have had in regards to manifesting my dreams relates to doubt and arrogance. The doubt is in myself and the Universe (can this really work for me? Even after all these years of the Divine guidance, experiences, and strong connection, there is still a weak spot on this one, mainly because it involves making money, which I also have a deep belief system block I’m still working through - more on that in a minute.) And the arrogance comes in, since I’ve been at “spirituality” for so long, that the Law of Attraction is easy stuff, of course I know how it works (says my ego.) But again, knowing how it works and actually applying and integrating it are two different animals.


Setting an intention to receive something that conflicts with an internal belief system will block, or slow its level of manifestation.




There are some large-scale belief systems that block many, many people. A belief system in the consciousness (concept of a “matrix” of energy surrounding a particular group, ranging in size from a small family to all of humanity) - these are generally culturally “hardened” beliefs that are adopted by many and passed on from generation to generation. I mentioned “white guilt” earlier - this is a deep, karmic wound in the collective psyche of many Caucasians with European descent. While it is obvious what caused this, harboring guilt in honor of atrocities committed by ancestors really is not very efficient in allowing this wound to breathe so it can actually heal. This deep belief of “not deserving” blocks many from attracting the lives they desire.





Another large-scale belief system that is common around money is about simply having it. There is such a push/pull in society around money. Everyone wants it, though often people who don’t have it make fun of those who do, judging and commenting, assuming they are selfish, “lavish” people who don’t care about the little guy (I’ve been guilty of this before.) It’s taken me a long time to work through this one (and I’m not totally done). Add the “Western Spiritual World” component to it (profiting from anything considered “spiritual” is generally judged as exploitation) yet we have a whole culture of people having an internal conflict between following a spiritual call/dream and actually making a living doing it. There is often not enough time in a day for both. This is another one that has been quite the challenge for me, since basically, in order to follow my inner spiritual desires, I have to be willing to be judged. Once again, heart versus ego. This will shift in the consciousness as time moves on, but only the ones willing to release this old belief will likely live in alignment with their dreams.





There are many large-scale beliefs out there that show up in various ways (inability to lose weight, live healthily, find a loving relationship, etc.) Recognizing them as cultural and personal belief systems (versus just “the way it is”) is key to allowing them to “loosen up”, then eventually release.





It’s important to understand not only that the belief factor is imperative, but why it is so. There’s an energetic door there that can allow flow in or block it like a dam. So when a person sets an intention (for anything, but in this case, to tap into abundance and prosperity) the willingness to be open to the possibility, and to what extent, is the door. It’s like a continuum - on the left extreme, the door is closed, locked, and you’ve swallowed the key. At zero point, the door can easily be opened or closed, depending on choice. Other side, wide open door, allowing the energy to flow without question. Most people are in the middle somewhere, and with more understanding and release of fear, the farther to the right of the spectrum a person can become (and when the door is open a crack, it moves, but it’s slower process in showing up physically.) This is not blind faith (that actually doesn’t often work energetically, unless true belief is there.) But being open to the possibility keeps the door open, and the more this potential becomes a reality in the mind, the farther to the right side of the spectrum the door will open.


One of the most efficient ways for the energy to actually emit from the body is to “pull up” the energy you are trying to find. Emotions do this at a much stronger intensity level than thoughts. Talking about how cool it would be to be on the beach in Hawaii only emits a fraction of the energy that closing your eyes, imagining the smell of the salt air, the sounds of the ocean waves, the colors of the tropical flowers and fruits echoed by the natural music of the ukelele - this process brings up a stronger picture, which evokes a stronger emotion of joy. If the emotion provoked is resentment, or jealousy, or even an exasperated desire (as if it will never happen) THAT is the energy that is emitted, attracting the same experiences embedded with that energy right back to you. The “just around the corner” syndrome - where the person can never quite get around the corner, is an example of what can happen if what is emitted is a sense of longing or desire.






One of the easiest way to “loosen up” a belief system so that it can release and return to its natural state of openness is through language. I am sign language interpreter, and fluent in Spanish as well as my native English. I get languages. When I first embarked on the spiritual journey, I arrogantly wrote off mantras (short, repetitive focused statements) and affirmations (same concept, sometime a little longer) as bullshit. I wrote off energy healing as a “too subtle” (translating to “too weak” in my arrogant little mind) at the time as well. I find it hilarious that now I get all this spiritual training on exactly why energies are at the center of everything, and that the way they move around (communication or language, verbal or non) is imperative.





The whole notion of “thinking positive” can absolutely change a person’s experience of life - IF they actually believe what they are saying. If it is simply a mask to appear as if they are positive, meanwhile under the subconscious resentment is brewing, the sum-total is what emits, not just the words on the surface. However, if a person has a general approach to life where, more or less, there are “opportunities for growth” rather than “shit happening to me”, these eyes cause a very different experience of life. Why? Because while they are both looking at the same situation, the emotions provoked emit nearly opposing energies, attracting different things.






So one of the important tools to “loosening up” these hardened, complex belief systems is through languaging. Simple things - instead of saying “I can never lose weight”, try “weight loss had historically been a struggle for me.” Notice the “had”, instead of a “have.” Instead of “I’m still broke”, consider “I’m in process of working on my financial goals.” Being “ in progress” allows you to be in the present, while the focus is still on “financial goals.” The focus, therefore the energy funnels to the subject, regardless if the description is positive or negative. So by saying, “I don’t want to be lonely anymore” - what’s the subject? Loneliness. How does loneliness feel? For me it brings up feelings of hopelessness, sadness, etc (which emits out.) If I were to say, “I’m ready to find someone who is a good match for me,” the subject is “someone who is a good match”, and I feel excitement, intrigue, etc - more positive emotions. “Can’t” is a door closer. “Never” keeps it closed. Look for language that opens the door to life’s possibilities, even if you don’t believe it yet. At least you are “loosening up” the energies to make it easier on yourself. If you need help, commission a friend to call you out on negative languaging - you’d be surprised how often it shows up, and in what capacity.





Mantras or affirmations can work ONLY when they pull up passion, excitement, etc in the body. So when you are looking for something to inspire you everyday to write on a notecard and hang on the bathroom mirror, you’re looking for a word or phrase that “turns you on” (another energetic term!) You should feel something “wake up” inside, something that sparks a little something and makes you feel good. For me, words like “wild”, “freedom”, “passion”, etc will work. Play around with writing your goal down using words that are powerful for you. Then stick it on the bathroom mirror and read it every morning while brushing your teeth. Remember, the point is to provoke the good-feeling emotions/energies and omit them as often as possible, so you’re sending a clear signal to attract them back. Eventually it won’t feel like so much work - you’ll integrate it into your energy field and attract it all the time.

So if you know all this Meghan, you might ask, why are you still in process? Because I forgot. Simple as that. Applying spiritual work in everyday life is often the challenge. There is not a strong “space” in the collective belief systems for this one. People don’t believe it, or may even turn their noses down at you for trying something new. Ego’s get provoked, defenses go up. I was clearly manifesting, since all those ideas came, but what was happening is that I was stressing about the money. The doubt (can this really happen?) and the how were spinning too often in my head. My languaging around money needed some work, to say to the least, and I clearly needed a hand. So, since I have a standing set intention to work with the Divine, I started to stumble and they helped me out. Last week, without thinking, I scrolled through the movies on our new Amazon Prime subscription, only to notice “The Secret” (which I’ve seen before.) But I knew I needed it to revitalize my energy. So I watched it, remembered, and got the intuition to write it out clearly so I could remember how it all works (for me, and for anyone else who it may benefit as well.) Since watching it last week, I’ve already had two new clients call me with money in hand, and while I was actually writing this article there was a sitcom with a girl making a vision board to create her dreams, while her roommate mocked until in the end, the vision board was a success. I’m attracting the energy with “Law of Attraction” embedded in it!






So in summary, in order to manifest what you want, you have to get a similar energy out there. Check for belief systems blocks, and consciously override, release, or “move them out of the way” if you can (this can require different amounts of time for different people, but they’re all from your own mind, which you’re in charge of, so consider some reprogramming.)



Intend the goal, practice appropriate languaging to hold it out there, release the need to know how it’s going to happen, and make sure your doors are open to receive it when it comes.



Life is too short to fuck around with limitation. Most people reading this have some kind of an inner call to help people, as well as live a happy, healthy, abundant life. Those things are not meant to be separate, it’s only the mind that messes with the natural integrity of their interconnectedness. One of my own personal mantras, “I got shit to do in this lifetime!” The longer we spend in the confines of our own self-created limitation, the longer those people just WAITING for us to step into our purpose have to wait. There are a couple of foundations most people require order to successfully follow and realize our calling.

