Within the Judaean kingly, priestly, angelic and patriarchal successions, there were numerous dynastic and hereditary titles, along with various distinctions of office and appointment. Thus it was possible for any senior official to be known by a series of different names according to the context of the moment.
As we have seen, Matthew was also Levi in his official capacity. Zacharias was Zadok and was, therefore, angelically Michael. (For more on this, click here.) Jonathan Annas (sometimes called Nathanael) was also James of Alphaeus, (the Jacob of the Succession) but, additionally, he was the Elias. It is simply by virtue of this hierarchical and patriarchal structure that James the Just, brother of Jesus, came also to be known as Joseph of Arimathea (Rama-Theo), the Joseph (he shall add) of "Godly Highness" (Rama-Theo). Now with other related facts to hand, we should look at the situation from a different perspective - that of pure chronology. (For a short look at other Rama-Theos in the Old Testament, click here.)
Apart from a very few vague descriptive terms, the New Testament gives no clue to what the "Arimathea" element had to do with Jesus's family; or do the Gospels mention Joseph's age. Outside the scriptures, however, Joseph is popularly conceived as Jesus's mother Mary's uncle (Jesus's great-uncle). Paintings and picture-books consequently portary him as already rather elderly in the AD 30s. That apart, a great number of written acounts from a variety of sources record him as coming to Glastonbury 30 years later in AD 63. Cressy's "Church History," which incorporates the records of Glastonbury Monastery, asserts that Joseph of Arimathea died on 27 July AD 82.
If Jesus' mother Mary was born in about 26 BC, as is generally reckoned, she would have been aged 19 (or thereabouts) when Jesus was born. By the time of the Crucifixion, she would have been in her middle fifties. If Joseph had been her uncle, he would have been, say 20 years older than Mary, putting him somewhere in his middle seventies at that point in time. But then, 30 years afterward (apparently at over 100 years of age), he is reputed to have begun a whole new life as an evangelist and decurio in the West! If that were not enough, the records show him dying 20 years later!
Clearly, none of this makes any sense, and the hereditary aspect of the "Joseph of Arimathea" distinction has to be applied. And so, as established, the Joseph of the Crucifixion era was James the Just, born in AD1. He died in AD 82, having been formally excommunicated in Jerusalem 20 years earlier.
It is also apparent that Jesus' mother Mary's background and family are not accounted for in the Bible. This is not surprising since the Church interpretation of Mary's heritage is that she was a product of Immaculate Conception. The main sources concerning Mary are not the canonical Gospels but the apocryphal scriptures: "The Gospel of Mary" and the "Protoevangelion." Many of the great artistic depictions of Mary's life and family are based on these, like Albrecht Durer's famous "The Meeting of Anna and Joachim" (Mary's parents). The most comprehensive work on the subject is customarily accepted to be "La Leggenda di Sant'Anna Madre della Gloriosa Vergine Maria, e di San Gioacchino" (The Story of Saint Ann, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of Saint Joachim). This comprehensive work links her parents with the Royal House of Israel, but it does not mention Joseph of Arimathea as her uncle.
It was by way of a 9th century Byzantine concept that the Church first promoted the idea that Joseph was Mary's uncle. There is no mention of him in that role beforehand. The concept arose at a time when the cautiously fearful Church Councils were ruling on what should be the approved content of the New Testament. So long as Joseph of Arimathea could be contained as a sideline character in the Davidic structure, and was not associated with the key Messianic line, his royal descendants could not embarrass the self-styled Apostolic structure of the Roman bishops.
By this strategy, the existence of Jesus and Mary's son Josephes was also conveniently disguised in the West. He was generally portrayed as Joseph of Arimathea's son, or sometimes as his nephew (which of course he was). In either role he was no threat to the orthodox scheme of things, and indeed both definitions of his relationshp (son and nephew) had genuine foundation, for he was Joseph of Arimathea's heir to the Rama-Theo (Arimathea) distinction.