Israel Antiquities Authority

“Joseph son of Caiaphas” reads the inscription on an ossuary found in a burial cave in Jerusalem in 1990. The Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John describe Caiaphas as the high priest in the Jerusalem Temple who, with other priests, interrogated Jesus before sending him to Pontius Pilate to be tried. The historian Josephus referred to the high priest as “Joseph, who was called Caiaphas,” indicating that Caiaphas was a family name. Inside the ossuary, archaeologists found the remains of several people, one of whom, a man of about 60, was presumably Caiaphas himself.