In the New Testament, Caiaphas was the Jewish high priest to whom Jesus was taken to after his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, and who played a part in Jesus' crucifixion. Passages involving Caiaphas are among those from scripture cited over the years by those wishing a Biblical justification for anti-Semitism.

In Matthew chapter 26, Caiaphas, other high priests, and the Sanhedrin are shown looking for "false evidence" with which to frame Jesus. (26:59) Once Jesus declares he is the Son of God, Caiaphas and the other men charge him with blasphemy and order him beaten. (26:66-67)

In John chapter 18, Jesus is brought before Caiaphas and questioned, with intermittent beatings. Afterward, the other priests (Caiaphas does not accompany them) take Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, and insist upon Jesus' execution. Pilate tells the priests to judge Jesus themselves, to which they respond they lack authority to do so. Pilate questions Jesus, after which he states, "I find no basis for a charge against him." Pilate then offers the Jews the choice of one prisoner to release — said to be a Passover tradition — and the Jews choose a rebel named Barabbas instead of Jesus. (18:38-40)

For Jewish leaders of the time, there were serious concerns about Roman rule and an insurgent Zealot movement to eject Romans from Palestine. They would have feared any religious reformer or leader who either denied their own authority to rule or who suggested rebellion against the Romans. The Romans would not perform execution over violations of Jewish law, and therefore the charge of blasphemy would not have mattered to Pilate (although Pilate was a vicious ruler in his own right and was recalled by Rome for mismanagement and cruelty). Caiaphas's legal position, therefore, was to establish that Jesus was guilty not only of blasphemy, but also of proclaiming himself the messiah, which was understood as the return of the Davidic king. This would have been an act of sedition and prompted Roman execution. Pilate initially wished for Herod Antipas to deal with the matter (probably to avoid fomenting more anti-Roman feeling), where the Sanhedrin would have wished for a Roman execution (probably to avoid fomenting more anti-establishment feeling).

The ossuary of a "Caiaphas" was discovered in Jerusalem in 1990, and remains an important artifact in the corpus of Biblical archaeology.

External link

• Images of the Ossuary of Caiaphas