The process of burial in the Early Roman Period took place in two stages. First the dead person was placed on a ledge or in a loculus of a rock-hewn tomb. Then, second. after about a year, when the body had decomposed, family members of the deceased, presumably women, returned to the tomb, gathered the bones and put them into a small box of limestone or wood called an ossuary. 

The reason for such a custom was practical-religious since the bones were the only remains after a determined period of time. Hence, they were considered an extremely important symbol of the deceased person. Moreover, space in the tombs had to be conserved promoting the use of the ossuary over the sarcophagus.

In the Herodian Period, round blocking stones set in stone tracks, were extremely rare and found only in the tombs of the wealthiest and distinguished families. Contrary to popular opinion, this was not the kind of stone placed at Jesus’ tomb nor the kind of tomb into which Joseph of Arimathea placed him. Joseph entombed Jesus in a small tomb consisting of a burial room, with a standing pit and burial benches along three sides, with a square blocking stone placed at its entrance (Kloner, 1999, p. 23). Dale Allison, Professor of New Testament Exegesis and Early Christianity, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, writes “Kloner suggests that προσxυλίω and äποκυλίω could refer to rolling or moving an unrounded object. This seems plausible; cf. Josh 10:18 LXX; 2 Kgs 9:33 LXX; Diodorus Siculus 17.68.2.” (Allison, 2005, p. 363).

Under Roman law, the body of a crucified person could be released to a relative of the decedent (Edwards, W. D., Gabel W.J., and Hosmer F.E., 1966, p. 1460). Therefore, Joseph of Arimathea, a relative of Jesus’ mother Mary, accompanied by Nicodemus, made claim to Jesus’ body for burial shortly before the annual Passover Sabbath (Nisan 15) began (Matthew 27:57; Mark 15:43; Luke 23:50-51). Both men were Torah-compliant members of the Sanhedrin (John 3:1).[1]

A quick interment was necessary, as the Torah provided explicit instruction regarding the burial of executed men.

If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance. (Deuteronomy 21:22-23; cf. Joshua 8:29, 10:26-27).

Albert Barnes, an American theologian, explains in his well-known Notes on the New Testament entry for John 19:31 that,

The law required that the bodies of those who were hung should not remain suspended during the night. See De 21:22,23. That law was made when the punishment by crucifixion was unknown, and when those who were suspended would almost immediately expire. In the punishment by crucifixion, life was lengthened out for four, five, or eight days. The Jews therefore requested that their death might be hastened, and that the land might not be polluted by their bodies remaining suspended on the Sabbath-day. (Barnes A. , 1949, p. 1365).

On hearing that that Jesus was dead, which surprised the governor, he proceeded to verify the accuracy of the matter with the centurion (Mark 15:44-45); (Retief, 2003, pp. 301-302). Once assured of Jesus death, Pilate legally released the body to Joseph of Arimathea as a family member.

Joseph and his friend Nicodemus hastily removed Jesus from the cross. They only had time to prepare him for a provisional burial and had to place him temporarily in Joseph’s own new cave-tomb just as the annual Passover Sabbath (Nisan 15), the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread or the Feast of Passover (Luke 2:41; John 6:4, 13:1) “was about to begin” (Luke 23:54; John 19:39, 19:42).

Joseph and Nicodemus rolled a squared block of stone, a conventional tomb blocking-stone of the time, in front of the open entry of the cave, closing it just as the sun set (ca. 5:57 p.m. Jerusalem time). The stone was a squared, plug-like, blocking stone, typical of burial stones in Herodian times, not a large round rolling stone used on the tombs of the extraordinarily rich and famous.

Matthew 27:57 described Joseph of Arimathea simply as a prosperous or well-to-do man, for he was possibly of the merchant class, but not necessarily of the ultra-wealthy of Jerusalem’s ruling and priestly elite. The word “rich” in most translations is an unnecessary embellishment and can be in the alternative rendered affluent, moneyed, well off, well-to-do, prosperous, and opulent. Prior to the Resurrection, Joseph of Arimathea was a secret disciple of Jesus. He was “a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God” (Mark 15:43). Luke 23:50–56 adds that he “had not consented to their decision and action.”

The question of the location of the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea remains. The site with the best credentials for the place of the Crucifixion and that of Jesus’ burial, in a cave/tomb under its ruins, and resurrection is Eleona Church built by Constantine’s mother Helena. Archaeologists uncovered the site of Eleona Church in the early 20th century. The Greek name Eleona means “Olive Grove.”