15:42–47 In Roman practice, a person executed for treason (the charge placed against Jesus) was not ordinarily given a burial but was left on the cross to be devoured by scavengers. Only by special permission of the Roman magistrate could such a criminal be given an ordinary burial, and even then public mourning was forbidden. By contrast, Jewish custom required that even criminals be given burials, on the day of their death if at all possible. To fail to observe this custom was to defile the land, and so pious Jews felt obligated to give a burial even to an enemy (note Deut. 21:22–23, the biblical basis for the Jewish custom). It is against this background that the actions of Joseph of Arimathea must be seen.

Joseph seeks to bury Jesus both because Jewish law forbade a dead body to be le…