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The Caiaphas Ossuary

SupportedPeace Forest, Jerusalem

An ornate bone box found in a Jerusalem tomb in 1990, inscribed “Joseph son of Caiaphas.” Many scholars think it held the bones of the high priest who handed Jesus over to Pilate.

A limestone ossuary with a curved lid, its front carved with rosettes and palm-frond borders
The Caiaphas ossuary on display at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.Photo: BRBurton · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons

In November 1990, construction work in Jerusalem’s Peace Forest broke into the roof of a 1st-century burial cave. Zvi Greenhut of the Israel Antiquities Authority found about a dozen ossuaries, limestone boxes in which bones were gathered about a year after burial. The most elaborate, carved with rosettes, is inscribed “Yehosef bar Qayafa,” Joseph son of Caiaphas, and held the bones of six people, including a man of about sixty.

The Gospels name Caiaphas as the high priest when Jesus was arrested and questioned (Matthew 26:57; John 11:49–53; 18:13–14, 24). Josephus gives his full name as Joseph Caiaphas, high priest from about AD 18 to 36. A decorated ossuary bearing that name, in a family tomb of the right period, fits him well.

The bones were reburied, and the ossuary is displayed in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Why it’s rated supported

This rating covers the identification of the ossuary’s Joseph son of Caiaphas with the high priest. The tomb and the ossuary come from a documented salvage excavation and are not in doubt. That this Joseph son of Caiaphas is the high priest is probable rather than certain. The name matches Josephus’s “Joseph who was called Caiaphas,” and the box is richly decorated, but the inscription gives no title, and a few scholars question the reading of the family name.

Supported: Strong evidence, but its link to the biblical text is probable rather than certain. About the ratings

In scripture

Timeline

  1. c. AD 18Joseph Caiaphas becomes high priest (Josephus, Antiquities 18.35).
  2. c. AD 30–33Jesus is brought before Caiaphas (Matthew 26; John 18).
  3. c. AD 36Caiaphas is removed from office.
  4. 1990The family tomb is discovered in the Peace Forest.
  5. 1992Greenhut and Ronny Reich publish the find.

Sources

  1. Greenhut, Zvi. “Burial Cave of the Caiaphas Family.” Biblical Archaeology Review 18, no. 5 (1992). Link to this source
  2. Reich, Ronny. “Caiaphas Name Inscribed on Bone Boxes.” Biblical Archaeology Review 18, no. 5 (1992). Link to this source
  3. Greenhut, Zvi. “The ‘Caiaphas’ Tomb in North Talpiyot, Jerusalem.” ʿAtiqot 21 (1992): 63–71.
  4. Reich, Ronny. “Ossuary Inscriptions from the ‘Caiaphas’ Tomb.” ʿAtiqot 21 (1992): 72–77.
  5. Horbury, William. “The ‘Caiaphas’ Ossuaries and Joseph Caiaphas.” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 126, no. 1 (1994): 32–48. Link to this source
  6. Josephus. Jewish Antiquities 18.35, 18.95.

Last reviewed October 14, 2026.