Editor's note: The Plain Truth strives to give our readers stories, written in main stream news sources concerning Biblical themes. Many may not realize this, but there are countless stories that many early Christians, including Mary, the mother of Jesus lived in the British isles. These are not figments of our imagination, but you should wonder why these views have been swept from our education!
Little is written in the Christian gospels about Joseph of
Arimathea, a rich Jewish merchant who provided the prepared tomb for
Jesus. But the apocrypha (gospels and other writings not included in
the Bible as Christians know it today, but written at the same time as
that which is included) and tradition suggest he was far more important
to Jesus in both life and death than most people imagine.
In addition,
tradition also suggests that Joseph of Arimathea was instrumental in
establishing the followers of Christ in England, and may, indeed, have
introduced the young Jesus to druidic mystical writings on a visit to
Cornwall when Jesus was a boy. (Druidic magical beliefs are usually
attributed to Ireland, but England had them as well.) If it seems
difficult to credit, consider this: Although tradition says Jesus was a
lowly carpenter’s son, Joseph (father of Jesus) was of the royal House
of David, which was not impoverished and did raise its sons to be as
well educated as possible.
While moderns think of each area of the
ancient world as cut off from the others, that is not true. Trade was
vigorous all around the Mediterranean, and along the Atlantic cost of
Europe as far as Britain, at least. The Milesians, who settled in
Ireland, sailed from the coast of Spain, having settled there after
leaving central Turkey. So, commerce and doubtless intellectual
discourse was certainly a feature of ancient life moderns forget about.
Joseph of Arimathea is thought to have gained his wealth in the metals
trade. As it happens, Cornwall, on the southwestern coast of England,
has been a rich source of tin, lead and some silver for millennia. So
it is not inconceivable that, as Carl McColman points out in his Complete Idiot’s Guide to Celtic Wisdom,
Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus with him on a trip so the boy might
study with great minds. This concept is also accepted as a possibility
by Britannia, a venerable (as Internet goes) travel site for England.
Whether that is true or not, it is much more firmly grounded in
tradition–even in the Church of England–that Joseph did round Land’s
End, Cornwall, in 63 C.E. (although some say it was sooner after Jesus’
death, in 37 C.E.) and end up at Glastonbury, which corresponds to the
Avalon of Arthurian legend. Supposedly, he had with him the chalice
from the Last Supper, which was supposed to have been placed in the
ground there, from whence a well sprang. He is supposed to have jammed
his staff into the ground, bringing forth an oriental thorn bush.
Indeed, there was an ancient thorn bush outside Glastonbury Cathedral
that died in 1991 and was taken down in 1992. It could be simply an
explanation for an oriental plant flourishing in England, or it could
be that Joseph of Arimathea brought a specimen with him from the East
and planted it. Or none of the above. Still, the legend is honored and
retold by Glastonbury Abbey, once England’s wealthiest church, and
presumed to have on its grounds the graves of Arthur and Guinevere. …Did Jesus study mysticism in southwest England?-4/19