We need to have healthy, strong vehicles (physical bodies) not only to be at a high enough frequency to receive more quickly, but also to be able to make it in the long haul. If every day we are tired, stressed, and too busy, when will we be able to manifest our calling? Our health foundation needs to be solid so we don’t get slowed down by physiological imbalances.






Having a loving, caring support system is pretty important for not only the sanity of most people, but also so they feel strong enough to get out there and take a risk in life. When a person’s system is not supported (basically if they feel “pushed down” from the top rather than “pushed up” from below - feeling oppressed or belittled is a sign your system is not as supportive as you may like). For me, working through my own fears of deep, vulnerable love allowed me to manifest a healthy relationship (how Law of Attraction works in mirroring aspects of relationships is a whole other article). Having solid relationship foundation allowed me to no longer be distracted by the search for a partner, as well as challenges me to be myself at new levels every day. Not everyone desires a partnership, and for them, they would have a different experience. It’s all about what the deep, internal needs which vary from person to person.





One thing that most of us can agree on - we live in a society that REQUIRES MONEY - it is what it is. Love it, hate it, judge it, or don’t. But until we stop fighting against money and those who have it, we will not be able to let go into proper alignment and harmony with it, and let our true potential selves, lifestyles and purposes emerge. Let us live happily in love and health, with enough wealth to share with others. “Dirty money” is real - so it “clean money”. Money infused with the energy of people wanting to change the world with it - imagine what it could do if we released our collective belief. Let’s work together to liberate ourselves from the shackles of our limited eyes. Let’s fly free, and see how the world looks after that.



 

G-d's will becoming our will

http://sn111w.snt111.mail.live.com/default.aspx#!/mail/InboxLight.aspx?n=6436999!n=988969412&fid=1&fav=1&mid=31fb1db1-c133-11e1-a31d-00237de41650&fv=1

The World's User's Guide






Chapter 2, Mishna 4



"He [Rabban Gamliel] used to say: Do His will as your will in order that He do your will as His will. Annul your will before His will in order that He annul the will of others before your will."



This mishna instructs us to not only follow G-d's will, but to make G-d's will our own. We are not only to perform the mitzvos (commandments), but to want to do nothing else. This seems a daunting and near impossible challenge, yet it is in essence the challenge of Judaism.



We must establish an important principle to begin to appreciate our mishna. It is one which is unfortunately often overlooked, certainly from outside the religious world but tragically sometimes even within. Parts of the following are based on a lecture heard from R. Noah Weinberg OBM of Yeshiva Aish Hatorah, Jerusalem(www.aish.com/rn/).



There is a common misconception about Torah observance and Judaism in general. We often view the Torah as a set of commands whose primary purpose is to enable us to earn a share in the World to Come. More precisely, we see the Torah as a means of being miserable down here so that after a lifetime of struggle and deprivation, we will acquire our share in the hereafter. We would much rather enjoy ourselves and live as we please down here, but (perhaps) it is worth denying ourselves this world in order to get a share of the next one.



That perspective, however, is wrong -- dead wrong. And even more, it misses the entire message of Judaism.



The Torah is not a book about the World to Come, as we will see below. Rather, the Torah is a guidebook for living in this world. As R. Weinberg explains, whenever you buy an item of value, it typically comes with a set of instructions. Buy a vacuum cleaner and you'll get a one-page instruction sheet (the warranty, changing the bag etc.). Buy a stereo system and you'll get a pamphlet (setting the controls, cleaning, maintenance). Buy a car and you'll get a book, a mainframe and you'll get a shelf-full of wholly unreadable manuals.



Well, G-d gave us -- He entrusted us -- with something much greater and much more precious: that great big Spaceship Earth that we all reside upon and share with one another. G-d gave us a world in which we are to create civilizations, till the soil, develop relationships, build families, get along with one another, and share with millions of other species. What did He give us to operate it? How are we to live the most meaningful and rewarding type of existence on it? Where is the user's guide? It is the Torah.



The Torah is not primarily a book which concerns itself with the World to Come. Amazingly, it talks very little about G-d per se (as in, attempting to give us some Kabbalistic understanding of who G-d actually is). And it makes virtually no mention of the World to Come or the Resurrection of the Dead -- although such concepts are literally the cornerstones of our faith. The most the Torah (and by the Torah I mean Scripture -- the written part of our tradition) ever seems to promise for our good deeds is bounty in this world: "And it will be, if you shall surely hearken unto My commandments... I will give you the rain of your land in its time, the autumn rains and the spring rains, and you will gather your grain, wine and oil." (Deuteronomy 11:13-14). Doesn't the Torah have anything grander and loftier to offer us than grain?



The answer is that the Torah is very much a "this world" book. It is not a book which tells us about G-d or religious theology -- nor does it even bother to state that the true reward for our deeds will be in the next world. Rather, the Torah is the set of instructions G-d gave us for making sense of life and human nature. It is a practical work -- for healthy and meaningful living in this world: how to eat, how to marry, how to build relationships, how to combine Torah study and worldly involvement, and even how to relax on the Sabbath.



The Torah is thus a work which understands -- and never denies -- human nature. It knows what our needs are and what our natures are, and it enables us to sublimate every one of our drives and talents towards the spiritual. It provides us with the keys to happiness and fulfillment in this world: through the ideal combination of ritual and individuality, of discipline and personal self-expression. It allows both our bodies and souls to be satisfied and fulfilled. And when the Torah is observed properly, rather than denying the physical side of man making us "miserable", both body and soul become fulfilled, transforming man into a single and complete being in the image of G-d.



(This incidentally is an issue the other great religions have grappled with far less successfully. I am certainly no expert on comparative religions, but my overall understanding is that Christianity has much more trouble relating to the physical side of man, sometimes seeing the ideal as celibacy and poverty. Islam on the other hand, not being able to discount such a central part of man's makeup, seems to have subjugated the spiritual side of man to the physical. Their version of the "world to come" is a huge harem of virgins (at least for men -- I'm not even sure what they offer women (perhaps one reason there are so far fewer female suicide bombers)). Judaism, however, has no such complex about the physical world. All aspects of humanity are purposeful and G-d-given. There is nothing which cannot be properly directed and turned into a vehicle for holiness.)



Thus, the rewards promised in Scripture are likewise limited to this world. The meaning is not, of course, that there will be nothing greater in the World to Come. The Talmud tells us, "There is no true reward in this world" (Kiddushin 39b). All this world truly has to offer is that nothing will go wrong: the rains and weather will cooperate, we won't get sick, the human race won't be wiped out by giant asteroid. True spiritual reward (and punishment) for our deeds is a thing of the next world. But the Written Torah, which deals with living in this world, does not focus on it. It rather tells us that if we serve G-d properly, the world -- and especially the Land of Israel -- will function in harmony with man -- allowing us to serve G-d even better. Not only will our total selves -- body and soul -- be united in service of G-d, but the world itself will join mankind in complete perfection.



We can now begin to appreciate Rabban Gamliel's advice in our mishna. We should want to do the mitzvos -- not just in order to earn reward, but because we recognize that mitzvah observance is itself the reward. It is the most rewarding and fulfilling way to live on this earth. Of course, after our 120 years, the *actual* reward will come -- and we will hardly have to invoke any moral cliches that virtue is its own reward. But Scripture provides us with a wholly accurate depiction of life: Serve G-d down here and you will be happy. I am giving you these commandments for your own sakes, not Mine.



And if we recognize that G-d's will is what is best for us, He will do our will too. Our wants and His will no longer be separate. Our desire will be to serve G-d, to come closer to Him and to realize our own potential. We will want health, happiness and all the blessings but only in order to serve G-d better. And so, there will be a merging of wills. Both our will and G-d's will become one and the same.

Gospel of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_of_Arimathea




Gospel of NicodemusThe Gospel of Nicodemus, a text appended to the Acts of Pilate, provides additional, though even more mythologized, details about Joseph. For instance, after Joseph asked Pilate for the body of the Christ, and prepared the body with Nicodemus' help, Christ's body was delivered to a new tomb that Joseph had built for himself. In the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Jewish elders express anger at Joseph for burying the body of Christ, saying:




And likewise Joseph also stepped out and said to them: Why are you angry against me because I begged the body of Jesus? Behold, I have put him in my new tomb, wrapping in clean linen; and I have rolled a stone to the door of the tomb. And you have acted not well against the just man, because you have not repented of crucifying him, but also have pierced him with a spear.

—Gospel of Nicodemus. Translated by Alexander Walker.

The Jewish elders then captured Joseph, and imprisoned him, and placed a seal on the door to his cell after first posting a guard. Joseph warned the elders:



The Son of God whom you hanged upon the cross, is able to deliver me out of your hands. All your wickedness will return upon you.

