Caiaphas Name Inscribed on Bone Boxes

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Very few of the hundreds of people who walk through the pages of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament have been attested in archaeological finds.^a Now, to that small list, we may add, in all probability, the high priest who presided at Jesus’ trial—or at least a member of his family. A form of the name of Caiaphas has been deciphered thrice on two ossuaries, or bone boxes, recently discovered in Jerusalem.

Even if we expand our categories and include the writings of Josephus, the first-century C.E.^b Jewish historian, and rabbinic literature (for example, the Mishnah and the Talmud—200–600 C.E.), the number of names we would add to our list would still be minuscule. Indeed, we could count the additional names on the fingers of both hands with some fingers left over, excluding, of course, names of rulers, who obviously appear frequently on coins and legal documents.

From the period between the second century B.C.E. and the second century C.E., there are only six such names, and perhaps you will exclude one or two of these because they are the names of rulers or former rulers. Three of these names, 039however, are especially pertinent here because they, like Caiaphas, come from priestly families.

• The name of Nicanor, the Alexandrian Jew who donated gates to the Herodian Temple in Jerusalem, according to the Mishnah,¹ was found on an ossuary in a burial site on Mt. Scopus.²

• The name of the priestly family of Hezir, mentioned in the Bible (Nehemiah 10:20; 1 Chronicles 24:15; later they became the 17th Priestly course), was found in an epitaph in the family’s well-known mausoleum in the Kidron Valley.³

• The name of the priestly family Qatros was inscribed on a stone weight, found in the so-called Burnt House, a private dwelling in the Upper City of Jerusalem that may have been the high priest’s home.^c The name Qatros is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud⁴ and will have further relevance here.

• More recently, an inscribed ossuary was published bearing 040the name Yehohanah, a granddaughter of the high priest Theophilus. Theophilus, as we know from Josephus, was nominated high priest in 37 C.E.⁵

• Another woman, a retired queen, Helene of Adiabene, was buried in the mausoleum misidentified as the Tomb of the Kings in Jerusalem. A sarcophagus from this so-called Tomb of the Kings bears the name “Sada” or “Sedan,” the Aramaic equivalent of the Greek “Helene.” Adiabene is located in today’s Kurdistan, in northern Iraq; Helene and her people converted to Judaism in about the middle of the first century C.E. The story is told by Josephus.⁶

• The First Jewish Revolt against Rome effectively ended in 70 C.E., when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple (some Zealots in Masada held out for another three or four years). Less than 70 years later, the Jews again revolted. The Second Jewish Revolt (132–135 C.E.), often called the Bar-Kokhba revolt after its leader, also ended in defeat. Letters, coins and a weight bearing his real name—Simon ben Kosiba—have also been recovered.⁷

This is the entire list—or it was until 1990. Now we can add the name of Caiaphas.

The excavation in which the ossuaries bearing this name were discovered has already been described by Zvi Greenhut “Burial Cave of the Caiaphas Family,” in this issue.

The inscription on the simpler of two ossuaries containing the name Caiaphas was incised on its narrow side and consists of only three Hebrew letters:

apq = Qafa’

A simple mark—not part of the inscription—is incised above it, on the upper rim of the ossuary with a corresponding mark on the lid. These marks served to guide the user in fitting the lid on the box. This is a common feature on ossuaries and has been found 041on another ossuary from this same burial cave (using the letter bet).

The most elaborately decorated ossuary found in this cave contains two inscriptions relating to the Caiaphas family. They are identical except for the addition in one of them of one letter, a difference in the spelling of the Caiaphas name. On the narrow side of this ossuary is the inscription:

apq rb ¹swhy = Yhwsp br Qp’ = Joseph, son of Qafa’

Note that the family name is spelled exactly as it was on the other ossuary. The same inscription, “Joseph son of [patronymic],” is incised on the undecorated long rear side of this ossuary, but this time the family name is spelled slightly differently. A yod, or possibly a vov, is added after the first letter:

apyq (or apwq) = Qyp’ (or Qwp’) = Qafa’ (or Qayafa’)

