Archaeology

Caiaphas Ossuary

Era: 1st century AD
Location: Peace Forest, southern Jerusalem
Discovered: 1990

A first-century limestone bone-box inscribed "Yehosef bar Qayafa" (Joseph son of Caiaphas) — almost certainly the burial ossuary of the very high priest who presided at Jesus' trial.

The find

In 1990 construction workers in Jerusalem's Peace Forest broke through into an undisturbed first-century burial cave. Inside were twelve ossuaries, two of them inscribed with forms of the name "Qayafa." The most ornate held the bones of a roughly 60-year-old man and bears the inscription naming Joseph son of Caiaphas — the full name Josephus gives for the high priest of AD 18-36.

Why it matters

This is physical, in-context evidence for the high priest named in Matthew 26, John 11, and Acts 4. The dating and burial setting line up exactly with the Caiaphas of the Gospels.

Cross-linked Scripture

Doctrine check

Sources

·Greenhut, Z. (1992). The Caiaphas Tomb in North Talpiyot, Jerusalem. Atiqot 21
·Reich, R. (1992). Ossuary Inscriptions from the Caiaphas Tomb. Atiqot 21
·Caiaphas (Wikipedia)