Once the elders returned to the cell, the seal was still in place, but Joseph was gone. The elders later discover that Joseph had returned to Arimathea. Having a change in heart, the elders desired to have a more civil conversation with Joseph about his actions and sent a letter of apology to him by means of seven of his friends. Joseph travelled back from Arimathea to Jerusalem to meet with the elders, where they questioned him about his escape. He told them this story;





On the day of the Preparation, about the tenth hour, you shut me in, and I remained there the whole Sabbath in full. And when midnight came, as I was standing and praying, the house where you shut me in was hung up by the four corners, and there was a flashing of light in mine eyes. And I fell to the ground trembling. Then some one lifted me up from the place where I had fallen, and poured over me an abundance of water from the head even to the feet, and put round my nostrils the odour of a wonderful ointment, and rubbed my face with the water itself, as if washing me, and kissed me, and said to me, Joseph, fear not; but open thine eyes, and see who it is that speaks to thee. And looking, I saw Jesus; and being terrified, I thought it was a phantom. And with prayer and the commandments I spoke to him, and he spoke with me. And I said to him: Art thou Rabbi Elias? And he said to me: I am not Elias. And I said: Who art thou, my Lord? And he said to me: I am Jesus, whose body thou didst beg from Pilate, and wrap in clean linen; and thou didst lay a napkin on my face, and didst lay me in thy new tomb, and roll a stone to the door of the tomb. Then I said to him that was speaking to me: Show me, Lord, where I laid thee. And he led me, and showed me the place where I laid him, and the linen which I had put on him, and the napkin which I had wrapped upon his face; and I knew that it was Jesus. And he took hold of me with his hand, and put me in the midst of my house though the gates were shut, and put me in my bed, and said to me: Peace to thee! And he kissed me, and said to me: For forty days go not out of thy house; for, lo, I go to my brethren into Galilee.

—Gospel of Nicodemus. Translated by Alexander Walker

According to the Gospel of Nicodemus, Joseph testified to the Jewish elders, and specifically to chief priests Caiaphas and Annas that Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven and he indicated that others were raised from the dead at the resurrection of Christ (repeating Matt 27:52–53). He specifically identified the two sons of the high-priest Simeon (again in Luke 2:25–35). The elders Annas, Caiaphas, Nicodemus, and Joseph himself, along with Gamaliel under whom Paul of Tarsus studied, travelled to Arimathea to interview Simeon's sons Charinus and Lenthius.

Other medieval textsMedieval interest in Joseph centered on two themes, that of Joseph as the founder of British Christianity (even before it had taken hold in Rome), and that of Joseph as the original guardian of the Holy Grail.




[edit] BritainSee also: Early centers of Christianity#Roman Britain

Legends about the arrival of Christianity in Britain abounded during the Middle Ages. Early writers do not connect Joseph to this activity, however. Tertullian (AD 155–222) wrote in Adversus Judaeos that Britain had already received and accepted the Gospel in his lifetime, writing of:[7]



… all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons–inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ.

Tertullian does not say how the Gospel came to Britain before AD 222. However, Eusebius of Caesarea, (AD 260–340), one of the earliest and most comprehensive of church historians, wrote of Christ's disciples in Demonstratio Evangelica, saying that "some have crossed the Ocean and reached the Isles of Britain."[8] Saint Hilary of Poitiers (AD 300–376) also wrote that the Apostles had built churches and that the Gospel had passed into Britain.[9]



Hippolytus (AD 170–236), considered to have been one of the most learned Christian historians, puts names to the seventy disciples whom Jesus sent forth in Luke 10, includes Aristobulus of Romans 16:10 with Joseph, and states that he ended up becoming a pastor in Britain.[10]



In none of these earliest references to Christianity’s arrival in Britain is Joseph of Arimathea mentioned. The first literary connection of Joseph of Arimathea with Britain had to wait for the ninth-century Life of Mary Magdalene attributed to Rabanus Maurus (AD 766–856), Archbishop of Mainz; however, the earliest authentic copy of the Maurus text is one housed in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.[11] Rabanus states that Joseph of Arimathea was sent to Britain, and he goes on to detail who travelled with him as far as France, claiming that he was accompanied by "the two Bethany sisters, Mary and Martha, Lazarus (who was raised from the dead), St. Eutropius, St. Salome, St. Cleon, St. Saturnius, St. Mary Magdalen, Marcella (the maid of the Bethany sisters), St. Maxium or Maximin, St. Martial, and St. Trophimus or Restitutus."[12] Rabanus Maurus describes their voyage to Britain:



Leaving the shores of Asia and favoured by an east wind, they went round about, down the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Europe and Africa, leaving the city of Rome and all the land to the right. Then happily turning their course to the right, they came near to the city of Marseilles, in the Viennoise province of the Gauls, where the river Rhône is received by the sea. There, having called upon God, the great King of all the world, they parted; each company going to the province where the Holy Spirit directed them; presently preaching everywhere…

The route he describes follows that of a supposed Phoenician trade route to Britain, as described by Diodorus Siculus.



William of Malmesbury mentions Joseph's going to Britain in one passage of his Chronicle of the English Kings, written in the 1120s. He says Philip the Apostle sent twelve Christians to Britain, one of whom was his dearest friend, Joseph of Arimathea. William does not mention Joseph by name again, but he mentions the twelve evangelists generally. He claims that Glastonbury Abbey was founded by them; Glastonbury would be associated specifically with Joseph in later literature. Cardinal Caesar Baronius,[13] the Vatican Librarian and historian (d. 1609), recorded this voyage by Joseph of Arimathea, Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, Martha, Marcella and others in his Annales Ecclesiatici, volume 1, section 35.



The accretion of legends around Joseph of Arimathea in Britain, encapsulated by the poem hymn of William Blake And did those feet in ancient time held as "an almost secret yet passionately held article of faith among certain otherwise quite orthodox Christians", was critically examined by A. W. Smith in 1989.[14] In its most developed version, Joseph, a tin merchant, visited Cornwall, accompanied by his nephew, the boy Jesus. C.C. Dobson made a case for the authenticity of the Glastonbury legenda.[15]

^ Smith,AW "'And Did Those Feet...?': The 'Legend' of Christ's Visit to Britain" Folklore 100.1 (1989), pp. 63–83.
^
Dobson,CC                                                                                                      
 Did Our Lord Visit Britain as they say in Cornwall and Somerset? (Glastonbury: Avalon Press) 1936.

Joseph of Arimathea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_of_Arimathea

Joseph of Arimathea


Last updated 6 days agoFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search Saint Joseph of Arimathea



Joseph of Arimathea by Pietro Perugino, a detail from his Lamentation over the Dead Christ

Honored in Eastern Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Lutheranism

Feast March 17 in the West, July 31 in the East, August 1 in the Episcopal Church (US)

Patronage funeral directors[1]



Joseph of Arimathea was, according to the Gospels, the man who donated his own prepared tomb for the burial of Jesus after Jesus' Crucifixion. He is mentioned in all four Gospels.



Contents [hide]

1 Gospel references

2 Veneration

3 Old Testament prophecy

4 Development of legends

4.1 Gospel of Nicodemus

5 Other medieval texts

5.1 Britain

5.2 Holy Grail

5.3 Other legends

6 Arimathea

7 See also

8 References

9 External links





[edit] Gospel referencesA native of Arimathea, in Judea, Joseph was apparently a man of wealth—and probably a member of the Sanhedrin, which is the way bouleutēs, literally "counsellor", Luke 23:50 is most often interpreted. According to Mark 15:43, Joseph was an "honourable counsellor, who waited (or "was searching") for the kingdom of God". In Matthew 27:57 he is not described as a counsellor, but as a rich man and a disciple of Jesus. In John 19:38 he was secretly a disciple of Jesus: as soon as he heard the news of Jesus' death, he "went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus." R.J. Miller[2] notes this act as "unexpected… Is Joseph in effect bringing Jesus into his family?"



Pilate, reassured by a centurion that the death had taken place, allowed Joseph's request. Joseph immediately purchased fine linen (Mark 15:46) and proceeded to Golgotha to take the body of Jesus down from the cross. There, assisted by Nicodemus, Joseph took the body and wrapped it in the fine linen and applied myrrh and aloes (these are substances which Nicodemus had brought, according to John 19:39). Jesus' body then was conveyed to the place that had been prepared for Joseph's own body, a man-made cave hewn from rock in the garden of his house nearby. This was done speedily, "for the Sabbath was drawing on".



According to Roman law, a close family member could come and take away the body of an executed person. But there was no entitlement for a non-relative. There was a risk that a request from a non-relative would be denied and the body dumped, denying it proper burial. Tradition and sentiment also demanded that the body be interred with those of other family members, and not in the tomb of a stranger.[citation needed]



[edit] VenerationJoseph of Arimathea is venerated as a saint by the Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox and some Anglican churches. His feast-day is March 17 in the West, July 31 in the East and in Lutheran churches.[3] The Orthodox also commemorate him on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers—the third Sunday of Pascha (second Sunday after Easter)—as well as on July 31. He appears in some early New Testament apocrypha, and a series of legends grew around him during the Middle Ages, which tied him to Britain and the Holy Grail.



