Caiaphas

CAIAPHAS, cɑi´ɑ-fɑs (more exactly Joseph, who also was called Caiaphas; cf. Josephus, Ant., XVIII. ii. 2): The Jewish high priest who held office during the ministry and death of Jesus. He was the last of the four high priests whom the Roman procurator Valerius Gratus appointed successively to this dignity. As Valerius was procurator from 15 to 26 A.D., his appointment of Caiaphas must have occurred at the latest in 26 A.D.; most likely it happened c. 18 A.D., as Valerius Gratus probably appointed Ishmael, the first of the four high priests, immediately after his own inauguration, and as the next two remained in office only about one year, Caiaphas held his office until c. 36 A.D., when he was removed by Vitellius, the legate of Syria. His administration, therefore, lasted about eighteen years—a long term when compared with that of most other high priests of the Roman period. For this he was probably indebted less to his ability than to his submissiveness to the anti-Jewish policy of the Roman government. Probably he belonged to the party of the Sadducees and shared their fondness for foreign ideas, as did his father-in law Annas (Acts iv. 1, 6; v. 17) and the latter's son Annas the Younger (Josephus, Ant., XX, ix. 1). See Annas.

F. Sieffert.

Bibliography: A. Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, ii. 547, London, 1885; D. F. Strauss, Leben Jesu, iv. 30 sqq., Bonn, 1895; Schürer, Geschichte, ii. 204, 218, Eng. transl., II. i. 182, 199; DB, i. 338; EB, i. 171–172; JE, ii. 493; and, in general, commentaries on the Gospels.