Arimathæa, supposed to be the same as Rama, where Samuel dwelt in the time of Saul, lay to the N.W. of Jerusalem, on the way to Joppa. Joseph, as a man of wealth and influence, must have been known to the Roman governor, who would be willing to oblige him, especially in such a matter, since he himself was convinced that Jesus was no malefactor. His only hesitation arose from his doubt as to whether Jesus was at that time dead; "Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, Pilate gave him leave; and commanded the body to be delivered to Joseph." Joseph having obtained Pilate's leave to remove the body of Jesus, "bought fine linen" to wrap it in, according to custom. "He came therefore," and with the help of others, "took the body of Jesus" down from the cross. "And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth: there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury." This was all that the time allowed to be done then, in the way of embalming. "Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, and Joseph laid the body in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock, wherein was man never yet laid." It was a custom in those days, for the rich, with whom Christ was to be in his death (as Isaiah had said), to form their tombs, by having a sort of small room cut out of the solid rock; leaving a narrow door, which was the only possible way by which any one could go in or out. This door or entrance was always closed by a large stone. Within the room or cave, was a sepulchre or sepulchres, in which the body was laid. In such a sepulchre "they laid Jesus therefore, because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand: and the sabbath drew on." And they rolled a great stone to the door "of the sepulchre, and departed." Chapter XLIV.--JESUS RISES FROM THE SEPULCHRE. "And Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Joses, and the women also which came with him from Galilee, followed after" Joseph and Nicodemus, "and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid." And they returned and prepared spices and ointments, in order that the process of embalming, hastily begun by Joseph and Nicodemus, might be properly finished after the Sabbath should be past. Having made their preparations, they "rested the sabbath day, according to the commandment."