Arimathea

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Arimathea, according to the Gospel of Luke (xxiii. 51), was "a city of Judea". It was the home town of Joseph of Arimathea, who appears in accounts of the Passion for having donated his new tomb outside of Jerusalem for the body of Jesus.

Arimathea is often held to be another name for Ramathaim-Zophim in Ephraim, the birth-place of Samuel, where David came to Samuel. (1 Sam. 1:1, 19), Others identify it with Ramlah in Dan, or Ramah in Benjamin. (Matt. 2:18)

The fortunate appearance of this man coming from Arimathea, a place that was all but lost in the myth of history by the first century of the Common Era, would have been deeply impressive to the first-century listeners of the story of the Crucifixion. Joseph is given a more extensive story in the apocryphal Acts of Pilate, though the work is considered late fiction. The Catholic Encyclopedia asserts that "the additional details which are found concerning [Joseph] in the apocryphal Acta Pilati, are unworthy of credence."