The Bones of Caiaphas

In November 1990, construction workers in Jerusalem's Peace Forest accidentally broke through the roof of an ancient burial cave. Israeli archaeologists were called in and discovered twelve ossuaries — limestone bone boxes common in first-century Jewish burial practice. One ornately carved box bore an Aramaic inscription: "Yehosef bar Qayafa" — Joseph, son of Caiaphas.

The high priest who had presided over the trial of Jesus. His bones were still there, resting in that Jerusalem hillside nearly two thousand years later.

Peter made precisely this kind of argument at Pentecost. Standing before the crowd, he pointed to the tomb of King David — a site every person in Jerusalem knew. "Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day." David's bones remained. His tomb was occupied.

But Jesus of Nazareth? God raised Him up, "loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it."

The tombs of the great and powerful remain full. The bones of Caiaphas endure in a museum case. David's burial site is still visited by tourists today. But the tomb of the One they condemned stands empty. Death could not hold Him, and Peter and the apostles stood as living witnesses to that staggering, world-altering fact.