Caiaphas

Joseph ben Caiaphas rose to the high priesthood through Roman appointment — the procurator Valerius Gratus installed him after deposing his predecessor Simon ben Camithus. What survives of his tenure comes mostly from the New Testament Gospels and the historian Josephus. In Matthew, Luke, and John, he appears as the figure presiding over the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus, the one who set the plot in motion. That role, recorded by writers working within decades of the events, locked his name to the crucifixion story. He remains the religious officeholder at the hinge point, the man who convened the…