Caiaphas

Jerusalem's high priest when Jesus died; an ossuary bearing his name corroborates the existence of someone so called.

Other Gospel characters have proven existence: Herod, Pontius Pilate and even Caiaphas, high priest when Jesus died. That Jesus was crucified scholars do not doubt; it was the cruel punishment that Rome used against bandits and slaves to intimidate anyone who dared challenge the order. But each Gospel tells of the execution in its own way, and they disagree even about its timing. The book's timeline dates the death to 30 CE.1 There is an ossuary, a box used to hold the bones of the dead, engraved with the name Caiaphas; the high priest of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus's trial bore that name.2