[edit] Old Testament prophecy

Tomb of Jesus in the Church of the Holy SepulchreMajor events in Jesus' life from the Gospels

Nativity of Jesus

Baptism

Temptation

Ministry

Commissioning apostles

Sermon on the Mount

Rejection

Transfiguration

Palm Sunday

Cursing the fig tree

Temple cleansing

Second coming prophecy

Anointing

Last supper

Promising a Paraclete

The passion:

Arrest

Sanhedrin trial

Pilate's court

Flagellation

Crown of thorns

Crucifixion

Entombment

Resurrection

Empty tomb

Resurrection appearances

Great Commission

Ascension



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



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Christians interpret Joseph's role as fulfilling Isaiah's prediction that the grave of the "Suffering Servant" would be with a rich man (Isaiah 53:9), assuming that Isaiah meant Messiah. The skeptical tradition, which reads the various fulfillment of prophecies in the life of Jesus as inventions designed for that purpose, reads Joseph of Arimathea as a story created to fulfill this prophecy in Isaiah, although the gospel accounts do not claim a prophesied fulfillment at that point. The prophecy in Isaiah chapter 53, is known as the "Man of Sorrows" passage:



He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.



The Greek Septuagint text:



And I will give the wicked for his burial, and the rich for his death; for he practised no iniquity, nor craft with his mouth.



In the Qumran community's Great Isaiah Scroll, dated at c. 100 BC, the words are not identical to the Masoretic text:



And they gave wicked ones his grave and [a scribbled word, probably accusative sign "eth"] rich ones in his death although he worked no violence neither deceit in his mouth.



[edit] Development of legendsSince the 2nd century, a mass of legendary detail has accumulated around the figure of Joseph of Arimathea in addition to the New Testament references. Joseph is referenced in apocryphal and non-canonical accounts such as the Acts of Pilate,[4] a text often appended to the medieval Gospel of Nicodemus and The Narrative of Joseph, and mentioned in the works of early church historians such as Irenaeus (125–189), Hippolytus (170–236), Tertullian (155–222) and Eusebius (260–340), who added details not found in the canonical accounts. Hilary of Poitiers (300–367) enriched the legend, and Saint John Chrysostom (347–407), the Patriarch of Constantinople, was the first to write[5] that Joseph was one of the Seventy Apostles appointed in Luke 10.



During the late 12th century, Joseph became connected with the Arthurian cycle, appearing in them as the first keeper of the Holy Grail. This idea first appears in Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie, in which Joseph receives the Grail from an apparition of Jesus and sends it with his followers to Britain. This theme is elaborated upon in Boron's sequels and in subsequent Arthurian works penned by others. Later retellings of the story contend that Joseph of Arimathea himself travelled to Britain and became the first Christian bishop in the Isles.[6]



[edit] Gospel of NicodemusThe Gospel of Nicodemus, a text appended to the Acts of Pilate, provides additional, though even more mythologized, details about Joseph. For instance, after Joseph asked Pilate for the body of the Christ, and prepared the body with Nicodemus' help, Christ's body was delivered to a new tomb that Joseph had built for himself. In the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Jewish elders express anger at Joseph for burying the body of Christ, saying:



And likewise Joseph also stepped out and said to them: Why are you angry against me because I begged the body of Jesus? Behold, I have put him in my new tomb, wrapping in clean linen; and I have rolled a stone to the door of the tomb. And you have acted not well against the just man, because you have not repented of crucifying him, but also have pierced him with a spear.

—Gospel of Nicodemus. Translated by Alexander Walker.

The Jewish elders then captured Joseph, and imprisoned him, and placed a seal on the door to his cell after first posting a guard. Joseph warned the elders:



The Son of God whom you hanged upon the cross, is able to deliver me out of your hands. All your wickedness will return upon you.

Once the elders returned to the cell, the seal was still in place, but Joseph was gone. The elders later discover that Joseph had returned to Arimathea. Having a change in heart, the elders desired to have a more civil conversation with Joseph about his actions and sent a letter of apology to him by means of seven of his friends. Joseph travelled back from Arimathea to Jerusalem to meet with the elders, where they questioned him about his escape. He told them this story;





On the day of the Preparation, about the tenth hour, you shut me in, and I remained there the whole Sabbath in full. And when midnight came, as I was standing and praying, the house where you shut me in was hung up by the four corners, and there was a flashing of light in mine eyes. And I fell to the ground trembling. Then some one lifted me up from the place where I had fallen, and poured over me an abundance of water from the head even to the feet, and put round my nostrils the odour of a wonderful ointment, and rubbed my face with the water itself, as if washing me, and kissed me, and said to me, Joseph, fear not; but open thine eyes, and see who it is that speaks to thee. And looking, I saw Jesus; and being terrified, I thought it was a phantom. And with prayer and the commandments I spoke to him, and he spoke with me. And I said to him: Art thou Rabbi Elias? And he said to me: I am not Elias. And I said: Who art thou, my Lord? And he said to me: I am Jesus, whose body thou didst beg from Pilate, and wrap in clean linen; and thou didst lay a napkin on my face, and didst lay me in thy new tomb, and roll a stone to the door of the tomb. Then I said to him that was speaking to me: Show me, Lord, where I laid thee. And he led me, and showed me the place where I laid him, and the linen which I had put on him, and the napkin which I had wrapped upon his face; and I knew that it was Jesus. And he took hold of me with his hand, and put me in the midst of my house though the gates were shut, and put me in my bed, and said to me: Peace to thee! And he kissed me, and said to me: For forty days go not out of thy house; for, lo, I go to my brethren into Galilee.

—Gospel of Nicodemus. Translated by Alexander Walker

According to the Gospel of Nicodemus, Joseph testified to the Jewish elders, and specifically to chief priests Caiaphas and Annas that Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven and he indicated that others were raised from the dead at the resurrection of Christ (repeating Matt 27:52–53). He specifically identified the two sons of the high-priest Simeon (again in Luke 2:25–35). The elders Annas, Caiaphas, Nicodemus, and Joseph himself, along with Gamaliel under whom Paul of Tarsus studied, travelled to Arimathea to interview Simeon's sons Charinus and Lenthius.



[edit] Other medieval textsMedieval interest in Joseph centered on two themes, that of Joseph as the founder of British Christianity (even before it had taken hold in Rome), and that of Joseph as the original guardian of the Holy Grail.



[edit] BritainSee also: Early centers of Christianity#Roman Britain

Legends about the arrival of Christianity in Britain abounded during the Middle Ages. Early writers do not connect Joseph to this activity, however. Tertullian (AD 155–222) wrote in Adversus Judaeos that Britain had already received and accepted the Gospel in his lifetime, writing of:[7]



… all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons–inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ.

Tertullian does not say how the Gospel came to Britain before AD 222. However, Eusebius of Caesarea, (AD 260–340), one of the earliest and most comprehensive of church historians, wrote of Christ's disciples in Demonstratio Evangelica, saying that "some have crossed the Ocean and reached the Isles of Britain."[8] Saint Hilary of Poitiers (AD 300–376) also wrote that the Apostles had built churches and that the Gospel had passed into Britain.[9]



Hippolytus (AD 170–236), considered to have been one of the most learned Christian historians, puts names to the seventy disciples whom Jesus sent forth in Luke 10, includes Aristobulus of Romans 16:10 with Joseph, and states that he ended up becoming a pastor in Britain.[10]



In none of these earliest references to Christianity’s arrival in Britain is Joseph of Arimathea mentioned. The first literary connection of Joseph of Arimathea with Britain had to wait for the ninth-century Life of Mary Magdalene attributed to Rabanus Maurus (AD 766–856), Archbishop of Mainz; however, the earliest authentic copy of the Maurus text is one housed in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.[11] Rabanus states that Joseph of Arimathea was sent to Britain, and he goes on to detail who travelled with him as far as France, claiming that he was accompanied by "the two Bethany sisters, Mary and Martha, Lazarus (who was raised from the dead), St. Eutropius, St. Salome, St. Cleon, St. Saturnius, St. Mary Magdalen, Marcella (the maid of the Bethany sisters), St. Maxium or Maximin, St. Martial, and St. Trophimus or Restitutus."[12] Rabanus Maurus describes their voyage to Britain:



Leaving the shores of Asia and favoured by an east wind, they went round about, down the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Europe and Africa, leaving the city of Rome and all the land to the right. Then happily turning their course to the right, they came near to the city of Marseilles, in the Viennoise province of the Gauls, where the river Rhône is received by the sea. There, having called upon God, the great King of all the world, they parted; each company going to the province where the Holy Spirit directed them; presently preaching everywhere…

The route he describes follows that of a supposed Phoenician trade route to Britain, as described by Diodorus Siculus.



