Bar Kokhba

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SCHOLARLY AND FICTIONAL WORKS: see Bar Kokhba (works)

Shimon Bar Kokhba (2nd century CE) was the Jewish leader of the so-called Bar Kokhba revolt (or Third Jewish revolt) against the Roman rule in Judea around 132 CE.

Overview

Little is known about the origin of the figure Shimon Bar Kosiba and the causes of the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135/6 CE). The revolt is known from Rabbinic sources and from a brief excerpt of the third-century Roman historian Cassius Dio. Archaeological data dating from 1952 to the present help fill in some of the gaps, however, much is left to scholarly reconstruction.

The Name 'Bar Kokhba'

The leader of the Bar Kokhba revolt was Shimon ben Kosiba, although he is more commonly known in scholarship and popular culture as Bar Kokhba. This name is a play on words is based on Ben Kosiba’s name—Bar Kokhba (‘son of the star’) seems to be a soubriquet given to Ben Kosiba by his followers. Rabbinic literature also calls him by another name, Bar Koziba, which means ‘son of disappointment’ and refers to the revolt’s eventual defeat at the hands of the Romans.

In one of the Bar Kokhba letters, the phrase ‘Nasi Yisrael’ follows the name Shimon ben Kosiba, suggesting that he claims the role of leader among the Jews. Whether this title is self-appointed or was given to him by his followers is unknown.

Bar Kokhba in ancient sources

See Bar Kokhba (sources)

Bar Kokhba Letters

The Bar Kokhba letters were either purchased from Bedouin or found in caves in the Judean Desert beginning in 1950. These letters, numbering around 26 plus fragments of additional letters, contain instructions from Ben Kosiba addressed to his subordinates. Only one letter addressed to Ben Kosiba has survived. Along with the letters, other legal documents not directly relating to the Bar Kokhba revolt were found: see Babatha.

The letters are extant in Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, and generally follow typical Greco-Roman epistolary forms used around the time of the revolt, regardless of the language of the letter. This includes the initial greeting and the closing salutation formula. While Ben Kosiba’s name begins most of these letters, they are written in different hands, suggesting that Ben Kosiba dictated his letters to various scribes.

The Bar Kokhba letters deals almost exclusively with military matters such as supply, discipline and instruction, and thus do not offer much detail about the events of the revolt. The letters describe variegated matters: one letter deals with the confiscation of and instruction for a transportation of wheat to the custody of Ben Kosiba, another warns the recipients not to offer shelter to any man from Tekoa else they will receive punishment, while in yet another the Ben Kosiba requests reinforcements. Other letters emphasize the importance of the observance of Jewish ritual and tradition: one letter demands that ‘Eleazar bar Hitta’ be sent to Ben Kosiba before the Sabbath, while another requests a shipment of the four species—the lulav (palm branch), etrog (citron), hadas (myrtle), and arava (willow)—required for the proper observance of Sukkot (aka the feast of booths or tabernacles), along with a demand that the species be tithed.

The one letter sent to Ben Kosiba is addressed to the ‘beloved father’ of the sender, Shimon ben Mattanyah, while the sender addresses his fellow fighters as ‘brothers’. Michael O. Wise argues that the language used here is reminiscent of a ‘charismatic’ relationship between the recipient and the author, which supports the arguments that Ben Kosiba was seen as a messiah figure for at least some of his followers. This same letter reports the inclusion of Gentiles in the allies of the rebels, which suggests that the revolt was larger and more inclusive than just the Jews in Judaea.

Bar Kokhba in Rabbinic Literature

In the Jerusalem Talmud, Rabbi Akiba heralds Bar Kokhba as the messiah (y Ta’anit 4:8), citing Numb 24:17 (‘A star shall step forth from Jacob’) as a prooftext. The dictum is recited by Rabbi Akiba’s student Rabbi Shimon b. Yohai, whereas Rabbi Yohanan b. Torta responds to Akiba that ‘grass will grow between your jaws and still the son of David will not yet come!’

Midrash Lamentations Rabbah has a parallel legend (Lam. Rab. 2.5). Here, however, it is Rabbi Yohanan rather than Rabbi Shimon b. Yohai, who begins the tradition, “R. Yohanan said: Rabbi would expound A star shall step forth from Jacob thus: do not read “star” (kokhav) but “liar” (kozav).” Rabbi Akiba follows this with his statement of Bar Kokhba as the messiah, and Rabbi Yohanan b. Torta’s statement, as seen in y Ta’anit, follows.

Bar Kokhba in Non-Jewish Literature

Before the Bar Kokhba letters were discovered in the 1950s, our evidence for the Bar Kokhba revolt was minimal. In addition to the brief mentions in the Babylonian Talmud and Lamentations Rabbah, Roman historian Cassius Dio includes a brief excerpt in his historiographies Roman History and Historia Augusta, Vita Hadriani. Cassius Dio makes two claims as to the cause of the revolt: the founding of the pagan city Aelia Capitolina on the ruins of Jerusalem, with a temple to Jupiter to be built right over the place where the Jerusalem temple stood (Roman History 69.12-14), and on Hadrian’s ban on circumcision (Historia Augusta, Vita Hadriani 14.2).

In Ecclesiastical History 4.6, church father Eusebius of Caesarea states that Aelia Capitolina was not founded until after the revolt, complicating Cassius Dio’s claim of the founding of the pagan city being the cause of the revolt. Unlike Cassius Dio, Eusebius lists the name of the leader of this revolt as “Bar Chochebas,” who he argues is a bandit who relies on the meaning of his name (“star”) to argue for a heavenly origin to his leadership. At the end of the war, Eusebius reports that the Jews were forbidden to enter Jerusalem. He also claims that followers of Jesus took no part in the Bar Kokhba revolt.

Bar Kokhba in Scholarship

From ancient sources we know that his real name was Simon ben Kosiba. The Aramaic surname (Bar Kokhba = "son of a star") was given to him in reference to the messianic prophecy of Numbers 24:17. After the failure of the revolt, rabbinic writers would rather call him "Bar Kozeba" (= son of disappointment").

Bar Kokhba in Fiction

The rediscovery of Bar Kokhba as a Jewish hero and its transformation into a fearless champion of freedom and independence for his people coincide with the rise of Zionism in the second half of the 19th century. The memory of Bar Kokhba has accompanied the birth of the State of Israel and its struggle for independence and survival.