Welcome to Caiaphas’ House

Jesus should have been tried in the Court of Hewn Stones near Herod’s temple. But instead, He was dragged off to Caiaphas’ palace nearby.

Caiaphas’ house was grand enough that a crowd gathered inside and in the courtyard to watch the illegal trial, including Peter, who said he didn’t know Jesus three times before dawn and the crowing of the cock.

Caiaphas wasn’t chosen as the high priest because of his wisdom and righteousness, but because the office could be purchased from the Romans. Annas, his father-in-law, had been the high priest, and so had Caiaphas’ brothers-in-law before him. They were powerful because they were rich.

Caiaphas was a Sadducee. The Sadducees were upper class, worldly Jews. Since Alexander the Great had conquered all of the eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Egypt, Greek culture had spread everywhere. The Sadducees loved Greek culture and adopted Greek philosophy and art. They no longer believed in the resurrection or spiritual things like angels.

A Sadducee’s house in Jerusalem may have looked like this (Greek decor, of course):

Except that Caiaphas’ house was undeniably huge!

In Jerusalem, there are ruins of a house that tourists can visit called “Caiaphas’ house.” Whether it was really his house we can’t know for certain. But there is a room underneath the house that was used for flogging people. A ridge of stone in the low ceiling has holes through which ropes can be passed to tie up the wrists of the accused. And there is a trough etched into the floor to catch the victim’s blood.