William of Malmesbury mentions Joseph's going to Britain in one passage of his Chronicle of the English Kings, written in the 1120s. He says Philip the Apostle sent twelve Christians to Britain, one of whom was his dearest friend, Joseph of Arimathea. William does not mention Joseph by name again, but he mentions the twelve evangelists generally. He claims that Glastonbury Abbey was founded by them; Glastonbury would be associated specifically with Joseph in later literature. Cardinal Caesar Baronius,[13] the Vatican Librarian and historian (d. 1609), recorded this voyage by Joseph of Arimathea, Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, Martha, Marcella and others in his Annales Ecclesiatici, volume 1, section 35.



The accretion of legends around Joseph of Arimathea in Britain, encapsulated by the poem hymn of William Blake And did those feet in ancient time held as "an almost secret yet passionately held article of faith among certain otherwise quite orthodox Christians", was critically examined by A. W. Smith in 1989.[14] In its most developed version, Joseph, a tin merchant, visited Cornwall, accompanied by his nephew, the boy Jesus. C.C. Dobson made a case for the authenticity of the Glastonbury legenda.[15]



[edit] Holy GrailThe legend that Joseph was given the responsibility of keeping the Holy Grail was the product of Robert de Boron, who essentially expanded upon stories from Acts of Pilate. In Boron's Joseph d'Arimathe, Joseph is imprisoned much as in the Acts, but it is the Grail that sustains him during his captivity. Upon his release he founds his company of followers, who take the Grail to Britain. The origin of the association between Joseph and Britain is not entirely clear, but it is probably through this association that Boron attached him to the Grail. In the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, a vast Arthurian composition that took much from Boron, it is not Joseph but his son Josephus who is considered the primary holy man of Britain.



Later authors sometimes mistakenly or deliberately treated the Grail story as truth—John of Glastonbury, who assembled a chronicle of the history of Glastonbury Abbey around 1350, claims that when Joseph came to Britain, he brought with him a wooden cup used in the Last Supper and two cruets, one holding the blood of Christ, and the other his sweat, washed from his wounded body on the Cross. This legend is the source of the Grail claim by the Nanteos Cup on display in the museum in Aberystwyth; however, it should be noted that there is no reference to this tradition in ancient or medieval text. John further claims King Arthur was descended from Joseph, listing the following imaginative pedigree through King Arthur's mother:



Helaius, Nepos Joseph, Genuit Josus, Josue Genuit Aminadab, Aminadab Genuit Filium, qui Genuit Ygernam, de qua Rex Pen-Dragon, Genuit Nobilem et Famosum Regum Arthurum, per Quod Patet, Quod Rex Arthurus de Stirpe Joseph descendit.

Elizabeth I cited Joseph's missionary work in England when she told Roman Catholic bishops that the Church of England pre-dated the Roman Church in England.[16]



[edit] Other legendsWhen Joseph set his walking staff on the ground to sleep, it miraculously took root, leafed out, and blossomed as the "Glastonbury Thorn". The retelling of such miracles did encourage the pilgrimage trade at Glastonbury until the Abbey was dissolved in 1539, during the English Reformation.



The mytheme of the staff that Joseph of Arimathea set in the ground at Glastonbury, which broke into leaf and flower as the Glastonbury Thorn is a common miracle in hagiography. Such a miracle is told of the Anglo-Saxon saint Etheldreda:



Continuing her flight to Ely, Etheldreda halted for some days at Alfham, near Wintringham, where she founded a church; and near this place occurred the "miracle of her staff." Wearied with her journey, she one day slept by the wayside, having fixed her staff in the ground at her head. On waking she found the dry staff had burst into leaf; it became an ash tree, the "greatest tree in all that country;" and the place of her rest, where a church was afterwards built, became known as "Etheldredestow."

—Richard John King, 1862, in: Handbook of the Cathedrals of England; Eastern division: Oxford, Peterborough, Norwich, Ely, Lincoln.[17]

Medieval interest in genealogy raised claims that Joseph was a relative of Jesus; specifically, Mary's uncle, or according to some genealogies, Joseph's uncle. A genealogy for the family of Joseph of Arimathea and the history of his further adventures in the east provide material for Holy Grail romances Estoire del Saint Graal, Perlesvaus, and the Queste del Saint Graal.[18] Modern speculation initiated by Sabine Baring-Gould, A Book of Cornwall (1899) makes of him a tin merchant, whose connection with Britain came by the abundant tin mines of Cornwall.[19] One version, popular during the Romantic period, even claims Joseph had taken Jesus to Britain as a boy.[20] This was the inspiration for William Blake's mystical hymn Jerusalem.



Another legend, as recorded in Flores Historiarum is that Joseph is in fact the Wandering Jew, a man cursed by Jesus to walk the Earth until the Second Coming.[21]



[edit] ArimatheaMain article: Arimathea

Arimathea itself is not otherwise documented, though it was "a city of Judea" according to Luke 23:51. Arimathea is usually identified with either Ramleh or Ramathaim-Zophim, where David came to Samuel (1 Samuel chapter 19).



[edit] See alsoChristian mythology

Myrrhbearers

Seven Sorrows of Mary

[edit] References1.^ Thomas Craughwell (2005). "A Patron Saint for Funeral Directors". Catholicherald.com. http://www.catholicherald.com/stories/A-Patron-Saint-for-Funeral-Directors,1951. Retrieved September 14, 2011.

2.^ R.J. Miller, Complete Gospels: annotated scholars version, 1994, p. 51

3.^ Kinnaman, Scott A. (2010). Lutheranism 101. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. pp. 278. ISBN 978-0-7586-2505-2.

4.^ The Catholic Encyclopedia asserts that "the additional details which are found concerning him in the apocryphal Acta Pilati ("Acts of Pilate"), are unworthy of credence."

5.^ John Chrysostom, Homilies of St. John Chrysostum on the Gospel of John.

6.^ "Likewise fabulous is the legend", continues the Catholic Encyclopedia, "which tells of his coming to Gaul A.D. 63, and thence to Great Britain, where he is supposed to have founded the earliest Christian oratory at Glastonbury. Finally, the story of the translation of the body of Joseph of Arimathea from Jerusalem to Moyenmonstre (Diocese of Toul) originated late and is unreliable."

7.^ Tertullian.org

8.^ Eusebius, Demonstratio Evangelica, Book 3

9.^ Hilary, Tract XIV, Psalm 8

10.^ Wace, "Hippolytus"

11.^ Bodleian Library. "Manuscripts". http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/mss/laud.htm. "MS. Laud 108 of the Bodleian". University of Pennsylvania Medieval archive. http://cfp.english.upenn.edu/archive/Medieval/0183.html.

12.^ Schaff-Herzog. "Rhabanus Maurus". http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc09.rabanus_hrabanus_rhabanus_maurus.html.

13.^ Venerable Cesare Baronius

14.^ Smith, "'And Did Those Feet...?': The 'Legend' of Christ's Visit to Britain" Folklore 100.1 (1989), pp. 63–83.

15.^ Dobson, Did Our Lord Visit Britain as they say in Cornwall and Somerset? (Glastonbury: Avalon Press) 1936.

16.^ Elizabeth's 1559 reply to the Catholic bishops

17.^ King, Richard John (1862) Handbook of the Cathedrals of England; Eastern division: Oxford, Peterborough, Norwich, Ely, Lincoln. London: John Murray (On-line text)

18.^ C. Scott Littleton, Linda A. Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot: a radical reassessment of the legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table and the Holy Grail (1994) 2000:310.

19.^ "This story is a relatively recent invention and originates with English hagiographer, antiquarian and author, the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, who introduced the idea in 1899 in his Book of Cornwall" (Brian Haughton, Haunted Spaces, Sacred Places: A Field Guide to Stone Circles, Crop Circles, Ancient tombs and supernatural Landscapes 2009:88); no earlier connection of Joseph and tin mining has been identified.

20.^ "Joseph of Arimathea" Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 5, 2007.

21.^ Percy, Thomas (2001) [1847]. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. 2. Adamant Media Corporation. p. 246. ISBN 1-4021-7380-6.
 
 
External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joseph of Arimathea




A Biography of Joseph of Arimathea

Qumran text of Isaiah 53

The Legend of Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury

Talking with the Angels Pt II Kindle book

http://www.amazon.com/Talking-with-Angels-ebook/dp/B006MHM73S/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1339775427&sr=1-1#reader_B006MHM73S
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Budaliget 1943: A small village on the edge of Budapest. Three young women and a man, artists and close friends are gathered together in the uneasy days before Hitler’s armies would destroy the world as they knew it. Seeking spiritual knowledge, and anticipating the horrors of Nazi-occupied Hungary, they met regularly to discuss how to find their own inner paths to enlightenment.


