BAR KOKHBA. – Leader of the last Jewish revolt against the Emperor Hadrian.
His name has come down to us in various forms. Christian sources call him Bar Kokhba or “Son of the Star,” alluding to his messianic pretensions (Num. 24:17), which were also Akiba (v.). Jewish sources refer to him as Bar Koziba, perhaps from his father’s name or place of origin, but later, following the disastrous failure, it was interpreted etymologically as “Son of the Lie” (Koziba). His true name, known from coins, was Simon.
Due to the lack of sources, little is known about the long and terrible struggle waged by Bar Kokhba against the Romans, which must have been as violent as the revolt of 70, described in detail by Flavius Josephus (v.). The insurrection seems to have been provoked by new restrictions imposed on the Jews, already under Trajan. It appears that Hadrian forbade the rite of circumcision, which he considered a form of castration (Spartianus, *De vita Hadriani*, 14); the strong discontent among the Jews was further exacerbated by plans to rebuild Jerusalem according to a Hellenistic conception.
The revolt, conducted largely through the exhausting methods of guerrilla warfare, broke out in 132. Bar Kokhba seized Jerusalem and minted coins inscribed: “Simon, Prince of Israel” or “For the Redemption of Jerusalem.” The insurgents were inspired by the conviction that the long-awaited Messiah had finally come to deliver the people of Yahweh from their degradation. For this religious reason, Bar Kokhba harshly persecuted Christians who refused to acknowledge him as the Messiah (Justin, *Apologia I*, 31; Eusebius, *Chronicon*, ed. R. Helm, II, Leipzig 1913, p. 201). It was only in 135 that the Roman general Julius Severus could crush the last resistance at Bethar (modern Bittir, 12 km southeast of Jerusalem), where Bar Kokhba was also killed. Hadrian announced the victory to the Senate, omitting the usual formula that the army was in good condition; Judea had been reduced almost to a desert (Dio Cassius, LXIX, 14). The Jews were strictly forbidden from entering the new city of Colonia Aelia Capitolina, which replaced ancient Jerusalem. Various legends that entered the Talmud provide hyperbolic accounts of Bar Kokhba’s campaign and the harsh repression.
BARLAAM, St., Martyr. – A native of Antioch in the 4th century. In his honor, there are a homily by Chrysostom (PG 50, 675–82), one attributed to St. Basil (ibid., 31, 484–89), and those by Severus of Antioch (*Analecta Boll.*, 22, 133–34), as well as his Passion in Greek (ibid., p. 139 ff.). Particularly atrocious methods were devised to torment him. His feast in the Roman Martyrology falls on November 19.