Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the Doctrine of Christ, Part 30.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

We've been studying the gospel narratives of the fate of Jesus of Nazareth following his crucifixion.

Last time we reviewed the burial account of Jesus, and we saw that one of the principal

features of this account is the interment of Jesus in the tomb by this enigmatic figure Joseph of Arimathea,

who was a Sanhedrist, a member of the council, all of whom, Mark says, condemned Jesus to death.

Now before we move on to look at Mark's empty tomb account, let me ask if there are any

questions or discussion of the burial account remaining from last week that you would like to

talk about first. Yes, George over here has a comment. Bill, Joseph of Arimathea, according to, I think, some of the accounts, he was a secret disciple of Jesus,

and he dissented from the decision to, you know, deliver Jesus to be executed.

And was Nicodemus also a member of the Sanhedron?

I think he was. So there must have been some dissent. I don't think it says that Nicodemus was a

Sanhedrist. He was a Pharisee. But that doesn't necessarily mean he was a Sanhedrist as Joseph was.

And you're right, George, the later gospels, as I mentioned, make Joseph's discipleship explicit.

They say he was a secret disciple.

I think it's Luke who says that he did not participate in the condemnation of Jesus.

And many scholars would see these as later Christian attempts to whitewash Joseph of Arimathea to Christianize him, so to speak, to baptize him and make him a secret Christian.

Whereas in the earliest narrative in Mark, he appears simply

as a delegate of the Sanhedron assigned to dispose of the corpse. But that was why I argued at

some length last week that there are already indications in Mark's gospel that Joseph is not

simply an impartial, disinterested delegate of the San

...