One June afternoon, the meeting is disrupted when Hanna calls out, "Be careful, it is no longer I who speak!" Her friends do not recognize her voice now or later, when she speaks in other voices, each directing a specific message to one of the four.

For 17 months, with the world locked in a deadly struggle for survival, the four friends meet every week with the spiritual beings they come to call their "angels"; Gitta Mallasz takes notes, the protocols which form this book, along with her commentary. The angels’ message of personal responsibility is as meaningful and as urgent today as it was for its initial recipients half a century ago.



I am deeply touched by the dialogues with the angels. - Yehudi Menuhin



I could read it over and over again and never get tired of it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing this book with me. - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross



I feel as though the message of the angels were especially intended for me.

It places me in touch with Truth and enables me to hear the call more clearly.

The angels teach me how to view the world through the inner smile. - Narciso Yepes

_______________________________________________________________
9. DIALOGUE WITH LILI


L. May I ask?

Affirmative gesture.

L. I don’t understand the lesson I received last week in Budapest.

Lili had tried to sense in which of her students the new seed might sprout.

— DO NOT JUDGE!

Ö is the driving force.

If a seed is there, it will sprout.

Do not try to find where it is …

Your judgment is not necessary.

L. Thank you! And thank you for last night’s dream.

— Being awake is more important

than dreaming dreams.

L. I would like so much to be awake …

— YOU ARE DREAMED.

L. What does that mean?

— DREAMS ARE IMAGES – YOU, TOO, ARE AN IMAGE.

BUT SOON THE DIVINE WILL AWAKEN IN YOU.

L. How can I help the members of my family?

— You have a big family. Ö helps through you.

Have faith!

L. Why do I have pains in my back and neck every morning?

An undesired, youngest child, Lili has been oppressed by her family since birth. Now the angel makes her aware of her ‘real’ family: all of humanity.

— You were obliged to bow before the unworthy.

If you bow before Ö – Who alone is worthy –

you will be made straight again.

L. Does every physical illness have a psychological cause?

— A tree bears fruit. A good tree bears good fruit.

Matter is neither good nor bad,

for it is essentially inert.

THE PAIN IN YOUR BACK

DOES NOT HAVE ITS ORIGIN IN YOUR BACK.



Now it is my turn to ask a question:

What have you been happy about lately?

L. My dream, my good day in the city and, most of all:

you.

— ONLY IN JOY AM I PRESENT.

May you be blessed by Heaven!

________________________________________________________________
Friday, August 27, 1943


10. DIALOGUE WITH GITTA

At last, a week of joyful anticipation!

— Let us give thanks!

With a radiant smile:

— Today it is good to be here.

Hanna later tells me that, during the first dialogues, she had often felt how difficult it was for my teacher to descend and be in our dense atmosphere. Now my joy makes it much easier. Pointing to the glass of water:

— Water brings me closer to you.

What water does for me … fire does for you.

I understand that the more I burn in joy, the nearer I come to my angel … but the angel’s fire must correspondingly be diminished with water, that I might support it.

— How can I help you?

G. When I touch someone I love, I often feel a force streaming through my hands, but not through my eyes. Why is that so?

— I will explain it to you:

You strive from below to above.

The hands form a cone:

This is how you are formed:

strong below …

ever more slender toward the top.

Matter is inert.

It is your task to raise it up.

Indicating the eyes:

— Matter and spirit meet here.

Matter needs to be raised to this level,

for here it ignites and radiates out through the eyes.

Indicating the throat:

— But here you block the rising force with emotions,

it becomes water and flows back.

From the throat to the eyes,

matter becomes ever more subtle, but still it is matter.

Keep the way pure!

(Silence)

G. I am not yet able to act at the proper moment …

— What needs to be done has a voice,

and you have ears to hear it. Close your eyes!

I obey, and feel a force streaming into my ears.

— From now on, you will hear better. Ask!

G. I suffer from not being able to love enough …

— Do you know why?

G. It might be because I was unable to paint …

— You were unable to paint

because you were unable to love.

EVERY TRUE ACT SPRINGS FROM LOVE.

Take heed! ‘The nameless one’ led you astray.

I am immediately aware of what this refers to: yesterday, two young students had made the long way from Budapest to Budaliget and unexpectedly appeared at our doorstep. I had been on the verge of leaving – to ‘sing for my angel in the forest’ – in preparation for the next dialogue. After hesitating briefly, I left it to Hanna to deal with the young visitors and went on my way. As might be expected, however, I was unable to sing. Everything seemed meaningless, and a feeling of utter emptiness made any contact with my angel impossible.

— ‘The nameless one’ can assume even my form in order to lead you astray.

It now becomes perfectly obvious to me that I behaved unfeelingly in this situation. I am gripped by a fear of not being able to feel the difference between my true, inner teacher and some false one.

— You can recognize ‘the nameless one’ in your heart,

for its name is ‘emptiness.’

G. I know that emptiness and meaninglessness are traps, but still I fall into them.

— In the moment that you know it, it is already too late.

You go too far: you fail to stop when you should.

I then realize that, because my attention is usually directed to the outside, I tend not to notice that ‘the nameless one’ has slipped into me until it becomes obvious in my outer behavior. Were I to direct my attention inward, however, I could then detect the danger in advance … and thus become able to defend myself.

— Ask.

G. Why do I have such a burning sensation in my eyes?

— Because you weep.

Everything that lives needs water in order to burn.

Your burning has begun … yet still you weep …

and so you have a shortage of water.

G. What is the difference between true and false feelings?

— True feeling is inwardly ‘immobile.’

But you love first this … then that …

Gesture indicating the motion of waves:

— Water moves, in waves.

TRUE FEELING IS MOTIONLESS,

LOVES EVERYTHING … AND SHINES.

Your sign is the SUN.

The sun is motionless and shines everywhere.

This is not the sun you see with your eyes;

that, too, is but an image.

Speak!

G. For a moment, I felt my task very clearly,

but then everything became blurred again.

— THIS MOMENT LASTS AN ETERNITY;

IT NEVER BEGAN, AND IT CAN NEVER END.

ONLY YOU WAVER.



Give your best effort!

I always take your image with me

and present it to the chorus.

Hanna sees a transparent image of me, which my angel superimposes upon earlier, transparent images. Thus, any changes I go through from week to week become clearly visible. The images of me are placed in the center of a large cone, formed by the chorus of angels. All eyes are now focused upon the images, with neither judgment nor criticism, but a SIGHT that is all-penetrating.

From above – from the focal point of the cone – shines the Gaze of the Divine.

— May Heaven bless you!

The next day, Hanna explains to me that my feelings themselves are, of course, vital; nevertheless, I know that I need to find a new or different attitude towards them. If rising feelings are repressed prematurely, they become stuck in the throat and are choked off. If they are allowed to rise freely, all the way to the eyes, their initial strength becomes diluted into tears. But if feelings are offered to the Divine just as they reach the level of the throat, then their force becomes transformed into Light, which rises up and shines out through the eyes.





http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Gitta+Mallasz&oq=Gitta+Mallasz&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=youtube.12...0.0.0.2110.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0.

Joanna the wife of Chuza

http://www.aletheiacollege.net/bl/19-1Joanna_Character_Study.htm

Joanna had once been married to Herod’s “steward”. She would have lived with her husband in Herod’s court in Tiberias, not far from Nazareth. She would have heard of Jesus right at the start of His ministry; Lk. 8:2 comments how the Lord healed women of ‘demons’, and the possibility is that Joanna was one of those people, and perhaps her illness was another reason why Chuza divorced her. When Herod invited his “courtiers and officers and chief men of Galilee” to the birthday party at which he beheaded John (Mk. 6:21), this would almost certainly have included Chuza. Manaen was a suntrofos of Herod- a courtier (Acts 13:1), and he later became a disciple too. And one wonders about the ‘Herodion’ of Rom. 16:11- was he another of Herod’s courtiers, also from the palace in Tiberias? We can only speculate as to whether Joanna converted these two. And then there was the “royal official” of Capernaum who was converted by the Lord’s healing (Jn. 4:46-53); he too would have been one of Herod’s courtiers. There, in the heart of the despised court at Tiberias, an ecclesia developed! This was the very group known as the “Herodians” who so persecuted the Lord (Mk. 3:6; 12:13; Mt. 22:16). It’s rather like a Christian church developing in the drug dens of New York or cities controlled by Moslem fanatics such as Mecca or Kandahar. The point is, all things are possible. The personality of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel can penetrate anything. And further, one marvels at the wide range of people welded together by allegiance to the Lord. Their differences were significant and major. Only the power of His personality and the Truth that is in Him overcame them.
______________________________________________________________



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CHAPTER 19: Joanna: A Character Study

The teaching of Jesus for today is a radical call to live and think and feel in a way that is counter-cultural; i.e., that radically contradicts the prevailing culture within which we live. The lives we are to live are, however, a continuation of the spirit of those men and women who followed Him around Palestine 2000 years ago. They, too, were counter-cultural in their following of Him; they too walked out against the wind of prevailing wisdom and the expectations of those around them.



