Simon bar Kokhba ( ) or Simon bar Koseba ( ), commonly referred to simply as Bar Kokhba, was a Jewish military leader in

Judea Judea or Judaea (; ; , ; ) is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the pres ...

. He lent his name to the

Bar Kokhba revolt The Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 AD) was a major uprising by the Jews of Judaea (Roman province), Judaea against the Roman Empire, marking the final and most devastating of the Jewish–Roman wars. Led by Simon bar Kokhba, the rebels succeeded ...

, which he initiated against the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

in 132 CE. Though they were ultimately unsuccessful, Bar Kokhba and his rebels did manage to establish and maintain a

Jewish state In world politics, Jewish state is a characterization of Israel as the nation-state and sovereign homeland for the Jewish people. Overview Modern Israel came into existence on 14 May 1948 as a polity to serve as the homeland for the Jewi ...

for about three years after beginning the rebellion. Bar Kokhba served as the state's leader, crowning himself as ''

nasi Nasi may refer to: Food Dishes Nasi Goreng is an Indonesian and Malay word for ''cooked rice'', featured in many Southeast Asian dishes *Nasi goreng, a popular rice dish often simply called ''nasi'' *Other Southeast Asian ''nasi'' dishes: ** Nasi ...

'' (). Some of the rabbinic scholars in his time believed him to be the long-expected

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

. In 135, Bar Kokhba was killed by Roman troops in the fortified town of

Betar The Betar Movement (), also spelled Beitar (), is a Revisionist Zionism, Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky. It was one of several right-wing youth movements tha ...

. The Judean rebels who remained after his death were all killed or enslaved within the next year, and their defeat was followed by a harsh crackdown on the Judean populace by the Roman emperor

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

Name

Documented name

Documents discovered in the 20th century in the

Cave of Letters The Cave of Letters () is a refuge cave in Nahal Hever in the Judean Desert where letters and fragments of papyri from the Roman Empire period were found. Some are related to the Bar Kokhba revolt (circa 131–136 CE), including letters of ...

give his original name, with variations: Simeon bar Kosevah (), Bar Kosevaʾ‎ () or Ben Kosevaʾ‎ (). It is probable that his original name was Bar Koseba. The name may indicate that his father or his place of origin was named Koseva(h), with Khirbet Kuwayzibah being a likely nominee for identification; Others, namely

Emil Schürer Emil Schürer (2 May 184420 April 1910) was a German Protestant theologian known mainly for his study of the history of the Jews around the time of Jesus' ministry. Biography Schürer was born in Augsburg. After studying at the universities of ...

, think the surname may have been an indication of his place of birth, in the village known as Chozeba (maybe Chezib) but might as well be a general family name.

Nicknames

During the revolt, the Jewish sage

Rabbi Akiva Akiva ben Joseph (Mishnaic Hebrew: ; – 28 September 135 CE), also known as Rabbi Akiva (), was a leading Jewish scholar and sage, a '' tanna'' of the latter part of the first century and the beginning of the second. Rabbi Akiva was a leadin ...

regarded Simon as the

Jewish messiah The Messiah in Judaism () is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jews. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is a king or High Priest o ...

. The Jerusalem Talmud (Taannit 4:5) records his statement that the

Star Prophecy The Star Prophecy (or Star and Scepter prophecy) is a Messianic reading applied by Jewish Zealots and early Christians to . Bible narrative Messianism The prophecy was often employed during the troubled years that led up to the Jewish Rev ...

verse from

Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

24:17, "There shall come a star out of

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

," referred to him. This was based on identification of the Hebrew word for star, ''kokhav'', and his name, ''bar Kozeva.'' The name

Bar Kokhba Simon bar Kokhba ( ) or Simon bar Koseba ( ), commonly referred to simply as Bar Kokhba, was a Jewish military leader in Judaea (Roman province), Judea. He lent his name to the Bar Kokhba revolt, which he initiated against the Roman Empire in 1 ...

, which references this statement of Akiva, does not appear in the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

, but only in ecclesiastical sources, until the 16th century. The

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...

(''Taanit'' 4:5) and the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

(''Sanhedrin'' 93b and 97b) mention him by the name of Bar Kozeva.

Revolt leader

Background

Despite the devastation wrought by the Romans during the

First Jewish–Roman War The First Jewish–Roman War (66–74 CE), also known as the Great Jewish Revolt, the First Jewish Revolt, the War of Destruction, or the Jewish War, was the first of three major Jewish rebellions against the Roman Empire. Fought in the prov ...

