Caiphas

See also: The High Priests, High Priest's Garments.

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Caiaphas, the high priest who presided over the trial that led to the condemnation of Jesus.

The portrait that Maria Valtorta draws of the acting High Priest is unflattering:

"Resentful face", "face and body resembling those of an excessively fat and wicked frog", "small, excessively fat, ugly, he looks like a huge toad close to a flower", "the true figure of a criminal."

Caiphas, nickname of Joseph, is the son-in-law of Anne the High Priest, known like him from the Gospels.

He appears especially towards the end of the public life of Jesus: during the plot that leads to his arrest and the trial that leads to his death.

The business relations that Caiphas maintains with Zebedee*, allow his son John, the apostle, to enter the court of the High Priest located in the Temple according to Maria Valtorta.

In the same hall of the Temple where Jesus has just been condemned, Caiphas immediately receives the thirty pieces of silver from the betrayal thrown by Judas.

The traitor then goes and hangs himself in a field located a few hundred meters from Caiphas's country house, near the Dung Gate, where the Sanhedrin was plotting.

The condemnation of Caiphas is predicted by Jesus. Even if his father-in-law, Anne, exercised a predominant influence testified by the Acts of the Apostles, it is Caiphas the High Priest of Jesus's Public Life who is the architect of his condemnation as well as that of Stephen.

His name

Caiphas (Caiaiphas) is the nickname of Yosef Bar Kayafa. The origin of Caiphas varies Salton the Aramaic or Chaldean languages as "hollow rock" or "depression". Joseph means "may God add" from the Hebrew verb yasaph, to add. - Historical: Eleventh son of Jacob and Rachel: "May the Lord add me another son."

Where is he mentioned in the work?

End of the shepherds cycle: GRM 114 GRM 115 GRM 123

Apostolic journey to Judea: GRM 70 GRM 334 GRM 342

The Feast of Dedication: GRM 535

The resurrection of Lazarus: GRM 546 GRM 549 The return to Jerusalem: GRM 581 GRM 585 GRM 588 GRM 598 The Passion: GRM 604 GRM 639 GRM 643 GRM 645

Learn more about this character

It is supposed that Caiphas belonged to the family priestly line of the Kathros, a collateral branch of the powerful family of the Boethos, originating from Alexandria in Egypt and promoted to the high priesthood by Herod the Great. He was a Sadducee.

He married a daughter of Hanna the former High Priest. Appointed by Valerius Gratus, he became High Priest himself from 18 to 36/37 AD, the date at which he was removed by Vitellius. This dismissal by the Roman authority that had appointed him follows the recall to Rome of Pontius Pilate to whom he seems linked.

His son Elyehoeanay (Elionaeus ben Kantheras) would be one of the last high priests.

The tomb of Caiphas was discovered in 1990 in Jerusalem south of the valley of Gehenna. The burial contained the bones of a man of about 60 years, a woman of 40 years, and two very young children.