BAR KOKHBA. - Leader of the last revolt of the Jews under the emperor Hadrian.
His name has come down to us in various forms. Christian sources call him Bar Kōkēbhā or "son of the star," alluding to the messianic quality (Num. 24:17), which was also recognized in him by the famous Rabbi 'Aqībā' (v.). In Jewish sources he is called Bar Kōzābhā, perhaps from his father's name or his place of origin, but later, following the disastrous failure, it was explained in its etymological meaning as "Son of the lie" (Kōzābhā'). His true name, known from the coins, was Simon.
For lack of sources we know little of the long and terrible struggle directed by B. K. against the Romans, which must have been almost as violent as that of 70, described to us in detail by Flavius Josephus (v.). The insurrection seems to have been provoked by new restrictions concerning the Jews, already oppressed under Trajan. It appears that Hadrian prohibited the rite of circumcision, considered as "castratio" (Spartianus, De vita Hadriani, 14); the strong discontent among the Jews was increased by the intention to follow a town-planning scheme in Jerusalem, naturally according to the Hellenistic conception.
The revolt, conducted rather by the exhausting method of guerrilla warfare, broke out in 132. B. K. took possession of Jerusalem; he minted coin with the inscription: "Simon prince of Israel" or "of the redemption of Jerusalem." The inspiration of daring heroism in the insurgents was the conviction that the longed-for Messiah had finally come to raise the people of Yahweh from abjection. For this religious motive B. K. raged greatly against the Christians who refused to recognize him as Messiah (Justin, Apologia I, 31; Eusebius, Chronicon, ed. R. Helm, II, Leipzig 1913, p. 201). Only in 135 could the Roman general Julius Severus overcome the last resistance at Bethar (today Bittir, 12 km. southeast of Jerusalem), where B. K. also was killed. Hadrian announced it to the senate omitting the usual formula that the army was in good condition; Judea was reduced almost to a desert (Dio Cassius, LXIX, 14). The Jews were severely forbidden to enter the new city Colonia Aelia Capitolina, which replaced the ancient Jerusalem. Various legends, introduced into the Talmūd, give hyperbolic descriptions of the campaign of B. K. and of the cruel repression.
Bibliography3 works
Angelo Penna