Joseph of Arimathea: Shipping tycoon, Jesus Christ’s mentor, benefactor and final Champion. Before Jesus became our Savior, was he a Sailor?
Prologue:
Where was Jesus from age twelve to age twenty-nine? Why did he disappear at the age he would have “become a Man” as per Hebrew tradition and Bar Mitzvah ritual? Where did Jesus go at the very moment that his father would have been bound by custom and Mosaic law to find him a gainful vocation and prepare him for his future?
There’s an early Christian legend that suggests Jesus Christ may have led more rough-and-tumble life than we could have ever imagined. In fact, he may have been a real heroic archetype – somebody worthy of Celtic myths and Nordic sagas.
Where did Jesus Christ go? He went to England – on many sea voyages. On the way he was schooled by Phoenician sailors, taught a trade by ship’s carpenters and became a seafaring adventurer – and maybe even a captain of his own vessel.
That’s right. Jesus was a sailor. Who orchestrated his transformation from a precocious, argumentative and head-strong youth to a hero who identified with fisherman and working people and thirsted for justice? Joseph of Arimathea, his uncle and the patriarch of his extended (perhaps adopted) family. A well-connected businessman who had ships, money and good judgment.
Jesus was born to be our Savior – but did Joseph of Arimathea make Jesus the child into Jesus the man?
The Legend
Mark 15:42 (KJV):
“And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the Kingdon of God, came, and went in Boldy unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus”.
To this day in southern England, Britons believe that Jesus of Nazareth spent his formative years on their Island. English Poet William Blake wrote a famous poem in the 19th Century about Jesus in England called: “And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time”. This poem later became the stirring, hauntingly beautiful Christian Hymn “Jerusalem”.
The premise of this legend is that Jesus had an uncle named Joseph of Arimathea who took him on numerous merchant voyages to Southwest England (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset) and specifically the area known as Glastonbury. Joseph had “fleets” of ships that were engaged in the Roman copper and tin ore trade. He was reputed to have been a “metals millionaire” and the holder of a coveted “Commission” (license) issued by the Emperor of Rome to engage in the mining and transshipment of copper, tin and high-grade iron ore from the rocky hills of Briton to Rome.
Joseph of Arimathea’s “Commission” would have given him (and his Phoenician-crewed merchant fleet) a tidy strangle-hold on the Mediterranean metals’ ore trade at the time and would have been his ticket to great wealth. This license may have also conferred Roman Citizenship on him – a legal distinction of tremendous prestige and practical utility throughout the Roman Empire.
Roman Citizens enjoyed exclusive protections of Roman Law that included the right to sue for legal redress in business and personal matters. They had a version of Due Process in criminal accusations – and could not be tried for a criminal infraction in any forum other than a Roman Court, before a Roman Magistrate. The depth of gravitas that Roman citizenship conferred on its holders in ancient times cannot not be overstated – and Rome conferred it on non-Romans for special services rendered to the Empire. Even Judeans.
At the time of Christ’s crucifixion, Pontius Pilate was the Roman Governor of Judea. However, Tiberius – the Emperor of Rome – had scores of candidates to pick from to fill that that office. When the holder of an Imperial “Commission” to procure critical metal ores to the Roman Empire – Joseph of Arimathea – “went in Boldy unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus” Pilate probably would have hopped on one foot and sang a song if Joseph insisted. Replacing a Commissioned, seasoned “Procurer” of metals for the Roman Empire (equivalent to a Mining Engineer or DARPA Research Scientist today) would have been a headache the emperor didn’t need. Rome was an Empire that required weapons and all sorts of metal implements. Regular ore shipments were a matter of national security.
Unfortunately – although Joseph of Arimathea was more useful to Rome than Pilate – Joseph didn’t have enough leverage to reverse the collective condemnation of Christ by the influential Council of Sanhedrin in Jerusalem when they called for his crucifixion. Joseph would have understood that Pilate’s political hands were tied when came time to decide Christ’s fate. Christ’s alleged “crime” was a uniquely volatile and divisive subject in Judea. Jesus was in deep trouble and had to pay the price.
