Concept

Caiaphas Ossuary

Intro

Caiaphas was the high priest in Jerusalem when Jesus was tried. The Gospels name him (Matthew 26.57; John 18.13-14; John 11.49), and the Jewish historian Josephus calls him "Joseph who was called Caiaphas." The Romans appointed him high priest around AD 18 and removed him around AD 36.

In November 1990, workers building a park in the Peace Forest, south of Jerusalem's Old City, broke into an ancient burial cave. Inside were twelve ossuaries, stone boxes used to hold bones. The most richly decorated one carries an Aramaic inscription read as "Joseph son of Caiaphas." Whether that Joseph is the high priest of the Gospels is a question this page sets out, with the evidence on each side.

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In full

The Caiaphas Ossuary is one of twelve limestone ossuaries recovered in 1990 from a late Second Temple burial cave in North Talpiot, Jerusalem, excavated by Zvi Greenhut for the Israel Antiquities Authority. It is decorated with rosettes and carries two inscriptions, one on a long side and one on a narrow end, read as Yehosef bar Qayafa and Yehosef bar Qafa. It held the bones of six people, among them a man of about sixty. A second ossuary in the cave carries the name Qafa. The ossuary is in the Israel Museum.

The identification turns on three questions: whether the inscriptions read "Caiaphas," whether this Caiaphas family is the high priest's, and whether the sixty-year-old man is the high priest himself. The excavators and many later writers answer yes to all three. Other scholars accept some of the steps and question others. The evidence for each side follows.

Discovery

The cave was found by accident in November 1990 during construction work in the Peace Forest, North Talpiot. The Israel Antiquities Authority took over the site, and Zvi Greenhut published the excavation in Atiqot 21 (1992), with Ronny Reich's study of the inscriptions in the same year. The twelve ossuaries are typical of Jewish burial practice in Jerusalem before AD 70, when bones were gathered from a tomb shelf about a year after death and placed in a box.

The evidence for the identification

1. The name. The inscriptions give a personal name, Joseph, and a family name read as Caiaphas. Josephus gives the high priest exactly that combination, "Joseph who was called Caiaphas" (Jewish Antiquities 18.35; 18.95).
2. The family name is rare. "Caiaphas" is not a common name in the surviving inscriptions of the period, so a Joseph of the Caiaphas family in a wealthy Jerusalem tomb of the right era narrows the field.
3. The decoration. The inscribed ossuary is the most ornate in the cave, which fits a prominent member of the family.
4. The age. A man of about sixty fits a high priest who served for some eighteen years and was removed around AD 36.
5. A second Caiaphas inscription. An ossuary of unknown provenance published in 2011 by Boaz Zissu and Yuval Goren names "Miriam daughter of Yeshua son of Caiaphas," of a priestly course. If genuine, it shows the Caiaphas family was a priestly family, as the high priest's was.

The evidence against, or for caution

1. The reading of the name. The inscriptions are scratched, not carved, and the spelling differs between them (Qafa, Qayafa). William Horbury (Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 1994) questioned whether the reading and the link to the high priest are as secure as first reported.
2. No title. Neither inscription calls Joseph a priest or high priest. The identification is inferred from the name, not stated on the box.
3. A coin in a skull. A coin of Herod Agrippa I was found in one skull in the cave, a practice some link to the Greek custom of paying the ferryman of the dead. Its presence in a high-priestly family tomb has been raised as a puzzle, though it bears on the family's practice, not directly on the name.
4. Graded caution. Lawrence Mykytiuk, who counts Caiaphas among New Testament figures confirmed outside the Bible, rests that confirmation on Josephus and grades the ossuary inscriptions themselves as possible but inconclusive. See Biblical Figures Confirmed by Archaeology.

What is not in dispute

• Caiaphas the high priest existed. That rests on Josephus and the Gospels, independently of the ossuary.
• The cave is a genuine late Second Temple Jewish tomb, excavated under controlled conditions, and the inscriptions are ancient.
• The dispute is over the identification, not over the authenticity of the find.

Biblical references

• Matthew 26.3, "Then were gathered together the chief priests, and the elders of the people, unto the court of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas" (Matthew 26:3, ASV).
• Matthew 26.57, "And they that had taken Jesus led him away to the house of Caiaphas the high priest" (Matthew 26:57, ASV).
• Luke 3.2, "in the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas" (Luke 3:2, ASV).
• John 11.49-50, "But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor do ye take account that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not" (John 11:49-50, ASV).
• John 18.13-14, Annas, "father in law to Caiaphas, who was high priest that year" (John 18:13, ASV).
• John 18.24, "Annas therefore sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest" (John 18:24, ASV).
• Acts 4.6, "and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest" (Acts 4:6, ASV).

See also

• Biblical Archaeology, parent hub
• Pilate Stone, the inscription naming the Roman governor at Jesus's trial
• James Ossuary, another first-century ossuary whose inscription is disputed
• Crucifixion Remains of Yehohanan, related first-century Jerusalem burial archaeology
• Biblical Figures Confirmed by Archaeology, how each named figure is graded
• Matthew 26, John 11.49-50, John 18, Acts 4.6, the biblical references