An Inversion Of Values

When we turn to study Joanna, we find ourselves right up against an example of this. Lk. 8:3 implies that the women who followed Jesus, and Joanna is named as one of these, basically supplied the funds and material backing for His mission. Male disciples had left their homes and families to manage economically without them, whilst they followed the Lord around Palestine. They evidently were generally poor. Yet their expenses were being met by a few wealthy women. Generally, the man was seen as the economic supporter of the woman, and this situation turned all that on its head. It must have been hard for those men to accept the ministrations of Joanna for them. It was almost a sociological impossibility that wealthy women should support illiterate men in such an itinerant lifestyle. But this was just the kind of inversion of values which Jesus sought to inculcate in the new community which He forged. Further, the wealthy simply didn’t mix with the lower classes; it was unthinkable for a woman to go travelling around with a group of lower class men (1), and women such as former prostitutes. It could only have been the compelling personality of Jesus which led Joanna to do something as scandalous as she did.



Joanna is introduced as “the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza” (Lk. 8:3). Yet as a married woman the right to dispose of her goods lay not with her but with her husband; and it’s unlikely that a man of such great social rank as Chuza would have allowed his wife to use his wealth like this. Thus if Joanna was married at this time, she “braved public condemnation by leaving [her] husband to follow Jesus”(2). The call of Christ is no less radical in our day, even if the scandal of it is articulated differently. Younger women who had wealthy families were still under the authority of their families, especially their father or uncles, until such time as they married. It is hard to understand, therefore, how Joanna got the right to use wealth in the way that she did. Perhaps she simply left her husband and insisted on taking some of their wealth with her. Perhaps he was supportive; but at such an early stage in the Lord’s ministry, this seems to me unlikely. And it’s equally unlikely that Herod’s right hand man would have allowed his wife to go wandering around the country with a crowd of working men. And it would have been a most a-typical 1st century marriage if the wife was allowed to spend the husband’s money like this at her own initiative. So I discount this possibility. Even if a woman made money from her own business, the money would be under the control of her husband. So we are left with the question, from where did Joanna get her money?



Joanna’s Marriage

The more likely option comes from an awareness of the practice of ketubba. This was a sum of money promised by the husband to the wife in case of divorce; it was part of the marriage contract(3). With this money she could attract a second partner if the husband divorced her(4). And this, I submit, is what happened with Joanna. Perhaps for the cause of Christ, her husband divorced her; and instead of using her money to attract a second partner, she instead spent it on the true passion of her life- the cause of Jesus and His men. There is evidence that if her husband died, she still was not free to use the money that might come to her independently; his family and her male relatives had a major say in the matter(5). The Mishnah says that a wife cannot inherit anything from her husband, since otherwise his ‘property’ in any sense might be alienated from the man’s family (B. Bat. 8.1). So it would seem that the only way a woman had large funds at her disposal would be if she were married to a wealthy man, who divorced her and gave her the ketubbah. Hence the significance of the way Lk. 8:3 introduces her as having been the wife of a wealthy man, and yet also in a position to financially support the ministry of Jesus.



Joanna had once been married to Herod’s “steward”. She would have lived with her husband in Herod’s court in Tiberias, not far from Nazareth. She would have heard of Jesus right at the start of His ministry; Lk. 8:2 comments how the Lord healed women of ‘demons’, and the possibility is that Joanna was one of those people, and perhaps her illness was another reason why Chuza divorced her. When Herod invited his “courtiers and officers and chief men of Galilee” to the birthday party at which he beheaded John (Mk. 6:21), this would almost certainly have included Chuza. Manaen was a suntrofos of Herod- a courtier (Acts 13:1), and he later became a disciple too. And one wonders about the ‘Herodion’ of Rom. 16:11- was he another of Herod’s courtiers, also from the palace in Tiberias? We can only speculate as to whether Joanna converted these two. And then there was the “royal official” of Capernaum who was converted by the Lord’s healing (Jn. 4:46-53); he too would have been one of Herod’s courtiers. There, in the heart of the despised court at Tiberias, an ecclesia developed! This was the very group known as the “Herodians” who so persecuted the Lord (Mk. 3:6; 12:13; Mt. 22:16). It’s rather like a Christian church developing in the drug dens of New York or cities controlled by Moslem fanatics such as Mecca or Kandahar. The point is, all things are possible. The personality of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel can penetrate anything. And further, one marvels at the wide range of people welded together by allegiance to the Lord. Their differences were significant and major. Only the power of His personality and the Truth that is in Him overcame them.



The Bond Of Fellowship

Being associated with Chuza and Herod’s court would have placed Joanna in a category of people that were very unpopular to ordinary Jews- for she would have been allied to the ruling class who so cruelly taxed and impoverished the ordinary people. Herod’s “steward” was basically the chief thug who made sure that the heavy taxations were paid by the populace. The disciples were thus being supported by a woman from the class they had naturally hated. It must also be recognized that Tiberias was a new city, built by Herod on a Jewish cemetery despite their protests. It had only been built about 10 years at the time of Jesus’ ministry. Tiberias was one of the “aggressive acts of Romanization by Antipas”(6); the result was that the people of Galilee hated those who lived there, especially the courtiers. Yet one of those women courtiers was to travel with those Galilean fishermen and give up her financial security to support them! The city had been built from funds raised by years of excessive taxation of the people who lived around it. “The décor on the Herodian palace in Tiberias [which included depictions of animals despite the Torah’s prohibitions] symbolized the alien culture that had suddenly intruded upon the Galilean landscape along with the “in-your-face” city built so visibly from revenues regularly taken from the threshing floors and olive presses of Galilean villages by officers [e.g. Chuza- D.H.] who lived lavishly near the palace”(7).



Worse still, Joanna is a strong Jewish name; she had as it were betrayed her people by siding with the Gentile conquerors, and had perhaps married one of them. The band of people around Jesus were thus as diverse as could possibly be. They had every possible tension and background difference and resentment between them, just as the present ecclesia does. Men like Simon the Zealot had been fighting this very class, probably trying to assassinate Joanna’s [former?] husband. And we pause to reflect upon the composition of our ecclesias and community. Our extreme diversity matches the diversity of those whom Jesus gathered around Him when He first began to build His ecclesia. The Lord came to save all [types of] people; and hence there is this strange and compelling diversity and unity, so extraordinary, so unusual, that the Lord said that it alone had the power to convert the world.



Reversal Of Status

And so Joanna stepped out from Herod’s court, over to the ranks of the Galilean poor. For her, conversion was radical. Not only did she give up her financial security, she gave up her social standing, and walked out so totally against the wind, like Moses walking out of Pharaoh’s court to suffer affliction with God’s people. Like him, she likely had to do it alone. In this, she is our pattern. Not only for those who feel they are all too caught up in the courts of Herod, but for those who find a true unity with their brethren almost impossible. She would have eagerly memorized the Lord’s parables, and have perhaps nervously joined in the Lord’s display of solidarity with the poorest of the poor in village after village which He visited. And there is no reason to think that the 70 who were sent out in pairs were all male; Luke’s account of this in Lk. 10 has been prefaced by the explanation in Lk. 8:2,3 that the Lord had many female disciples too. In any case, Joanna would have spoken to the women they met at wells, retold the parables of the Lord to groups of women in the villages in which they stayed. And she would have known the pain of rejection, the hurt of being rejected for who you once were rather than being accepted for who you now are.



We read that Joanna “provided for them out of [her] own resources” (Lk. 8:3). ‘Provided’ translates the Greek diakoneo. It has been commented that the word “refers almost exclusively to the menial labour of women and slaves, performed for the people of higher rank on whom they were economically dependent”(8). And now you see the wonder of it all. The others were economically dependent upon Joanna; but she served them as if she was the one dependent upon them. She would’ve been used to Galileans serving her; but now she served them. She perhaps more than most had heard and learnt and obeyed in hard, concrete reality the Lord’s teaching: “The kings of the Gentiles have lordship over them; and they that have authority over them are called Benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For which is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? But I am in the midst of you as he that serveth” (Lk. 22:25-27). The radicality of the Lord’s teaching about the utter reversal of status for those in Him had been mastered and practiced by this extraordinary woman. When Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, He made the very actions which were understood as the duty of women and slaves to be emblematic of the leaders in His community. It was through this utter reversal of status that the Lord removed the distinctions between slaves and free, male and female, rich and poor within His community. And if we are truly His people, we will seriously and practically aspire to this spirit. Joanna crossed the huge gulf between aristocratic lady and humble serving woman, inspired surely by the example of the Lord with whom she walked. Her example leaves us a piercing challenge to follow.



