Theophilus ben Ananus
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Theophilus was the High Priest in the Temple at Jerusalem from 37 to 41 C.E. and possible addressee of the Gospel of Luke. According to Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, a man named Theophilus served as High Priest in the Temple at Jerusalem from 37 to 41 C.E. He was the son of Annas and the brother of Eleazar, Jonathan, Matthias and Ananus, all of whom served as High Priests. He was also the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the High Priest before whom Jesus appeared. In addition his son Matthias served as the next to the last High Priest before the destruction of the Temple by the Romans.
According to an ossuary with inscription thereon, Theophilus, the High Priest, had at least one other son named Jonathan who had daughter named Johanna. Theophilus was therefore a member of one of the wealthiest and most influential Jewish families in Palestine during the first century.
Archeological evidence confirms the existence of Theophilus the High Priest as an ossuary has been discovered bearing the inscription, Johanna granddaughter of Theophilus, the High Priest. The details of this ossuary have been published in the Israel Exploration Journal.
The combination of Theophilus and Johanna appear together in only one document: the Gospel of Luke. Neither name appear anywhere else in the New Testament. There is one additional piece of evidence to consider. Johanna appears in the vertex of a chiasmus in the 24th chapter of Luke that is part one of a two part chiastic structure, the second of which is the “On the Road to Emmaus” pericope. Since it is rare to see the name of a person in a position of prominence in a chiasmus, one can conclude that the author of the Gospel of Luke is directing the attention of most excellent Theophilus to the name of Johanna and to the fact that Johanna is a witness to the resurrection. Johanna must be a person known to Theophilus. Thus it is fair to ask whether or not these facts establish that Theophilus the High Priest is the same person as the "most excellent Theophilus" to whom the author of the Gospel of Luke has addressed his gospel.
Sources
- This article is a summary of an article appearing in Dossiers d’Archeologie as “A la recherche de Theophile”, Dec 02-Jan 03; A detailed description of the ossuary mentioned in this article is contained in an article by D. Barag and D. Flusser, The Ossuary of Yehohanah Granddaughter of the High Priest Theophilus, Israel Exploration Journal, 36 (1986), 39-44.
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