Kajaphas

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Kajaphas (also Caiaphas , Kaifas , Kaiaphas or Kajafas ; actually: Qajfa ; completely probably Jehosaf bar Qajfa , "Joseph [the] Caiaphas" or "Joseph [son of] Caiaphas") was a Jewish priest who lived in the period from 18 to 36 of the Christian era as high priest at the Jerusalem temple . He became famous for his representation in the Christian Gospels , which depict him as a person who was instrumental in the condemnation of Jesus of Nazareth .

Jesus before Kajaphas, painting by Giotto di Bondone (around 1305)

Historical key data

Information about Kajaphas can be found in the work of the Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus and in the New Testament tradition. Insofar as the information is mutually supportive, it is considered historically secure. Kajaphas was appointed high priest in 18 AD by the Roman prefect Valerius Gratus ( Ant XVIII, 95). Josephus calls him "Joseph who is called Caiaphas", while the biblical writings only know him by the (by -?) Name Caiaphas / Caiaphas. According to the Gospel of John, Kajaphas was the son-in-law of Annas ( John 18:13  EU ), who, according to Josephus, had been high priest himself for nine years and headed an influential priestly family.

Hannas ben Seth (also Annas , Latin Ananus , in Hebrew Hanan or Hanin ) officiated between 6 and about 15 AD, in the last years of the reign of the Roman Princeps Augustus . He is considered the most influential high priest of the 1st century and became the patriarch of a high priest dynasty to which Kajaphas can also be counted. After Tiberius came to power in Rome, Annas was followed in quick succession by three incumbents: First, an Ishmael from the Phabi or Phiabi priestly family, who was in office for only a few months between AD 15 and 16. He was replaced by Eleazar ben Hannas , the first of several Hannas sons who held the office of high priest in the years up to the outbreak of the First Jewish War in AD 66. According to Josephus, the direct predecessor of Kajaphas was a Simeon , who is said to come from the Kamith priestly family, who officiated from 17 to 18 AD and is probably also mentioned in various later rabbinical texts. Apart from that, almost nothing is known about these three predecessors, except that they, like Kajaphas, were appointed to their office by Prefect Gratus and also removed from office by him.

Since the reign of Herod the Great, the office of high priest was no longer a hereditary, lifelong office, but was given by the respective rulers, that is, by Herod and the Herodians or Roman governors who ruled after him in Judea , to a member of the Priestly aristocracy awarded. This is often identified with the group of Sadducees . While eight high priests officiated in 115 years during the Hasmonean Empire , it was in the time of 37 BC. Chr. To 70 AD, that is about the same length of time, 28 high priests. In this respect, Kajapha's exceptionally long term of office of 19 years is a consequence of his skillful conduct of office both internally and externally. Since the Jewish-religious offices at this time largely depended on the benevolence of the Roman occupying power in Judea, Kajaphas will have paid considerable attention to Roman concerns. In addition, he probably received support from his father-in-law Hannas. According to the testimony of Flavius ​​Josephus, the legate Lucius Vitellius deposed Kajaphas in the context of the recall of Pontius Pilate as prefect of Judea in 36/37 AD (Ant XVIII, 95), which indicates close ties between Kajaphas and indicates to the Roman governor. Vitellius appointed a brother-in-law of Kajaphas, Jonathan ben Hannas , who, as Hannas's son, belonged to the same family, but only officiated briefly in the spring of 37, Vitellius appointed as his successor in the function of high priest . The next but one successor to Kajaphas ( Theophilos , another son of Annas, a. 37-41) came from this priestly dynasty. It is therefore certain that the Roman authorities continued to work with the House of Annas even after the deposition of Kajaphas, at least until Herod Agrippa I (r. 41-44) was raised to King of Judea by Emperor Claudius . Jonathan, who had good relations with the imperial court, was offered the office again by Agrippa I, but refused a second term.

Nothing is known about the further fate of Kajaphas after his deposition or the time and circumstances of his death. Assuming the authenticity of the grave finds in Jerusalem, it can be assumed that he was around 60 years old when he died and possibly died in the 1940s.

Finding the presumed burial site

Ossuary of Jehosef bar Qajfa. Israel Museum , Jerusalem

In 1990, in the Jerusalem suburb of Talpiot, a family tomb from the 1st century with several stone ossuars (bone boxes ) was excavated, one of which is said to contain the bones of a Kajapha. Next to it was another, particularly lavishly decorated ossuary bearing the Aramaic inscription “Jehosef bar Qajfa” (“Joseph, son of Kajaphas”) and containing the remains of an approximately 60-year-old man. Whether this is a son of the biblical Kajaphas or himself (then either the older Kajaphas would have been his father, or the statement "son of Kajaphas" would have to be interpreted in the sense of a mere belonging to the "family Kajaphas"), in view of the tradition of the name of Josephus, who calls the high priest "Joseph Kajaphas", also mentioned in the New Testament, is not completely certain. There were also doubts as to whether it was the family of the biblical Kajaphas at all, as the name given on the sarcophagi קיפא (ḳ-yf-ʾ) orקפא (ḳ-f-ʾ) in principle also allow other readings. The furnishing of the graves as well as the coin found in a female person as a burial object, an obolus for Charon , also made the priestly origin appear questionable.

