Who Is Joseph Of Arimathea?

Joseph of Arimathea is most certainly the apostle, Thaddeus.   

Question: How do I know this?  

Answer: Via the meaning of a number of names in the New Testament. 

1. Thaddeus - Gift of God: This name calls attention to Isaiah 22.   Joseph is the steward within the House of Judah who uses the key of David as a civic leader & is associated with a tomb.  

2. Thus, he is Shebna, via being a lawyer & member of the Sanhedrin, whom Yeshua reminded had both built the tombs of the prophets & agreed with their persecution (even murder) by their forefathers.

3. He is also Eliakim, a faithful steward whom God raises up & entrusts with the Key of David, a civic key.    The key itself denotes empowered civic/civil authority to judge & rule Israel (Isaiah 22).

4. Justus - Just/Upright:  This name calls attention to his work as a lawyer & his recognition by the people as a prophetic ecclesiastical authority.

5. Judas - Praised/Let H/him be praised:  This name associates him with worship.  Its use in Acts is ironic, calling attention to his zeal for Israel, his witness to what Judas Iscariot (the assassin) had done, & his reputation for seeking to strengthen and encourage other people.  

6. Barsabbas - Son of the Sabbath: This name calls attention to his ecclesiastical office & his work as a lawyer helping people with their educational & legal burdens.  It also corresponds to Paul’s statement in Galatians that he was a believer in the principle that the Sabbath & its regulations are for man not man for the Sabbath & its regulations.  It also speaks of his relationship with Christ (the (living) Sabbath).

7. Joseph - God will add: In Genesis God providentially places Joseph in Egypt.  He becomes Pharaoh’s right hand & protects both his own people & those of Egypt and the nations. In Matthew & Luke, Joseph is kind, listens to the angel who warns him about Herod’s plan, & protects his family by migrating them to Egypt. 

8. Cephas: - This name, found in Galatians 2, signifies his stalwart character.  He also seems to understand church politics.  This is important insofar at the heart of the drama Paul describes in Galatians 2 is an ecclesiastical dispute with roots in the disputes between Hillel & Shammai, which a member of the Sanhedrin would most certainly have known & understood.  

When we put these names together & survey the list of New Testament characters who might fit all of these names simultaneously, it’s pretty clear that there is only one candidate whose presence in the narrative comprehensively fits the bill — Joseph of Arimathea, a town many believed might have once existed in Judea, but whose name is most likely fictional (on the Earth at least), being instead a literary device that calls attention to his “home office,” Mount Moriah & his heavenward outlook.  

Jude

Greeting

1 Jude, a servant[a] of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for[b] Jesus Christ:

2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Judgment on False Teachers

3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved[c] a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire,[d]serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.z

8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. 12 These are hidden reefs[e] at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

A Call to Persevere

17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They[f] said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment[g] stained by the flesh.

Doxology

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time[h] and now and forever. Amen.
Footnotes

• Jude 1:1 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface

• Jude 1:1 Or by

• Jude 1:5 Some manuscripts although you fully knew it, that the Lord who once saved

• Jude 1:7 Greek different flesh

• Jude 1:12 Or are blemishes

• Jude 1:18 Or Christ, because they

• Jude 1:23 Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin

• Jude 1:25 Or before any age