Arimathea or Arimathaea (Ancient Greek: Ἀριμαθέα) or Harimathaea or Harimathea (Ἁριμαθαία, Harimathaía) was a purported city of Judea.
[1] It was the reported home of Joseph of Arimathea, who appears in all four Gospel accounts of the Passion for having donated his new tomb outside Jerusalem to receive the body of Jesus (see Matt.
There is no external evidence for the existence of Arimathea, and some scholars suggest that it may have been a literary device used in the Gospel narrative.
[2] The Christian apologist and historian Eusebius of Caesarea, in his Onomasticon (144:28–29), identified it with Ramathaim-Zophim and wrote that it was near Diospolis (now Lod).
Casanowicz argues for its identification with Beit Rima, now Bani Zeid in the West Bank.