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Caiaphas
The high priest who presided over the trial of Jesus — and whose tomb was identified by archaeologists nearly two thousand years later.
Caiaphas was the high priest of Israel from roughly AD 18 to 36 or 37, appointed by the Roman prefect Valerius Gratus and removed by the prefect Vitellius. He was the son-in-law of Annas, the former high priest, and presided over the Sanhedrin during the trial of Jesus. He is one of the few New Testament figures whose existence is directly attested by archaeology.
The Trial
All four Gospels place Caiaphas at the center of the religious trial of Jesus. Matthew and Mark describe him presiding over the Sanhedrin as it sought testimony against Jesus. When Jesus finally answered, “ I am” to the question of whether he was the Christ, Caiaphas tore his robes and declared the charge of blasphemy (Mark 14:61–64).
John’ s Gospel records a different but complementary scene: Caiaphas, addressing the chief priests and Pharisees, said, “ You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish” (John 11:49–50). John adds the crucial interpretive note: “ He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation” (John 11:51).
His Ossuary
In November 1990, during construction of a water park in the Peace Forest south of Jerusalem, an ossuary was discovered bearing the Aramaic inscription Yehosef bar Qayafa — “ Joseph son of Caiaphas.” Inside we're the bones of a man approximately sixty years old. The ossuary is now in the Israel Museum. It is one of the most important archaeological discoveries confirming a specific figure named in the New Testament.
“ Then the high priest tore his clothes. ‘ Why do we need any more witnesses?’ he asked. ‘ You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’”
Mark 14:63-64Sources
- Matt. 26:57–68; Mark 14:53–65; Luke 22:54–71; John 11:49–53; 18:12–14.
- Josephus, Antiquities 18.2.2; 18.4.3.
- Zvi Greenhut, “ The Caiaphas Tomb in North Talpiot, Jerusalem,” Atiqot 21 (1992): 63–71.
- Raymond E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah, vol. 1 (Doubleday, 1994), 398–427.