The name apq (Qafa) or apyq (Qayafa) is an Aramaic form. The name Joseph son of Caiaphas does not necessarily mean that Caiaphas was Joseph’s father. Caiaphas may designate simply a family nickname. Thus the inscription may well be understood as Joseph of the family Caiaphas. The elderly man buried in the highly decorated ossuary was apparently Joseph. It was probably a forefather who had acquired this nickname, which then became a sort of family name—inherited by his descendants.⁸

In the most recent statistical study of personal names from the Second Temple period, it was found that approximately 28 percent of the men mentioned in literary sources as well as on inscriptions had one of only four names. Nine names accounted for 44 percent of the men.⁹ In these circumstances a family nickname may well have been a good means of distinguishing among people with the same personal name. Joseph (¹swhy and its variants hswy and yswy) and Simon (÷w[m) were the two most popular Jewish names among males during this period.

A person named Joseph with the nickname Caiaphas was the high priest in Jerusalem between 18 and 36 C.E. The New Testament provides only his nickname in the Greek form: Kaiavfa~ (Caiaphas, see Matthew 26:3, 57; Luke 3:2; John 11:49, 18:13, 14, 24, 28; Acts 4:6). Josephus, however, gives his proper name as well: Joseph Caiaphas,¹⁰ or elsewhere, “Joseph who was called Caiaphas of the high priesthood.”¹¹ In short, we are explicitly told by Josephus that Caiaphas was indeed a nickname. Incidentally, Josephus reflects the same variation in the spelling of the name Caiaphas as we find in our ossuaries, although in Greek rather than Aramaic. Both the New Testament and Josephus preserve only the Greek form of the name. Our inscription provides us with the original Semitic form of the name.

Several rabbinic references also mention the family Caiaphas, naturally in its Semitic form.

• The Mishnah¹² mentions a high priest named Elyoenai son of the Qayaf [Caiaphas] ([¹yyqh] ¹wqh rb yny[wyla) This is the Hebrew version of the Aramaic form preserved on the ossuary (Qayafa’, apyq). Some scholars have suggested that the Elyoenai Caiaphas mentioned in the Mishnah is the son of Joseph nicknamed Caiaphas, mentioned by Josephus;¹³ others have suggested they were brothers.¹⁴

• Another rabbinic text refers to “the family of the House of Qefai [Caiaphas] from Bet Mekoshesh”: wqm tybm yapyq tyb tjpm, a priestly family some of whose members became high priests.¹⁵ The village of Bet Mekoshesh was probably the place where this family originated before moving to Jerusalem.

• The Jerusalem Talmud¹⁶ mentions Jonathan Qayafa’ [Caiaphas] (apyq ÷tnwy), but the context of the reference demonstrates quite clearly that Caiaphas is a nickname. This reference appears as part of a considerably longer personal identification: Menahem, son of Maxima, the brother of Jonathan Qayafa’ (Caiaphas). Menahem was Jonathan’s brother. Maxima was their father. The name Qayafa’ (Caiaphas) after Jonathan’s name must therefore be a nickname (or patronymic).

Two recent studies (although completed before the discovery of our burial cave) have attempted to reconstruct the history of the Qafa’, or Caiaphas, family in the Second Temple period and even earlier.¹⁷ One of the scholars (R. Brodi) has demonstrated that Elyoenai son of the Qayaf mentioned above is the same person mentioned by Josephus¹⁸ in Greek as Elionaeus son of Cantheras. The personal name of Elyoenai/Elionaeus is rare and supports the possibility that both sources refer to 042the same person. Brodi goes further, however, and points out that the two patronymics (or nicknames), Qayaf and Cantheras, are etymologically related. Both mean “basket,” or “carrying,” or perhaps a “wooden pole” used either for roofing or for the support of vines. This might mean that the forefather of the family, who introduced the nickname Qayafa, was a basketmaker, or used pack-asses to move goods, or was active in the vineyard business by supporting vines.

We may trace the names a little further. The next step is to relate the Greek name Cantheras to Qatros (srtq). The equation between the names seems reasonable, although the Hebrew version of Cantheras, Qantros (srtnq), has not yet been attested in inscriptions. It is quite unlikely that two different contemporaneous families would bear names so close phonetically. Qantros may have been the earlier version of the name; later, one letter, the nun, was assimilated with the following letter, taw, and resulted in Qatros.

