Jesus was laid on the ox-cart, and Mary, Martha and Joseph following it reached Mount Scropas, in which was the tomb, before sunset.  As I told thee with half-an-hour for thee to get home before the Sabbath, Joseph said to the carrier, his eyes fixed on the descending sun.  Now take this man by the feet and I’ll take him by the head.  But will you not light the lantern, Sir? the carrier said; for though there be light on the hillside, it will be night in the tomb, and we shall be jostling our heads against the stone and perhaps falling over the dead man....  I have steel and tinder.  Wherefrom the lantern was lit and given to Martha, who lighted them into the tomb, Joseph and the carrier bearing the body, with Mary following.

Jesus was laid on the couch beneath the arch, and when Mary and Martha had drawn the sheet over his face Joseph turned to the women, saying:  now do you go hence to Bethany and prepare spices and cloths for the embalmment, and come hither with them in the early morning the day after the Sabbath.  The carrier, who was standing by waiting for his wage, received it thankfully.  Now, Master, if you want another shoulder to help with that sealing stone, I can give it you.  But Joseph, looking at the stone, said it would offer no trouble to him, for he believed in his strength to do it, though the carrier said:  it looks as if two men, or more like three, would be needed.  But it is as you like, Master.  On this he went to his oxen, thinking of the Sabbath, and whether Joseph had forgotten how near it was to them.  He hasn’t blown out his lantern yet.  My word, he be going back into the tomb, the carrier said; maybe he’s forgotten something, or maybe to have a last look at his friend.  He talks like one in a dream, or one that hadn’t half recovered his wits.

And it was just in the mood which the carrier divined that Joseph entered the tomb:  life had been coming and going like a dream ever since he met the masons; and asking himself if he were truly awake and in his seven senses, he returned to bid Jesus a last farewell, though he would not have been astonished if he sought him in vain through the darkness filled with the dust of freshly cut stones and the smell thereof.  But Jesus was where they had laid him; and Joseph sate himself by the dead Master’s side, so that he might meditate and come to see better into the meanings of things, for all meaning seemed to have gone out of life for him since he had come up from Jericho.  The flickering shadows and lights distracted his meditation, and set him thinking of the masons and their pride in their work; he looked round the sepulchre and perceived it to be a small chamber with a couch at the farther end....  Martha and Mary have gone, he said to himself, and he remembered he had bidden them go hence to prepare spices, and to return after the Sabbath.  Which they will do as soon as the Sabbath is over, he repeated to himself, as if to convince himself that he was not dreaming....  God did not save