Jesus and His World: The Archaeological Evidence by Craig A. Evans

Author:Craig A. Evans [Evans, Craig A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Religion, Reference, Bible, Biblical Studies, Jesus; The Gospels & Acts, New Testament, History & Culture
ISBN: 9780664234133
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Published: 2012-03-16T05:00:00+00:00

Figure 4.4 Priestly mansion, Jerusalem

A partly restored room in a mansion destroyed in 70 ce, excavated in the Jewish Quarter of Old Jerusalem, thought to have belonged to a high priest. In contrast to pagan art, the floor mosaic presents no human figures or mythological themes. The stone vessels are indicative of Jewish purity laws.

At Akeldama the lower portion of a tomb complex has been excavated that may have belonged to the family of Annas, high priest from 6 –15 ce.6 The remains of this tomb suggest that in its pristine condition the tomb would have been very impressive, not unlike the beautiful monumental tombs that adorn the Kidron Valley at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

Annas (or Ananus) the high priest, whose five sons and son-inlaw Caiaphas served terms as high priest (Josephus, Ant. 20.198), is mentioned in the New Testament (Luke 3.2: ‘the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas’; John 18.13: ‘they led him to Annas; for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas’; Acts 4.6: ‘Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of highpriestly family’). According to Josephus, the father of Annas is one Sethi (Ant. 18.26). This is probably the priestly family excoriated in rabbinic tradition (b. Pesahim 57a; m. Keritot 1.7). (For more on the tombs in and around Jerusalem, see Chapter 5.)

The most intriguing discovery may relate to the son-in-law of Annas, the high priest Caiaphas who condemned Jesus and handed him over to the Roman governor. In November 1990, while working in Jerusalem’s Peace Forest (North Talpiyot), which is 1.5 km south of the Old City, a crew inadvertently uncovered a crypt with four loculi in which twelve ossuaries were discovered. Happily, most of the ossuaries were found intact, unmolested by grave robbers. Coins and the style of writing seen in the inscriptions have dated these ossuaries to the first century ce. On one of the ornate ossuaries (no. 6, measuring 74 cm in length, 29 cm in width and 38 cm in height; now on display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem), two very interesting inscriptions were found (Figure 4.5). The inscriptions have been transcribed as follows:7

Yehoseph bar

Qyph’ Yehoseph bar Qph’ Translated:

Joseph son of

Qayafa

Joseph son of Qafa This ossuary contained the bones of a 60-year-old man (and those of two infants, a toddler, a young boy and a woman), and is thought by some, including the authorities of the aforementioned museum, to be the ossuary of Caiaphas the high priest, to whom Josephus refers as Joseph Caiaphas (Ant. 18.35: ‘Joseph who is Caiaphas’ and 18.95: ‘the high priest Joseph called Caiaphas’) and the Gospels and Acts call more simply ‘Caiaphas’ (Matt. 26.3, 57; Luke 3.2; John 11.49; 18.13, 14, 24, 28; Acts 4.6). Those who think the ossuary belonged to Caiaphas vocalize the inscribed name as Qayapha (or Qayyapha), the Hebrew or Aramaic equivalent of the Greek Caiaphas.

A second ossuary in the tomb (no. 3) bears the name qf ’ (vowels to come later!). In a third ossuary (no.

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