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In the New Testament, Caiaphas was the
Judaism|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 Gospel of Matthew|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 Gospel of John|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 two
miles south of present day Jerusalem in 1990, and
remains an important artifact in the corpus of
Biblical archaeology.

==External link==

*http://www.abu.nb.ca/courses/NTIntro/images/Caiap
hasOss.htm Images of the Ossuary of Caiaphas

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