The Military Indispensability and Alchemy of Metallurgy in Ancient Times
Iron is believed to have been first smelted by the Hittites in ancient Egypt between 3000 and 5000 BC, however -because iron ore required hotter temperatures to yield a practical and useable product (steel) – bronze was the go-to metal for most if not all tools, weapons, implements and heavy load and/or stress bearing applications. Bronze was prevalent throughout the Mediterranean basin and Indian subcontinent because of technological limitations. The “Bloomery” methods used to smelt early iron ores could not precipitate “alloying” iron ores with other elements, so softer metals such as copper and tin were combined to make bronze – triggering the “Bronze Age” from 3300 BC to around 1200 BC.
Slowly, iron made its appearance in the Anatolian and lower Indus Valley areas after 1200 BC, primarily because the Caucasus region had an abundance of high-grade iron ore, tin and copper – and methods of smithing had evolved to include higher-temperature furnaces and forging. Steel-making processes were closely guarded secrets – and the learned masters, initiates and adepts who were members of this select priesthood were sought after by all the great military powers of the time. Metal workers were like atomic physicists today and were regarded with awe, enjoying an almost religious station.
Rome wasn’t a metal-working epicenter or bastion of metallurgical science in the Mediterranean. In fact, Roman armies invaded countries to actively search for and conscript metalworkers who had the expertise to forge weapons. These “Tektons” (Craftsmen) were well provided for, given Roman Citizenship and later constituted an exclusive class all their own. The infamous Roman short sword – or “Gladius” – was forged from a primitive high carbon “steel” in a difficult process that traced its origins to the mountains of Anatolia in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). It was the height of metallurgical science of its day and a superb military weapon. Roman Legions conquered their known world wielding this sword. They called it a Gladius.
Rome’s military-industrial complex needed critical raw materials: high-grade ores of tin, copper and iron. Iron ore to forge weapons of steel and tin and copper ores to smelt into Bronze for everything else from fasteners to axles, pots and pans and eating utensils. Where was Rome’s source of high-grade iron, tin and copper ores?
Great Britain.
Phoenician merchant sailors had traded throughout Great Britain for centuries. Rome demanded the best – and England had the finest iron, tin and copper ores obtainable. Enter Joseph of Arimathea and his Phoenician seafaring brethren.
The Phoenician Connection
The Phoenicians were an ancient semitic people originating in a coastal strip of the Levant region of the Eastern Mediterranean, that area encompassing most of modern-day Lebanon. (see Wikipedia). Phoenicians were spread throughout the geography, from Syria and Lebanon to modern Israel, their concentration being more numerous along the coasts. At the time of Christ, Phoenicians lived side-by-side with Judeans (there was no designation, “Jew”), Egyptians, Syrians and the diverse Turkic peoples that inhabited and traded throughout that commercial hub of the Mediterranean world.
Certain Lebanese researchers today insist that Jesus Christ was Phoenician (see Karim El Koussa, Jesus the Phoenician). They posit that the numerous ethnicities in Judaea and the ancient coast of the Levant were so blurred that “mingling” was common. They further hypothesize that if there was a teenage Judean (or, perhaps, Phoenician) girl named Mary who was married to a very old Judean man and got pregnant by a dashing sailor…….well, such linkages were not impossible. And, perhaps, this young girl had a kindly rich uncle who took the love child – named Yeshua-to Sea after Mary’s elderly husband died……
Did Yeshua return to his mother in the fullness of his manhood to change the world? It’s just a theory.
Phoenicians were known for their prowess in trade, seafaring, navigation and shipbuilding. Their merchant fleets held sway over commerce from the Levant to Egypt, Greece, Rome, Sicily, Cyprus, Marseille, the Iberian Peninsula, Carthage in the Western Mediterranean and the British Islands. Goods of all kinds – as well as raw materials such as metallic ores and timber – were regularly transshipped by Phoenician sloops to ports throughout the known world.
Phoenician sailors were expert navigators and intrepid sailors, often taking on worthy apprentices and novices from Mediterranean settlements to learn the seafaring life. Phoenician Captains were the finest mariners on the high seas and were in high demand as sources of Naval intelligence in Roman, Egyptian and Greek ports.
Phoenicians also “partnered” with non-Phoenician merchants when it served their interests – such as when a partner held a Commission from the Emperor of Rome to procure iron, tin and copper ore for Roman defense needs.
Joseph of Arimathea’s connections in Rome and Imperial license to trade in these raw materials made him a prime candidate for Phoenician collaboration.
