Did GMark Intend Joseph of Arimathea to be Josephus?

[outhouse]

It is clear that the writers of the New Testament text were well aware of the history of their country. .

You mean

The Hellenistic Diaspora residents were well aware of the pseudohistory in the biblical text they placed so much value in?

[FransJVermeiren]

It is clear that the writers of the New Testament text were well aware of the history of their country. .

You mean

The Hellenistic Diaspora residents were well aware of the pseudohistory in the biblical text they placed so much value in?

There is quite some pseudohistory in the Tanakh, but the destruction of the first Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE doesn't seem to be part of it. Revelation as well as the Gospels discuss the war against the Romans, and for the destruction of the Second Temple Revelation refers to the destruction of the first. Revelation veils the real course of the war events through the use of apocalyptic images (for example Babylon = Rome, four 'horses' = two equites), the Gospels do the same by antedating. What else would the θλῖψις of Mark 13:24 (Mt 24:29) be than the destruction of the Temple?

In my opinion it is the Essenes who built this great and bizarre construction.