Caiaphas
Joseph Caiaphas, high priest throughout the governorship of Pontius Pilate. The Gospels name him as the high priest before whom Jesus was questioned. Josephus records his appointment and removal, and an ossuary bearing the name was found in 1990.
Josephus says that the Roman governor Valerius Gratus, after appointing and removing several high priests within a few years, gave the office to Joseph Caiaphas, and that Gratus was then succeeded by Pontius Pilate (Josephus, Antiquities 18.33–35). Caiaphas held the office until Vitellius, the governor of Syria, deposed “Joseph, who was also called Caiaphas” about the time Pilate was recalled (Josephus, Antiquities 18.95). The years usually given are about AD 18 to 36. Neither passage connects him with Jesus.
In the New Testament he is the son-in-law of Annas, a former high priest who is still named beside him (John 18:13; Luke 3:2; Acts 4:6). John reports his advice to the council that it was better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to perish (John 11:49–53). Matthew names him as the high priest in whose house the plot against Jesus was laid and before whom Jesus was questioned (Matthew 26:3–4, 57); see the Trials before the Council and Pilate. He appears once more in Acts, when Peter and John are examined by the council (Acts 4:5–7).
A decorated ossuary inscribed “Joseph son of Caiaphas”, found in a family tomb in Jerusalem, may be his. Many scholars accept the identification and some question it; the inscription gives no title (Caiaphas ossuary).
In the timeline
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Trials before the Council and Pilate
The Gospels tell how Jesus is questioned before the high priest Caiaphas and the council, judged guilty of blasphemy, and handed in the morning to the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, who has him flogged and orders him crucified as “King of the Jews”.