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Joseph of Arimathea

a rich Israelite of high character, who seems to have been a member of the Great Council or Sanhedrim. He opposed the determination of his colleagues to bring about the death of Jesus, but did not openly profess himself a disciple from motives of fear. But the courage of his convictions came to him at the moment of the crucifixion, and on the evening of that day he went boldly to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus, burying it reverently in his own rock-hewn tomb. An ancient tradition makes him carry the GRAIL (q. v.) to Britain about the year 63 and settle at Glastonbury.

JOSEPHSTADT (yō'zef-stät), one of the most important fortresses of the former Austrian em empire; situated at the confluence of the Mettau and the Elbe in Bohemia, 10½ miles N. by E. of Königgrätz.