The high priest before whom Jesus was tried, in office roughly 18–36 CE — an unusually long tenure in a post the Roman governors appointed and removed at will, which by itself says something about how well he managed them. His full name was Joseph, called Caiaphas; Josephus supplies both. He was son-in-law to Annas, the previous high priest, whose family held the office across two generations. ⚠ He is one of relatively few New Testament figures with direct archaeological attestation: an ossuary found in a burial cave in the Peace Forest south of Jerusalem in 1990 is inscribed ‘Yehosef bar Qayafa’, Joseph son of Caiaphas, and is widely though not universally accepted as his. Matthew has him preside over a night hearing, put Jesus under oath, and tear his garments at the answer — the one gesture Leviticus 21:10 forbids his office, though later Jewish tradition distinguished a judicial tearing on hearing blasphemy from the mourning-tear the Law prohibits.