(66–73 CE), which left the population and countryside in ruins, a series of laws passed by Roman Emperors provided the incentive for the second rebellion. Based on the delineation of years in Eusebius' ''Chronicon'' (whose Latin translation is known as the Chronicle of

Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

) the Jewish revolt began under the Roman governor Tineius (Tynius) Rufus in the 16th year of

's reign, or what was equivalent to the 4th year of the 227th

Olympiad An olympiad (, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the Ancient Olympic Games, ancient and Olympic Games, modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Archaic Greece, Greece ...

. Hadrian sent an army to crush the resistance, but it faced a strong opponent, since Bar Kokhba, as the recognised leader of Israel, punished any Jew who refused to join his ranks.
''Chronicle of Jerome'', s.v. Hadrian. See also Yigael Yadin, ''Bar-Kokhba'', Random House New York 1971, p. 258. Two and a half years later, after the war had ended, the Roman emperor Hadrian barred Jews from entering Ælia Capitolina, Aelia Capitolina, the pagan city he had built on the ruins of Jewish Jerusalem. The name Aelia was derived from one of the emperor's names, Aelius. According to

Philostorgius Philostorgius (; 368 – c. 439 AD) was an Anomoean Church historian of the 4th and 5th centuries. Very little information about his life is available. He was born in Borissus, Cappadocia to Eulampia and Carterius, and lived in Constantinopl ...

, this was done so that its former Jewish inhabitants "might not find in the name of the city a pretext for claiming it as their country."

Overview

For many Jews of the time, this turn of events was heralded as the long hoped for

Messianic Age In Abrahamic religions, the Messianic Age () is the future eternal period of time on Earth in which the messiah will reign and bring universal peace and brotherhood, without any evil (through mankind's own terms). Many believe that there will be s ...

. The Romans fared very poorly during the initial revolt facing a unified Jewish force, in contrast to the

, where

Flavius Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing ''The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Judaea ...

records three separate Jewish armies fighting each other for control of the

Temple Mount The Temple Mount (), also known as the Noble Sanctuary (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, 'Haram al-Sharif'), and sometimes as Jerusalem's holy esplanade, is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem, Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a ...

during the three weeks after the Romans had breached Jerusalem's walls and were fighting their way to the center. Being outnumbered and taking heavy casualties, the Romans adopted a

scorched earth A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy of destroying everything that allows an enemy military force to be able to fight a war, including the deprivation and destruction of water, food, humans, animals, plants and any kind of tools and i ...

policy which reduced and demoralised the Judean populace, slowly grinding away at the will of the Judeans to sustain the war. During the final phase of the war, Bar Kokhba took up refuge in the fortress of

. The Romans eventually captured it after laying siege to the city. The Jerusalem Talmud makes several claims considered as non-historical by modern scholarship. One such claim is that the duration of the siege was of three and half years, although the war itself lasted, according to the same author, two and half years. Another part of the Talmudic narrative is that the Romans killed all the defenders except for one Jewish youth,

Simeon ben Gamliel II Simeon (or Shimon) ben Gamaliel II (Hebrew: ) was a Tanna of the third generation and president of the Great Sanhedrin. He was the son of Gamaliel II and father of Judah I (Yehuda HaNasi). Biography Simeon was a youth in Betar when the Bar Kok ...

, whose life was spared. According to

Cassius Dio Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history of ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

, 580,000 Jews were killed in overall war operations across the country, and some 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed to the ground, while the number of those who perished by famine, disease and fire was beyond finding out.

Outcome and aftermath

So costly was the Roman victory, that the Emperor Hadrian, when reporting to the

Roman Senate The Roman Senate () was the highest and constituting assembly of ancient Rome and its aristocracy. With different powers throughout its existence it lasted from the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in 753 BC) as the Sena ...

, did not see fit to begin with the customary greeting "If you and your children are healthy, it is well; I and the legions are healthy." In the aftermath of the war, Hadrian consolidated the older political units of

Judaea Judea or Judaea (; ; , ; ) is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the prese ...

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

and

Samaria Samaria (), the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron (), is used as a historical and Hebrew Bible, biblical name for the central region of the Land of Israel. It is bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The region is ...

into the new province of

Syria Palaestina Syria Palaestina ( ) was the renamed Roman province formerly known as Judaea, following the Roman suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in what then became known as the Palestine region between the early 2nd and late 4th centuries AD. The pr ...

, which is commonly interpreted as an attempt to complete the disassociation with Judaea. Sharon, 1998, p. 4. According to

Moshe Sharon Moshe Sharon (; born December 18, 1937) is an Israeli historian of Islam. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he serves as Chair in Baháʼí Studies. Education, ...

: "Eager to obliterate the name of the rebellious

", the Roman authorities renamed it ''Palaestina'' or ''Syria Palaestina''.