Thus Caiaphas bears a relationship, through Cantheras, to Qatros, the latter being the name of a priestly family mentioned in our literary sources and, as stated at the beginning of this article, also the name inscribed on a weight excavated in the famous Burnt House in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. Are these three names—Qayafa (Caiaphas), Cantheras (Qantros) and Qatros—different versions of the same name? Do the three different versions belong to the same family?¹⁹ Quite possibly.

The three Caiaphas inscriptions (if we may refer to them by the familiar spelling in Latin letters) were incised on the two limestone ossuaries in the cursive hand of the Jewish script of the Second Temple period, as were the other ossuary inscriptions in the burial cave. The carvings are all very rough, however, crudely incised in the manner of graffiti, despite the fact that the artisans who made the ossuaries were obviously highly talented, careful craftsmen fully capable of producing fine quality work. The poor quality of the inscriptions is because the inscriptions were added to the ossuaries after they had been placed in the loculi. That also accounts for the fact that some of the inscriptions read from the bottom up. It is awkward to read and even more awkward to write. 044The person who incised these inscriptions had to insert his hand into the narrow gap between the sides of the ossuary and the wall of the loculus to add the names. As Hebrew and Aramaic are written from right to left, he incised it in this way.

The inscriptions were used to mark the ossuaries with the identity of the people whose bones were inside. It is also possible that the inscriptions were intended to commemorate and preserve the name of the deceased. But it is clear these inscriptions were not intended for public display.

Can we date the Caiaphas inscriptions from our burial cave? A coin found in one of the other ossuaries was minted by Herod Agrippa (37–44 C.E.). The two Caiaphas ossuaries might be as early as the beginning of the century. It is difficult to say more, however.

We should not ignore the other interesting inscriptions found on ossuaries in this burial cave. In addition to the two (with three inscriptions) bearing the name Caiaphas, three other ossuaries bear inscriptions consisting of names.^d One reads Miriam, daughter (berat^e) of Simon (÷w[m trb µyrm) in Aramaic. Thus the inscriptions in this burial cave include the two most popular male names of the period, Joseph and Simon. Among women’s names Miriam (or Miriah, which later turned into Maria or Mary) is also one of the two most popular.

Another ossuary bears the word “Shalom (µwl).^f The full version would be “Shlomzion” (÷wyxmwl). The Greek equivalent is Salome—an extremely popular name in this period. Nearly a quarter of all women mentioned by name in literary sources and inscriptions of this time bore the name Miriam, and another quarter, Shlomzion (Salome).²⁰ This means that half the women in the community bore one of these two names.

The last inscription consists of only two Hebrew letters—sh and m (µ)—but their interpretation is problematic. “Shem” is a Biblical personal name, that of one of Noah’s sons (Genesis 6:10). However, this name has not been found in the Jewish onomasticon (list of names) of the period. Indeed, none of the names of the group to which this name belongs—the ancestors of mankind—was used by Jews at this time. So this inscription remains somewhat of a mystery. Perhaps it is an abbreviation for “Simon” (Shimon in Hebrew). The two Hebrew letters are the first two letters in this popular name (÷w[m). The Mishnah²¹ mentions the fact that names were abbreviated. The name Shimon, we are told, was indeed abbreviated ShM. Another possibility is that the workman started to write Shimon but simply failed to complete his job.

In any event, the rich hoard of inscriptions in this burial cave provides a significant addition to the Jewish onomasticon for this critical period in the history of Judaism and Christianity.

Very few of the hundreds of people who walk through the pages of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament have been attested in archaeological finds.a Now, to that small list, we may add, in all probability, the high priest who presided at Jesus’ trial—or at least a member of his family. A form of the name of Caiaphas has been deciphered thrice on two ossuaries, or bone boxes, recently discovered in Jerusalem. Even if we expand our categories and include the writings of Josephus, the first-century C.E.b Jewish historian, and rabbinic literature (for example, the Mishnah and the […]