In July 2011, however, another ossuary was presented to the public that had been stolen from a grave cave in the Elah Valley by grave robbers three years earlier and had belonged to the granddaughter “Miriam, daughter of Yeshua, son of Kajaphas, priest of Maaziah”. In view of the equality of the unusual name, the assumption that the Jerusalem find is actually the tomb of the priestly family of Kajaphas is hardly disputed. This not only confirms another "son of Kajaphas" named Jesus ( Jeschua ), but also the previously unknown fact that Kajaphas was evidently related to the Maaziah family, the last of the 24 of King David according to the 2nd book of Chronicle of the group of the Kohanim , the descendants of Aaron , priestly departments appointed for the temple service.

reception

Figure of the passion story

The figure of Kajaphas has gained extremely ambiguous fame in the presentation of the Christian Gospels. According to the passion stories of the evangelists Matthew (26.3.57 EU ) and John (11.47–53 EU ; 18.12–28 EU ) the Jewish high council and in particular the reigning high priest Kajaphas played a leading role in the extradition of Jesus to the Romans.

According to Mt 26 : 59–68 EU , the Jewish High Council sought to convict Jesus of breaking the law by making  false statements. Matthew then describes the judgment of the high priest (Caiaphas), which reads on blasphemy and is punished by the high council with the death sentence against Jesus ( Mt 26 : 65-66  EU ).

According to Jn 11: 49-52  EU , Kajaphas gave his fellow councilors the decisive hint on how to deal with Jesus, who had challenged the Jewish authorities through his work, before the negotiation: “It is useful for you when a person dies for the people, and not the whole nation perish ”. However, John expressly characterizes this valuation of Kajaphas as prophecy ( John 11.51  EU ), so that it largely eludes any legal or ethical classification and is to be understood in the context of theological conceptions of the mission of Jesus.

The representation of Kajaphas in the New Testament has contributed significantly to the consolidation of anti-Jewish resentments in the history of Christianity . The attribution of guilt for the death of Jesus often gave rise to general anti-Jewish attitudes and behavior.

iconography

The scene of the interrogation of Jesus by the Jewish synhedrion under the chairmanship of Kajaphas is a representation that is often included in passion cycles ("Jesus before the Sanhedrin").

Jesus before the Sanhedrin: "The unjust judgment". Bilderbogen, Weissenburg , 19th century

A peculiar special case must be distinguished from the current iconographic tradition, which, based on apocryphal sources that were circulated in the 16th century , resulted in the condemnation by the Sanhedrin and the later by Pontius Pilate , contrary to the Gospel text , resulting in a judgment scene contracted. It had been widespread in prints and paintings from Germany and the Netherlands since the late 16th century and established a pictorial tradition that continued into the 19th century in sheets of pictures and occasional popular depictions.

literature

Web links

Commons : Kajaphas  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Single receipts

  1. ^ A b Rainer Riesner : Kajafas . In: New Bible Lexicon . Volume 2, Zurich and Düsseldorf 1995, Sp. 427-428.
  2. ↑ James C. VanderKam: From Joshua to Caiaphas. High Priests after the Exile. Minneapolis / Assen 2004, p. 424 f.
  3. ^ Geza Vermes : Anno Domini. A who's who in Jesus' time. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2008, ISBN 978-3-7857-2347-0 , p. 115 f.
  4. ^ Rainer Metzner: Kaiphas. The high priest of that year. History and interpretation . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, pp. 16-17.
  5. ^ Rainer Metzner: The celebrities in the New Testament. A prosopographical commentary (= Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus. Studies on the Environment of the New Testament 66). Göttingen 2008, p. 82.
  6. ^ Rainer Metzner: The celebrities in the New Testament. A prosopographical commentary (= Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus. Studies on the Environment of the New Testament 66). Göttingen 2008, p. 83.
  7. ↑ Boaz Zissu , Yuval Goren : The Ossuary of 'Miriam Daughter of Yeshua Son ofCaiaphas, Priests [of] Maʾaziah from Beth ʿImri' . In: Israel Exploration Journal 61 (2011), pp. 74-95. ( PDF )
  8. ^ Rainer Metzner: Kaiphas. The high priest of that year. History and interpretation . Leiden and Boston 2010, p. XVII.
  9. ↑ Rainer Henrich: Judgment on Jesus , in: RDK Labor (2019), >
personal data
SURNAME Kajaphas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Caiaphas; Kaifas; Kaiaphas; Kajafas; Josef Qajjafa; Jehosaf bar Qajfa (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jewish high priest
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 1st century