Archaeological findings

In the late 20th and 21st century, new information about the revolt came to light from the discovery of several collections of letters, some possibly by Bar Kokhba himself, in the

overlooking the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

. These letters can now be seen at the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

. In March 2024, a coin bearing the inscription "Eleazar the Priest" was found along with "Year 1 of the Redemption of Israel" on the bottom.

Ideology and language

According to Israeli archaeologist

Yigael Yadin Yigael Yadin ( ; 20 March 1917 – 28 June 1984) was an Israeli archeologist, soldier and politician. He was the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and Deputy Prime Minister from 1977 to 1981. Biography Yigael Sukenik (later Y ...

, Bar Kokhba tried to revive

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and make Hebrew the official language of the Jews as part of his

messianic In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach' ...

ideology. In ''A Roadmap to the Heavens: An Anthropological Study of Hegemony among Priests, Sages, and Laymen (Judaism and Jewish Life)'' by Sigalit Ben-Zion (page 155), Yadin remarked: "it seems that this change came as a result of the order that was given by Bar Kokhba, who wanted to revive the Hebrew language and make it the official language of the state."

Character

Talmud

Simon bar Kokhba is portrayed in rabbinic literature as being somewhat irrational and irascible in conduct. The Talmud

, ''

Ta'anit A ta'anit or taynis (Biblical Hebrew ''taʿaniṯ'' or צוֹם ''ṣom'') is a fast in Judaism in which one abstains from all food and drink, including water. Purposes A Jewish fast may have one or more purposes, including: * Atonement for si ...

'' 4:5 (24b); same episode repeated in Midrash Rabba (

Lamentations Rabbah The Midrash on Lamentations () is a midrashic commentary to the Book of Lamentations. It is one of the oldest works of midrash, along with Genesis Rabbah and the '' Pesikta de-Rav Kahana''. Names The midrash is quoted, perhaps for the first ti ...

2:5) says that he presided over an army of Jewish insurgents numbering some 200,000, but had compelled its young recruits to prove their valor by each man chopping off one of his own fingers. The Sages of Israel complained to him why he marred the people of Israel with such blemishes. Whenever he would go forth into battle, he was reported as saying: "O Master of the universe, there is no need for you to assist us gainst our enemies but do not embarrass us either!" It is also said of him that he killed his maternal uncle, Rabbi Elazar Hamudaʻi, after suspecting him of collaborating with the enemy, thereby forfeiting Divine protection, which led to the destruction of

in which Bar Kokhba himself also perished.

is thought to have personally supervised the closing military operations in the siege against Betar. When the Roman army eventually took the city, soldiers carried Bar Kokhba's severed head to Hadrian, and when Hadrian asked who it was that killed him, a

Samaritan Samaritans (; ; ; ), are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Hebrews and Israelites of the ancient Near East. They are indigenous to Samaria, a historical region of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah that ...

replied that he had killed him. When Hadrian requested that they bring the severed head (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: ''

protome A protome ( Greek: προτομή) is a type of adornment that takes the form of the head and upper torso of either a human or an animal. History Protomes were often used to decorate ancient Greek architecture, sculpture, and pottery. Protomes ...

'') of the slain victim close to him that he might see it, Hadrian observed that a serpent was wrapped around the head. Hadrian then replied: "Had it not been for God who killed him, who would have been able to kill him!?"

Eusebius

According to Eusebius' ''Chronicon'', he severely punished the Christians with death by different means of torture for their refusal to fight against the Romans.

In popular culture

Since the end of the nineteenth century, Bar-Kochba has been the subject of numerous works of art (dramas, operas, novels, etc.), including: * (1858), a Hebrew novel by

Kalman Schulman Kalman Schulman (1819 – 2 January 1899) was a Jewish writer who pioneered modern Hebrew literature. Life Schulman was born in 1819 in Bykhaw, Mogilev Governorate, Russian Empire, Russia. He came from a Hasidic Judaism, Hassidic family. Schul ...

* ''Bar Kokhba'' (1882), a Yiddish operetta by

Abraham Goldfaden Abraham Goldfaden (; born Avrum Goldnfoden; 24 July 1840 – 9 January 1908), also known as Avram Goldfaden, was a Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in Yiddish and Hebrew languages and author of some 40 plays. Goldfad ...

(mus. and libr.). The work was written in the wake of

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

s against Jews following the 1881 assassination of Czar Alexander II of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. * ''Bar Kokhba'' (1884), a Hebrew drama by Yehudah Loeb Landau * ''The Son of a Star'' (1888), an English novel by Benjamin Ward Richardson * (1903), a French opera by

Camille Erlanger Camille Erlanger (25 May 186324 April 1919) was a French opera composer. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Léo Delibes (composition), Georges Mathias (piano), as well as Émile Durand and Antoine Taubon (harmony). In 1888 he won the P ...

