 | Historical Odes and Other Poems |  |
82
Joseph of Arimathea And Nicodemus.
[_]
Speakers' names have been abbreviated in this poem. The abbreviations used are as follows:
- For Jos. read Joseph of Arimathea
- For Nic. read Nicodemus
I took His Body from the tree,
Wrapped it in linen decently,
And many times I bent my knee
Before I buried him.
Nic.
I took of aloes and of myrrh,
That I might aid thee to inter
That Holy Thing in sepulchre;
We were two Nethenim.
Jos.
I had a sepulchre of stone,
Wherein afore was buried none:
In this I laid Him all alone;
The stone did many seal.
Nic.
I stood afar when in my sight
The crosses rose upon the height,
And fretted with their forms the light
Above the dreadful hill.
83
I am a noble counsellor,
God's kingdom have I waited for,
But was not of the counsel, nor
After the deed of them.
Nic.
A ruler of the Jews am I;
And His disciple secretly;
I pleaded that He should not die
Before the Sanhedrim.
Jos.
Riches have I in Arimathy,
For it is said in prophecy
That He among the rich should die:
That prophet I fulfil.
Nic.
Three years afore I came by night
To visit Him, who did invite
The weary to a burden light,
And all the sick did heal.
Jos.
I was within the temple when
He scourged away the throng of men:
It was at the beginning then
Of all His ministry.
84
I learned His doctrine in my mind,
His kingdom, that should be confined
To those of water and of wind
New-born by mystery.
Jos.
And I remember and can tell,
When He the temple purged so well,
How many said that Israel
Did now their king possess.
Nic.
That king should be, He said to me,
Raised not on throne but on the tree,
As Moses made the serpent be
Raised in the wilderness.
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