And what of England?
The City of Glastonbury in Somerset, England (South of Bristol) has a famous Guild Hall Building emblazoned with a Coat of Arms depicting a side-view of an ancient sailboat with an older man in the front and a young man in the back. Glastonbury legend has it that the older man is Joseph of Arimathea – and the younger man is his apprentice ship’s carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth.
Another Glastonbury legend is that the famous “Glastonbury Tor” (or Tower) that is perched on the highest hill of the shire contains outlets for two springs that have mysterious properties. Nearby is the so-called “Chalice Well” that allegedly contains – deep down inside – the Holy Grail.
To this day the residents of Glastonbury chide their children to cut their hair lest they “look like Joseph of Ari math”. The sheer volume of legends, popular musings and whispered anecdotes about Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea in Glastonbury is intriguing given the two thousand years that have elapsed since Christ’s death on the Cross.
It’s not a stretch that a man from Judea – a wealthy trader in tin, copper and iron ores with an Imperial Commission – would have taken his precocious nephew on sea voyages to England and allied himself with the premier Merchant Trading and seafaring people of his day – the Phoenicians.
If Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus under his “wing” during the formative years – twelve through twenty-nine – it could explain Jesus’ mysterious absence from the Gospels. Could this be why Jesus had such a rapport with fisherman? Because he was a sailor too? Glastonbury legends also persist that Christ labored in the Tin and Copper mines digging ore with his own hands. Was the Savior more of a rugged man of the world than we ever imagined? Why would the Church withhold this rich context to the Son of God story?
Conclusion
Where was Jesus Christ from age twelve to twenty-nine? Next time you have an opportunity, ask a Roman Catholic Priest or a Christian Minister. They’ll say they don’t know.
In the meantime, I guess we’ll have to be content to visualize Jesus as a reed-thin, bearded ascetic who only spoke in parables and meandered throughout the countryside with a group of devotees – scraping by on multiplied loaves and fishes and keeping one step ahead of Judean authorities until the end came.
…..Or was he a hardened, ripped seafaring man with gnarly hands – world wise in the ways of women and used to wielding pickaxes deep inside the mines of Britain? Was he a real “man’s man” – an Ernest Hemingway-type guy, comfortable among fisherman and “Tektons” (Craftsmen) everywhere? We’ll never know.
The final Glastonbury legends are poignant. Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body down from the Cross, prepared it for internment in his own tomb (“hewn out of solid rock”) and wrapped it in a shroud. He then rolled a large rock in front of the tomb to seal its entrance. Joseph then left Jerusalem. Forever. He sailed back to Glastonbury to live out the rest of his days in England. There he secreted the Holy Grail deep inside a well shaft.
Joseph of Arimathea’s voyage back to England, however, included a stopover in Marseille. There – in a kind of “expat” Community that included many Judeans – he left Mary Magdalene with friends. She was “at her time” and would soon give birth to a baby named Sarah – the daughter of Jesus. Sarah was “of dark complexion” and was forevermore known as “Sarah the Egyptian”. There is a Catholic Church dedicated to her in Marseille that – year after year – is visited by legions of devoted worshippers.
Epilogue
Somewhere in the bowels of the Vatican Library there are volumes of ancient, crumbling manuscripts that can prove or disprove the foregoing. Church Fathers decide what we can see and what we can’t. In the meantime, we are free to explore rumors, legends and innuendo.
The Catholic Church cataloged and assembled disparate and (in some cases) fragmented Gospels into one tome called The New Testament in 325 AD at the Council of Nicaea. Some Gospels were included – some were thrown out. Some were considered “truthful”, and some were shunned as “apocryphal” (of doubtful authenticity). We have been taught only that which they declared is acceptable. Their account.
In many legends there are kernels of truth. It is beyond dispute that the Phoenicians – and Joseph of Arimathea – engaged in the “Tin Trade” for Rome and must have spent a great deal of time in the British Isles. The Church acknowledges that Joseph of Arimathea was Jesus’ uncle. Did Jesus accompany Joseph to England during the “missing” years?
I’d like to think so. It’s a cool possibility.
Question Everything.
Copyright, 2024 Jon Croft
www.bogironprivateer.com
vlchek1@gmail.com
