Exploring the Meaning of Kaiaphas in Greek

Καϊάφας names Caiaphas, a high priest who appears in the Gospel passion narratives and in a later judicial setting in Acts. The name occurs in scenes of official gathering, interrogation, counsel, and transfer of custody.

Occurrences

Matthew 26:3: Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas.

Here Καϊάφας identifies the high priest by name and places him at the center of a formal assembly. The verse frames the setting spatially (“in the court of the high priest”) and socially (chief priests, scribes, elders), with Caiaphas marking whose court and whose office anchors the gathering.

Matthew 26:57: Those who had taken Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together.

In this scene Καϊάφας functions as the destination of custody: Jesus is “led…to Caiaphas the high priest.” The name is tied directly to the title “the high priest,” and the verse again pairs Caiaphas with an assembled leadership group, presenting his location as the place where the leading figures are already convened.

Luke 3:2: in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

Καϊάφας appears in a chronological and political-religious marker: “in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.” The name helps define the public era in which the narrative turns to John in the wilderness, contrasting the institutional setting of “high priesthood” with the location where “the word of God came” to John.

John 11:49: But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,”

Here Καϊάφας singles out one speaker within a group (“a certain one of them”), and the verse explicitly grounds his authority in office: “being high priest that year.” The name introduces a direct, forceful intervention (“said to them”), showing him acting verbally within a council-like setting implied by the plural conversation.

John 18:13: and led him to Annas first, for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.

Καϊάφας is used to explain relationships and sequence. The verse gives a reason for taking Jesus to Annas first: Annas is “father-in-law to Caiaphas,” and Caiaphas is again identified as “high priest that year.” The name therefore serves both as a relational link inside the high-priestly household and as a reference point for the official office connected to the coming proceedings.

John 18:14: Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should perish for the people.

In this statement Καϊάφας is remembered for counsel: he “advised the Jews” about what was “expedient.” The name anchors a specific piece of advice attributed to him personally, portraying him as someone whose role includes strategic judgment about communal outcomes (“for the people”).

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

Καϊάφας is the recipient in a transfer of a bound prisoner. The verse is terse and procedural: Jesus is “sent…bound to Caiaphas,” and the name is immediately apposed with “the high priest,” reinforcing that the transfer is not merely to a person but to an office-holder with recognized jurisdiction.

John 18:28: They led Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. It was early, and they themselves didn’t enter into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.

Here Καϊάφας marks the previous location from which Jesus is moved: “from Caiaphas into the Praetorium.” The name becomes a point on a chain of custody and venue change—from high-priestly space to a different official setting. The note about time (“It was early”) and the concern about defilement and Passover eating situate the transfer within a tightly ordered religious calendar and purity concern, while Caiaphas remains the named high-priestly endpoint just left behind.

Acts 4:6: Annas the high priest was there, with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and as many as were relatives of the high priest.

Καϊάφας appears within a roster of figures associated with high-priestly power. The verse places him “with” Annas and others and includes “relatives of the high priest,” presenting Caiaphas as part of a recognized circle around the high priesthood. Even when Annas is labeled “the high priest” here, Caiaphas’s named presence signals continuity of high-priestly influence in the setting where authorities are gathered.

Sense and Usage

Across these passages Καϊάφας functions as a personal name attached to high-priestly authority and the institutional spaces where that authority is exercised. In Matthew, the name locates the leadership’s gathering “in the court of the high priest” and identifies the high priest as “Caiaphas,” so that the court and the assembly are understood as operating under his named jurisdiction (Matthew 26:3) and as the destination for Jesus after arrest (Matthew 26:57).

Luke uses the name differently: it becomes part of a public time-marker, “in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,” placing the emergence of John’s prophetic commissioning in a particular religious-administrative period (Luke 3:2). This usage does not narrate Caiaphas acting; it treats his name as part of the recognized framework of leadership that defines the era.

John repeatedly couples the name with the phrase “high priest that year” (John 11:49; 18:13), which ties Caiaphas’s identity to a specific period and emphasizes his status as the office-holder at the time of key decisions and interrogations. Within John’s narrative sequence, Καϊάφας is both embedded in a family network (“father-in-law to Caiaphas,” John 18:13) and positioned as the person to whom a bound Jesus is sent (John 18:24). The name therefore works at multiple levels: as a label for the office-holder, as a relational node connecting Annas and Caiaphas, and as a marker along a pathway of hearings and transfers (“from Caiaphas into the Praetorium,” John 18:28).

John 18:14 adds a distinct portrait: Caiaphas is the one who “advised the Jews” about what was “expedient,” associating the name with counsel framed in terms of collective advantage (“for the people”). This gives the name a remembered rhetorical weight: it does not merely identify a participant in proceedings, but a figure whose advice is portrayed as shaping a communal calculus under pressure.

Finally, Acts places Caiaphas within a list of high-priestly associates and relatives (Acts 4:6), using the name to convey that the decision-making environment includes an interconnected group rather than a single isolated official. In that setting Καϊάφας signals continuity of influence: the same named figure associated with high-priestly proceedings in the Gospel narratives is present among the gathered authorities.

Imagery

The name Καϊάφας repeatedly evokes enclosed spaces of authority and formal movement between them: a “court” where leaders gather (Matthew 26:3), a destination to which a prisoner is “led” (Matthew 26:57), and a transfer “from Caiaphas into the Praetorium” at an early hour under Passover concerns (John 18:28). The scenes tied to this name are marked by assemblies, titles, counsel, and custody—settings where public religious leadership intersects with interrogation and decision.

Sources: Lexical data from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Translators Brief Lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (STEPBible, CC BY). Occurrence data from the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY). Scripture quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).