(mus.) and

Catulle Mendès Catulle Mendès (; 22 May 1841 – 8 February 1909) was a French poet and man of letters. Early life and career Of Portuguese Jewish extraction, Mendès was born in Bordeaux. After childhood and adolescence in Toulouse, he arrived in Paris in 1 ...

(libr.) * ''Bar-Kochba'' (1905), a German opera by Stanislaus Suda (mus.) and Karl Jonas (libr.) * (1910), a Yiddish novel by David Pinsky * ''Bar-Kokhba'' (1929), a Hebrew drama by

Shaul Tchernichovsky Shaul Tchernichovsky () or Saul Gutmanovich Tchernichovsky (; 20 August 1875 – 14 October 1943) was a Russian-born Hebrew poet. He is considered one of the great Hebrew poets, identified with nature poetry, and a poet greatly influenced by the ...

* ''Bar-Kokhba'' (1939), a Yiddish drama by Shmuel Halkin * ''Bar-Kokhba'' (1941), a Yiddish novel by Abraham Raphael Forsyth * (1943), a Hungarian drama by Lajos Szabolcsi * (1952), a Danish novel by Poul Borchsenius * ''Prince of Israel'' (1952), an English novel by Elias Gilner * ''Bar-Kokhba'' (1953), a Hebrew novel by Joseph Opatoshu * ''Son of a Star'' (1969), an English novel by Andrew Meisels * ''If I Forget Thee'' (1983), an English novel by Brenda Lesley Segal * ''(A Star in Its Course: The Life of Bar-Kokhba)'' (1988), a Hebrew novel by S.J. Kreutner * (1988), a Hebrew novel by Yeroshua Perah * ''My Husband, Bar Kokhba'' (2003), an English novel by Andrew Sanders * ''Knowledge Columns'' (2014), an American rap song by Dopey Ziegler *''Son Of A Star'' (2015), song by Israeli metal band Desert Another operetta on the subject of Bar Kokhba was written by the Russian-Jewish emigre composer Yaacov Bilansky Levanon in Palestine in the 1920s.

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conducting, conductor, saxophonist, arrangement, arranger and record producer, producer who "deliberately resists category". His Avant-garde music, avant-garde and experimental music, ex ...

's Masada Chamber Ensemble recorded an album called ''

'', showing a photograph of the Letter of Bar Kokhba to Yeshua, son of Galgola on the cover.

The Bar Kokhba game

According to a legend, during his reign, Bar Kokhba was once presented a mutilated man, who had his tongue ripped out and hands cut off. Unable to talk or write, the victim was incapable of telling who his attackers were. Thus, Bar Kokhba decided to ask simple questions to which the dying man was able to nod or shake his head with his last movements; the murderers were consequently apprehended. In

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, this legend spawned the "Bar Kokhba game", in which one of two players comes up with a word or object, while the other must figure it out by asking questions only to be answered with "yes" or "no". The questioner usually asks first if it is a living being, if not, if it is an object, if not, it is surely an abstraction. The verb ''kibarkochbázni'' ("to Bar Kochba out") became a common language verb meaning "retrieving information in an extremely tedious way".kibarkochbázni
/ref>

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Eck, W. 'The Bar Kokhba Revolt: the Roman point of view' in the ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 89 (1999) 76ff. * Goodblatt, David; Pinnick, Avital; Schwartz Daniel: ''Historical Perspectives: From the Hasmoneans to the Bar Kohkba Revolt In Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls'': Boston: Brill: 2001: * Marks, Richard: ''The Image of Bar Kokhba in Traditional Jewish Literature: False Messiah and National Hero'': University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press: 1994: * Reznick, Leibel: ''The Mystery of Bar Kokhba:'' Northvale: J.Aronson: 1996: * Schafer, Peter: ''The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered'': Tübingen: Mohr: 2003: * Ussishkin, David: "Archaeological Soundings at Betar, Bar-Kochba's Last Stronghold", in: ''Tel Aviv. Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University'' 20 (1993) 66ff. * Yadin, Yigael: ''Bar Kokhba: The Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Last Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome'': London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson: 1971:

External links

Video Lecture on Bar Kochba
by Henry Abramson
Cave of Letters
on

Nova A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...

The Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–135 C.E.)
by Shira Schoenberg
Bar Kochba
with links to all sources (livius.org)
Genealogy of the House of David- Simon bar Koziba
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bar Kokhba, Simon Year of birth missing 135 deaths Bar Kokhba revolt Jewish messiah claimants Jewish military personnel Jewish royalty Jews and Judaism in the Roman Empire 2nd-century monarchs in the Middle East 2nd-century Jews Military personnel from Jerusalem Jewish rebels People from Roman Judea