Joanna In Later Life

But Joanna’s story doesn’t end here. Her name occurs again in the form of ‘Junia’ in Rom. 16:7: “Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives [i.e. fellow Jews] and fellow prisoners, who are prominent among the apostles and were in Christ before me”. The AV’s “Junias” seems to be rooted in a desire not to have a woman seen as an apostle. Junia was a common Roman woman’s name, the equivalent of the Hebrew ‘Joanna’. The Latin pronunciation of ‘Junia’ and the Hebrew ‘Yohannah’ would have been very close indeed. It would seem, therefore, that Joanna moved to Rome, changed her name to a Latin form, and married Andronicus, a Jewish apostle, who like her was an early convert- “in Christ” before Paul’s conversion(9). Given her background in the Roman court at Tiberias, Joanna would have been an ideal missionary to Rome; and thus she went, and was imprisoned. It could well be that ‘Junia’ was the Latin name by which she would have been known even in Tiberias. Note how there were other missionaries who changed their Hebrew names into the Latin forms when they went on mission work into the Roman world: Silas became Silvanus, Saul became Paulus, Joseph Barsabbas became Justus (Acts 1:23); and hence we read of “John, whose other [Latin] name was Mark” (Acts 12:12,25).



The Prominence Of Joanna

The Greek translated “prominent” means ‘marked out, distinguished, outstanding, prominent’. She was all of those words; there really was something exceptional about this sister. And we need not be phased by her being called an “apostle”, for Paul uses the word in a nontechnical sense to refer simply to a messenger of the ecclesias (2 Cor. 8:23; Phil. 2:25). The prominence of Joanna is perhaps reflected in the chiastic structure of Lk. 24:9,10. Notice how the first three lines each have a parallel in the last three lines- e.g. a) = a1). But the centerpiece is Joanna. Why, unless she was worthy of special mention? Work it out for yourself:



“a) They told all these things to the eleven [‘the apostles’],



b) and to all the rest [‘others’].



c) Now they were Mary Magdalene,



d) and Joanna,



c1) and Mary the mother of James:



b1) and the other women with them



a1) told these things unto the apostles”.



Note that the great commission to preach is given to “the eleven and those with him” (Lk. 24:33) (10), i.e. the women, including Joanna. Acts 1:13,14 speaks of “the eleven and the women”- the same two groups. She would have known that she as a woman had no credibility as a witness in her society; and yet she was bidden go witness. And she did, it seems, as far as Rome- to the ends of her world. This surely is an inspiring challenge to all who feel hopelessly unqualified to witness; it is our very lack of qualification which seems to make the Lord chose us. To have accompanied the eleven throughout the Lord’s ministry was a qualification to be His authoritative witness (Acts 1:21,22); and Joanna fulfilled that requirement, having been with the Lord from the beginning (Lk. 8:3) right up to the crucifixion (Lk. 24:9,10). Note how Paul argues that he is an apostle because he has seen Jesus the Lord; yet his words clearly allude to the way Mary simply said: “I have seen the Lord” (1 Cor. 9:1; Jn. 20:18). It is worth putting together two passages, both from Luke: “The women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after…” (Lk. 23:55); and Acts 13:30,31: “God raised him from the dead and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses”. Surely Paul and Luke have in mind here the ministering women. They had followed from Galilee to Jerusalem, the risen Lord had appeared to a woman first of all, and now those women were witnessing to the people. Perhaps 1 Cor. 15:3-7 is relevant here, where we read that the Lord appeared after His resurrection to the twelve, and yet on another occasion to “all the apostles”- perhaps referring to the group that included the women.



One evident reason for Joanna’s prominence was that when the male disciples fled, it was Joanna and Mary who stood by the Lord during His crucifixion, knowing full well that they faced death by crucifixion for showing such solidarity with the victim. The importance of Joanna and the other women as witnesses lies in the fact that it was they who had seen Jesus buried, and therefore could vouch for the fact that the empty tomb was in fact the very tomb in which Jesus had been buried. This piece of evidence becomes more crucial the more one reflects upon it. An empty tomb was no proof that Jesus of Nazareth had risen- unless there were witnesses there present at that empty tomb who could testify also that it was in that very tomb that Jesus had been laid. And only women, not men, were witnesses of this. The Greek world placed great emphasis upon sight- “Eyes are surer witnesses than ears”, Heraclitus said. They related to the past visually; for a group of people to be eyewitnesses was considered conclusive. Hence the enormous significance of the way in which the Gospels repeatedly make the women the subjects of verbs of seeing (Mt. 27:55; Mk. 15:40; Lk. 23:49,55). They were the eyewitnesses.



Compelling Witnesses

The choice of women as the witnesses was made of course by God Almighty. Yet at that time, women were considered to be gullible in religious matters and especially prone to superstitious fantasy in religious matters. Celsus, a pagan despiser of Christianity, commented in mockery: “After death he rose again…But who saw this? A hysterical female…deluded by the same sorcery”(11). Yet it was females who were chosen by God as the primary witnesses; for He wanted to confirm His Son’s desire to turn human society upside down through the body of His Son. The servant was to become the leader; the marginalized at the centre of things from God’s perspective. And so it is today. A toothless old sister who doesn’t know English converts hundreds in Kazakhstan; the divorced and remarried ‘loser’ is seen as great in God’s eyes; the obscure old brother in isolation touches the mind of Christ as few have ever done. And of course, some men didn’t believe the women. The disciples didn’t; Peter has to go to the tomb to see for himself, after dismissing the women’s testimony as madness. In doing so, he was running parallel with Manoah, who according to a widely known Jewish midrash on the Judges record, wouldn’t believe his wife’s relaying of the message from the Angel because it was from a woman. The parallel is so exact! Surely Peter later reflected upon it.



The travelers on the road to Emmaus reported to the Lord what the women had told them about the empty tomb. They basically told Him that the women were right about the empty tomb, but were wrong in thinking Jesus had risen- because the men hadn’t seen Him. And what is the Lord’s response? He could have said ‘O foolish men for not believing all that the women told you!”. But instead He says: “O how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have told you!” (Lk. 24:22-25). The Lord cleverly parallels the women with the revered male prophets of Israel. He is teaching that in His new community, the witness of the women, the disbelieved, the marginalized, the ignored, the insignificant…was going to be as earth shattering as the word of God Himself. In writing this, I am not a raving feminist. I am seeking to inspire all of us who struggle with our dysfunction and inadequacies, to realize that we too can rise up and witness as the Lord intended; and it is through us that the Lord delights to work! So, let us rise up…





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Notes

(1) J.M. Arlandson, Women, Class and Society in Early Christianity (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1997) p. 130.



(2) J.B. Green, The Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997) pp. 318,319.



(3) Tal Ilan, Mine and Yours Are Hers: Retrieving Women’s History From Rabbinic Literature (Leiden: Brill, 1997) pp. 144-146.



(4) S.J.D. Cohen, The Jewish Family In Antiquity (Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1993) pp. 133-151.



(5) N. Lewis, The Documents From The Bar Kochba Period In The Cave Of Letters (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1989) p.80.



(6) Sean Freyne, Galilee, Jesus and the Gospels (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988) p. 147.



(7) R.A. Horsley, Archaeology, History and Society in Galilee (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press, 1996) p. 57.



(8) L. Schotroff, Lydia’s Impatient Sisters (London: S.C.M., 1995) p. 205.



(9) This kind of speculation is foreign to some Bible readers. Yet the Biblical records are highly abbreviated, reduced to essentials, leaving the inessentials to be supplied by the reader / hearer. Ancient peoples were well used to doing this; modern readers are accustomed to novels or accounts which supply every detail, or to films whose visuality fills in such gaps. But, to me at least, the very nature of the Biblical narratives is different; they invite interpretation and ‘filling in the gaps’.



(10) Note how these references to Joanna, and the central placement given to her in the passage in Lk. 24:9,10, all occur within Luke’s writings. It would seem that Luke had an especial interest in chronicling the women who went with Jesus- his material accounts for two of the four parables that feature women (Lk. 15:8-10; 18:1-14), and he has seven passages / incidents where women are central (Lk. 7:11-17, 36-50; 8:1-3; 10:38-42; 11:27,28; 13:10-17; 23:27-31). And it is Luke alone who gives the impression that the Lord was not followed around Palestine by twelve men alone, but by a further group of ministering women.



(11) Quoted in H. Chadwick, Origen: Contra Celsum (Cambridge: C.U.P., 1965) p. 109.