Book 1 — Chapter 10 — The Great Kohenim under Whom Yahushua Taught
Eusebius notes that the Besorah tradition places the beginning of Yochanan the Washer's proclamation in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, with Annas and Caiaphas named in the priestly leadership. He observes that Torah had envisaged the great-kohen office as a lifetime office inherited within a priestly line, but Roman and Herodian rule had reduced it to a political appointment frequently changed. Drawing on Yosephus, he lists a succession of great kohenim appointed and removed within short periods, explaining how Annas could retain enormous authority even after formal removal while Caiaphas held the office at the time of Yahushua's trial. Eusebius sees the instability as another sign that the older order had been disrupted. Yahushua's teaching, in his chronology, lasted across the period associated with these priestly rulers and culminated under Pilate and Caiaphas.