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Does the Caiaphas ossuary prove Christ's Crucifixion is a fairy tale?
Which ossuary is inscribed 'Qafa' & 'Yehosef bar QA?
What is the ossuary etching of Yehosef bar Qayafa?
The Caiaphas ossuary is a highly decorated ossuary twice inscribed "Joseph, son of Caiaphas" which held the bones of a 60-year-old male. The limestone ossuary measures c. 37 cm (15 in) high by 75 cm (30 in) long and is housed in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
The inscription on the ossuary confirms that Caiaphas was a high priest in the 1st century AD and was involved in the trial and death of Jesus. The Caiaphas Ossuary has become a source of debate in recent years.
On the lid of one ossuary they saw the name “Qafa,” an Aramaic form of the Greek family name Caiaphas. The second, an especially ornate box (above), bore on its side the Aramaic inscription “Yehosef bar Qayafa,” or “Joseph, son of Caiaphas” (below).
They contained twelve loculi (Hebrew kokhim) and four ossuaries. Two of the ossuaries were inscribed with forms of the name Qayapa’, or Caiaphas, a family name familiar from the New Testament and from the first-century historian Josephus.
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.
In the latter were two more ossuaries. Unlike the four ossuaries in the center of the cave, these two ossuaries were in situ, lying side by side in the loculus. The cave itself was carved into the soft limestone bedrock characteristic of the eastern slopes of the Judean desert.
In 1990 a rockhewn burial chamber was uncovered by Z. Greenhut to the south of Jerusalem and within it was a stone box containing bones (ossuary) bearing the Aramaic inscription "Yehosef bar (son of) Qafa (Caiapha)." It is assumed that this tomb belonged to the family of the High Priest Caiaphas.
