Simon bar Kokhba
Simon bar Kokhba (Hebrew: שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כּוֹכְבָא Šīm‘ōn bar Kōḵḇāʾ) or Simon ben Koseba (שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כֹסֵבָא Šīm‘ōn bar Ḵōsēḇaʾ), commonly referred to simply as Bar Kokhba,[a] was a Jewish military leader in Judea. He lent his name to the Bar Kokhba revolt, which he initiated against the Roman Empire in 132 CE. Though they were ultimately unsuccessful, Bar Kokhba and his rebels did manage to establish and maintain a Jewish state for about three years after beginning the rebellion. Bar Kokhba served as the state's leader, crowning himself as nasi (lit. 'prince').[3] Some of the rabbinic scholars in his time imagined him to be the long-expected Messiah of Judaism. In 135, Bar Kokhba was killed by Roman troops in the fortified town of Betar. 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.
For other uses, see Bar Kokhba (disambiguation).Name[edit]
Documented name[edit]
Documents discovered in the 20th century in the Cave of Letters give his original name, with variations: Simeon bar Kosevah (שמעון בר כוסבה), Bar Kosevaʾ (בר כוסבא) or Ben Kosevaʾ (בן כוסבא).[4] It is probable that his original name was Bar Koseba.[5] 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;[6][7][8] Others, namely Emil Schürer, think the surname may have been an indication of his place of birth, in the village known as Chozeba (maybe Chezib)[9] but might as well be a general family name.[5]
Nicknames[edit]
During the revolt, the Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva regarded Simon as the Jewish messiah; the Talmud records his statement that the Star Prophecy verse from Numbers 24:17:[10] "There shall come a star out of Jacob,"[11] referred to him, based on identification of the Hebrew word for star, kokhav, and his name, bar Kozeva. The name Bar Kokhba, which references this statement of Akiva, does not appear in the Talmud, but only in ecclesiastical sources, until the 16th century.[12] The Jerusalem Talmud (Taanit 4:5) and the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 93b and 97b) mention him by the name of Bar Kozeva.
Archaeological findings[edit]
In the late 20th and 21st century, new information about the revolt has come to light, from the discovery of several collections of letters, some possibly by Bar Kokhba himself, in the Cave of Letters overlooking the Dead Sea.[25][26] These letters can now be seen at the Israel Museum.[27]
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.[28]
Ideology and language[edit]
According to Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin, Bar Kokhba tried to revive Hebrew and make Hebrew the official language of the Jews as part of his messianic 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."