Pilgrim Ways

huge land reclamation and drainage projects which reclaimed large areas of the Somerset Levels. There are two legends which associate Glastonbury with the earliest part of church history.

One of these, celebrated in the great hymn of William Blake (1757-1827), “ Jerusalem”, claims that in those ancient days the feet of the Christ child walked on these verdant green hills. Blake had been born in London but was familiar with the stories associated with Glastonbury, which he described as “the holiest ground on earth.”

The story which Blake was celebrating has it that the uncle of the young Jesus was a wealthy trader, Joseph of Arimathea. He came to the west of England, famous for its tin and minerals, and while he was busy bartering his merchandise the young Jesus built a small church from wattle and there he prayed.

Joseph of Arimathea and Weary All Hill The more common tradition is that after the Resurrection, Joseph came to Glastonbury to bring the gospel to the Britons. He is said to have arrived at Pilton with a small band of evacuees, fleeing for safety from the persecution of Christians which was underway throughout the Roman empire. Joseph knew of Briton from his earlier travels as a merchant and believed it to be a safe haven. When they arrived at Glastonbury the small exhausted band rested by a small hill just outside the town which, to this day, is still known as Weary All Hill. The local king, Aviragus, gave Joseph a grant of land and this is where the small missionary band settled. They dwelt in circular cells in a ring around the wattle church. The gift and hospitable welcome are certainly curious unless Joseph were already known to and respected by Aviragus.

If Joseph was indeed a magnate who controlled the tin and lead industries of their day then there is no doubt that he would have been familiar with Britain‟s West Country. Most of the known world‟s tin was mined in Cornwall, smelted into ingots, and Joseph is reputed to have owned the largest fleet of private merchant ships trading in tin. Diodorus Siculus, Julius Caesar, and writers of the period refer to the existence of this trade. In the Latin Vulgate version of St.Mark‟s and St.Luke‟s gospels Joseph is referred to as Decurio - a word often used by the Romans to describe the official who oversaw the metal mines. St.Jerome‟s translation of the Gospel describes Joseph as Nobilis Decurio. We also know that as well as holding high rank among the Romans, he was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin and a legislative member of a provincial Roman senate. He had homes in Jerusalem and in Arimathea (today‟s Palestinian town of Ramalleh). According to the Talmud, Joseph was the younger brother of the Virgin Mary - an uncle of Jesus.

There is also the intriguing possibility that if Mary‟s husband, St.Joseph, died while Jesus was young - and we certainly hear nothing more of him after Jesus‟ early childhood - then under Jewish law Joseph of Arimathea would have become the child‟s legal guardian.

Joseph of Arimathea was not among those disciples who, apart from John, fled from Jesus when the High Priests and Pilate closed in on Him. Joseph became a unique and bold defender of Jesus at His trial and then he defied the Sanhedrin by demanding Christ‟s crucified body from Pilate. His were the arms that cradled the broken body as it was taken from the Cross and he placed the body in his own tomb. The evangelists describe him as “a good man”, “an honourable man,” “a just man” and as “a disciple of Jesus.” Clearly this was