Joseph of Arimathea
Robert de Boron
(Summary)

Robert de Boron begins with an account of the life of Christ.  When Judas goes to Caiaphas and others of Christ’s enemies to sell him, Joseph of Arimathea, one of Pilate’s soldiers, is present; “to him their words were sinful: they grieved him deeply” (16); but he dares do nothing.  When Christ is crucified, Joseph goes to Pilate and asks for his body.  Pilate agrees, but says, “Sir, the Jews are strong in numbers, and will not want to give it to me” (18).  When Joseph approaches the Jews, indeed, they threaten to kill him, so he returns to Pilate.  Pilate sends Nichodemus to accompany Joseph, and also gives him the cup used at the Last Supper.  Now the Jews will not interfere with them, and they take Jesus’ body down.  Joseph washes the body, but notices that the wounds are still bleeding, so he catches the blood in the cup.  Meanwhile, the Jews go to Pilate to demand that, wherever the body is taken, it be closely guarded.  But it is too late, and Christ is resurrected.  The Jews therefore plan to murder Joseph and Nichodemus.  Nichodemus is warned by friends, but Joseph is seized interrogated as to the whereabouts of Jesus’ body.  Unable to provide them with information, Joseph is cast into a dungeon.  But Jesus visits Joseph in prison, comforts him, and gives the cup into his keeping; thus “Joseph stayed imprisoned for a long time” (23).

Meanwhile, a pilgrim who finds himself in Rome speaks of Jesus’ healing and other miracles.  He comes to the attention of the emperor, whose son, Vespasian, has leprosy.  The pilgrim believes that Vespasian could be healed by touching anything that Jesus touched, and tells the emperor that Pilate allowed Him to be put to death, so the emperor sends messengers to Judaea to discover the truth.  The messengers ask Pilate for an explanation, and the governor says that he was bullied by the numbers and aggression of the Jews into having Jesus put to death.  Pilate summons the Jews and sends out people to look for anything Jesus touched.  The Jews confirm his story, and he is exonerated; the Jews explain how they have accepted blame for the incident: “we had to take it upon ourselves and our children, or Pilate would never have agreed” (27).  The men searching for relics find Veronica, whose veil is imprinted with the image of Christ from when she wiped his brow during the procession to Calvary.  So Veronica goes to Rome with the messengers, and the Vernicle heals Vespasian.

Vespasian travels to Judaea and tricks the Jews (by telling them he’s imprisoned Pilate for defending Jesus) into confessing their part in the Crucifixion.  Vespasian has all the Jews thrown into prison, and tells them that “now they were all to suffer death unless they delivered to him Christ’s body” (30).  They reply that they gave the body to Joseph, and reveal where Joseph is held.  But they all think Joseph must be dead, after so long.  But Vespasian enters Joseph’s dungeon and finds him alive still.  Joseph converts Vespasian, and is then released.

Joseph and his brother-in-law, Bron, become leaders of a Christian community.  When the crops fail (because of “the sin of unbridled lust” [34]), the people ask what can be done.  Joseph prays, and Jesus tells him that he must invite “those who have true faith in the Trinity” (35) to sit down at table with him and Bron.  Bron must go fishing—hence, he is the Fisher King—and bring along the first thing he catches.  Joseph must sit in the place where Jesus sat, Bron on his right side, and there must be an empty space between them, representing the place where Judas sat, which is reserved for Bron’s grandson.  The faithful sit down, and find “sweetness and fulfilment of their hearts” (35) because of the vessel; “it will allow no sinner in its presence” (36), says Petrus.  Thenceforth, the vessel is called the Grail [owing to “An untranslatable play on words . . . linking the name graal to the verb agreer (‘to delight’)” (36 fn.)].  Among those who are not worthy to be in the presence of the Grail is Moyse, who begs nevertheless to be allowed to sit at the table.  After prayer, Joseph allows him to do so, but warns him not to attempt anything for which he is unworthy.  They all sit, and Moyse sees the empty space between Joseph and Bron.  “So he sat there.  And the moment he did so he was swallowed up—it seemed as if he had never been” (38).

A long time after this, Bron brings his twelve children to Joseph.  Most of them wish to be married, but the last one, Alain li Gros, does not.  Joseph takes Alain into his care, and God tells Joseph that Alain will have a son “to whom my vessel is to come” (41).  Alain leads his brothers into strange lands.  Meanwhile, at God’s command, Joseph to passes the Grail on to Bron, who then departs with it, while Petrus goes to the Vale of Avalon.  When they have left, Joseph dies.

Robert de Boron.  Merlin and the Grail.  Trans. Nigel Bryant.  Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2001.