Did Joseph of Arimathea bring the Holy Grail to Britain?
Joseph of Arimathea is said to have entombed Jesus. Sky HISTORY’s Lost Grail with Alice Roberts investigates the disciple’s alleged links to the Holy Grail.
Image: Legend suggests that the Holy Grail may have been buried at a location near Glastonbury Tor in Somerset | Shutterstock.com
The Holy Grail is reputedly a cup held by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper and later used to catch his blood after his crucifixion. It would be tempting to assume that this vessel was simply discarded shortly afterwards. However, the legend of the Holy Grail has told a very different story over the last two millennia.
Or perhaps that should be ‘very different stories’ - as there are actually many competing ideas about what happened to the chalice. Sky HISTORY favourite Professor Alice Roberts explores many of the most tantalising in her new docuseries Lost Grail with Alice Roberts.
To our surprise, some legends even suggest that the Holy Grail could have been brought to Britain, with one of Christ’s own disciples responsible. It all begs the question: How much credibility does this theory actually have? Sky HISTORY decided to investigate…
Who was Joseph of Arimathea?
Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned by all four canonical Gospels. Together, they provide various details about his life. The Gospel of Matthew cites him as a wealthy disciple of Jesus, while other Gospels allude to Joseph’s membership of a Jewish judicial council.
The Bible mentions Jesus using a cup identified by later generations as the Holy Grail. However, it is not implied to be anything other than a regular cup. More than a thousand years after the crucifixion of Jesus, Arthurian literature would portray the grail as capable of bestowing magical powers, like eternal life.
It’s also from this folklore that we hear what Joseph of Arimathea supposedly did with the grail. In the medieval French poet Robert de Boron’s 12th-century romance Joseph d’Arimathie, Joseph is imprisoned for illegally retrieving Christ’s corpse. However, Joseph soon sees an apparition of Jesus, who entrusts him with safeguarding the Holy Grail for the longer term.
Did Joseph of Arimathea visit Britain?
There are various stories where he apparently did. One is that Joseph was a tin trader who journeyed to southwest England due to its tin mining scene. Purportedly, Joseph even brought Jesus with him on the trip.
There is no real historical evidence supporting this tale, but none strictly disproving it either. It doesn’t help that there are no written records of Jesus Christ’s ‘lost years’.
Another legend maintains that Joseph travelled to Britain after being released from prison. More specifically, he is said to have ventured to the Somerset town of Glastonbury - and, while there, established Britain’s first Christian church.
In this telling of events, Joseph didn’t just introduce Christianity to Britain, he also happened to have the Holy Grail in his travel luggage. Where could he bury the chalice for safekeeping? The story goes that he chose to conceal it beneath the imposing mound of Glastonbury Tor.
Did King Arthur’s knights search for the Holy Grail?
It’s quite a stretch to assume that King Arthur existed in the first place. The general consensus among modern historians is that he didn’t, even if the original tales did become a pop-culture juggernaut - especially in the Victorian era.
It was during this period that Arthurian legends about the Holy Grail exerted a firm hold on the public imagination. These include that King Arthur’s famed Knights of the Round Table came to Glastonbury Tor in search of the grail.
In 1184, Glastonbury Abbey was destroyed by fire. Just a few years later, local monks claimed to have found King Arthur’s tomb. However, modern historians believe this ‘discovery’ to have been a fraud aimed at raising funds for the abbey’s rebuild.
Was the Holy Grail ever found at Glastonbury?
If King Arthur’s knights were merely mythical, it naturally follows that they couldn’t have uncovered the Holy Grail at Glastonbury. So, did any real-life treasure hunters have better luck in that endeavour? Apparently not, but it wasn’t for want of trying…
During the reign of Edward VII (1901-10), Wellesley Tudor Pole reportedly experienced a vision suggesting that the Holy Grail lay in a well at Glastonbury. Though a glass bowl was soon found at this site, the vessel was later discerned as too modern to be the actual Holy Grail.
So, did Joseph of Arimathea opt to secrete the Holy Grail at Glastonbury? Right now, there’s no way to be certain. However, on Sky HISTORY’s Lost Grail with Alice Roberts, archaeologist Cheryl Green does show some excavation findings potentially supporting the theory.
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