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Shareware Overload Trio 2
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Shareware Overload Trio Volume 2 (Chestnut CD-ROM).ISO
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SECRET
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1993-10-02
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SECRET DISCIPLE
Any advocate appointed to defend Joseph of Aramathaea, if he
had ever had cause to answer the accusation that he was a secret
disciple, would have had a wonderful case in his hands because the
whole of Joseph's life was open. The Scriptures repeatedly drawing
attention to the fact that he was ever ready to spring to the
defence of our Lord, despite the opposition from the Priests and
the Scribes with whom he frequently met in company with Nicodemus
and Jairus, both members of the council with him.
Only one gospel gives any inkling that anything was done
secretly and that is the Gospel according to John and it is simply
the way it is translated which gives the impression that Joseph was
a secret disciple when John pens the words.
`Joseph of Arimathaea being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly
for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the
body of Jesus.` John 19:38.
A careful reading of all the accounts reveals that rather than
go secretly in fear, Joseph, as Matthew 27:58 has it.
`Went boldly to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus.`
Mark confirms this, Mark 15:43, and Luke also, even more
strongly.
'And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and
he was a good man, and a just. The same had not consented to the
counsel and deed of them, he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews:
who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went unto
Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.' Luke 23:50-52.
It was not that kind of a 'fear' wherein one goes in terror
but the 'fear' that deals with a situation circumspectly and John,
of course, intends the reader to understand that Joseph made his
way to Pilate, `secretly` or unobtrusively, because the activity
about Pilate following the crucifixion would have been tremendous
and, it is just as obvious that, having found a way to meet him. he
spoke boldly and immediately after with Nicodemus openly buried our
Lord in his own sepulchre. Matthew 27:60, for all to see.
`And 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. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a
garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man
yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews'
preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.'
John 19:39-42.
John had a fondness for the word `secretly`, (Gk. kruptos),
and earlier, when he spoke of our Lord going up to the feast, to
which his brethren had already gone, he wrote.
`But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto
the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.' (John 7:10)
The Scriptures make it plain that Joseph, Jairus, and
Nicodemus were all members of the council, and men who were not
afraid to express their opinion in the making of decisions which
affected the secular or holy life of all who dwelt in Israel
whether they were Jew or Gentile.
Nicodemus sought our Lord for guidance, John 3:1-7, Jairus for
the healing of his daughter, Luke 8:41-42, and Joseph made it clear
where his loyalty lay when he `stood against both their counsel and
their deed.` Luke 23:51.
They were all ready to defend Him against the council despite
the Pharisee`s threat to put them out of the synagogue as John
records in John 12:42-43. And when Nicodemus urged them not judge
unwisely, or hastily, they called him a Galilean in derision
because he spoke as a follower of our Lord Jesus might speak.
John 7:51-52.
None of them did anything secretly.
They were openly followers of Christ Jesus our Lord.