In John 18, who was high priest at the time of Jesus' arrest?

Question

First the text in John 18 (NIV) seems to make clear that Caiaphas was high priest:

18:13 They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year.

But later we read:

18:19 Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. ...

18:24 Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

From verses 19 and 24 it seems like Annas was the high priest, but 24 also makes clear that Caiaphas was high priest. Was there more than one high priest at a time? Or was Caiaphas somehow the one questioning Jesus in verse 19? Who was the high priest?

Answer 1

Short Answer: There is no contradiction here. They were both regarded as High Priest at the time of Jesus' crucifixion.

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(The following is adapted largely from D. A. Carson's commentary on John.)

Annas was the official High Priest beginning in AD 6. Mosaic Law specified that the appointment of a High Priest was for life, and so he was still High Priest by Jewish standards during the time of Jesus' crucifixion.

In AD 15 Valerius Gratus (Pilate's predecessor) deposed Annas and his nephew Caiaphas was appointed. The Jews resented this arbitrary deposition -- especially by a Roman, and Annas remained High Priest in their sight. So by the time of Jesus' trial, Annas was technically (by Jewish standards) High Priest, as was his nephew Caiaphas (by both Jewish and Roman standards.)

Five of Annas' sons and his son-in-law Caiaphas served as High Priest at one time or another.¹ Since Annas was the patriarch of a High-Priestly family (of which Caiaphas was a part), it made sense to bring Jesus to him first.

Note the following other passages from Scripture which lend further support to this answer:

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. -Luke 3:1-2

On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent. -Acts 4:5-6

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^{1: Josephus, Antiquities xx. 198}

Answer 2

Annas had been elected high priest by the Jews, but subsequently deposed by the Romans, who appointed various successors before settling on his son-in-law, Caiaphas (Josephus, Antiquities, book XVIII 2.2). Not only was Annas highly regarded, but the Jews resented Roman interference in their religious affairs, so they still regarded him as the unofficial high priest. Thus, we have the official high priest, Caiaphas, with whom the Romans dealt, and the unofficial high priest, Annas.

Answer 3

The high priestly function was controlled by the Romans during the time of Christ. The whole period is written up in great detail by a Galilean Jew, a Pharisee, who was a young general in the early stages of the Roman-Jewish War of AD 66-72 in which Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed as Jesus predicted. This man's name was Joseph, or Josephus in the Latin form.

He fled from a loss in battle to a cave where he and other officers entered a suicide pact. When they had all killed themselves, he gave himself a pardon and surrendered to the Romans, becoming an advisor to General Vespasian, whom he boldly predicted would become emperor. (And he did.) In later years, Josephus felt the sting of rejection by his own people and wrote a massive volumes on The Antiquities of the Jews which sheds light on the entire Old Testament and Intertestamental period, and another titled The Wars of the Jews which tells the story of the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.

He gives us a detailed list of the high priestly family, mentions Jesus in a controversial passage, John the Baptist extensively, and the brother of Christ, "James the Just" and how his murder came about. Looking up Josephus and his works will give you intense extra-biblical background to the time of Christ.