Simon bar Kokhba
Simon bar Kokhba שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כּוֹכְבָא | |
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Prince of Israel | |
Reign | 132–135[1] |
Born | Simon ben Koseba (שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כֹסֵבָא)[2] |
Died | 135 Betar, Judea, Roman Empire |
Religion | Judaism |
Occupation | Military leader |
Part of a series on the |
Bar Kokhba revolt |
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Simon bar Kokhba (Hebrew: שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כּוֹכְבָא Šīmʾōn bar Kōḵḇāʾ) or Simon ben Koseba (שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כֹסֵבָא Šīmʾōn bar Ḵōsēḇaʾ), commonly referred to simply as Bar Kokhba,[a] was a Jewish military leader in Judea. He is the namesake of 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.
Name
Documented name
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
During the revolt, the Jewish sage
Revolt leader
Background
Despite the devastation wrought by the Romans during the
Overview
For many Jews of the time, this turn of events was heralded as the long hoped for
During the final phase of the war, Bar Kokhba took up refuge in the fortress of
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.[b] Another part of the Talmudic narrative is that the Romans killed all the defenders except for one Jewish youth, Simeon ben Gamliel II, whose life was spared.[18] According to Cassius Dio, 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.[19]
Outcome and aftermath
So costly was the Roman victory, that the Emperor Hadrian, when reporting to the Roman Senate, 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."[20][21]
In the aftermath of the war, Hadrian consolidated the older political units of
Archaeological findings
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
According to Israeli archaeologist
Character
"From Shimʻon ben Cosibah to Yeshuʻa ben Galgulah and to the men of the Gader, Peace. I call heaven to my witness that I am fed-up with the Galileans that be with you, every man! [And] that I am resolved to put fetters on your feet, just as I did to Ben ʻAflul."
(Original Hebrew)
משמעון בן כוסבה לישע בן ג[ל]גלה ולאנשי הכרך[c] שלו[ם]. מעיד אני עלי ת שמים יפס[ד][d] מן הגללאים שהצלכם[e] כל אדם שאני נתן תכבלים[f] ברגלכם כמה שעסת[י] לבן עפלול [ש]מעון ב[ן][g]
Talmud
Simon bar Kokhba is portrayed in rabbinic literature as being somewhat irrational and irascible in conduct. The Talmud
Hadrian 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 replied that he had killed him. When Hadrian requested that they bring the severed head (Greek: protome) 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!?"[31]
Eusebius
Bar Kokhba was a ruthless leader, punishing any Jew who refused to join his ranks. According to Eusebius' Chronicon, he severely punished the sect of Christians with death by different means of torture for their refusal to fight against the Romans.[15]
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.),[32] including:
- Harisot Betar: sipur `al dever gevurat Bar Kokhva ve-hurban Betar bi-yad Adriyanus kesar Roma (1858), a Hebrew novel by Kalman Schulman
- Bar Kokhba (1882), a Yiddish operetta by Russia.
- Bar Kokhba (1884), a Hebrew drama by Yehudah Loeb Landau
- The Son of a Star (1888), an English novel by Benjamin Ward Richardson
- Le fils de l'étoile (1903), a French opera by Camille Erlanger (mus.) and Catulle Mendès (libr.)
- Bar-Kochba (1905), a German opera by Stanislaus Suda (mus.) and Karl Jonas (libr.)
- Rabbi Aqiba und Bar-Kokhba (1910), a Yiddish novel by David Pinsky
- Bar-Kokhba (1929), a Hebrew drama by Shaul Tchernichovsky
- Bar-Kokhba (1939), a Yiddish drama by Shmuel Halkin[33]
- Bar-Kokhba (1941), a Yiddish novel by Abraham Raphael Forsyth
- A csillag fia (1943), a Hungarian drama by Lajos Szabolcsi
- Steiersønne (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
- Kokav mi-mesilato. Haye Bar-Kokhba (A Star in Its Course: The Life of Bar-Kokhba) (1988), a Hebrew novel by S.J. Kreutner
- Ha-mered ha-midbar. Roman historiah mi-tequfat Bar-Kokhba (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
John Zorn's Masada Chamber Ensemble recorded an album called Bar Kokhba, 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, 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".[34]
See also
- Bar Kokhba Revolt coinage
- Bar Kokhba weights
- Bar Kokhba Sculputure
- Jewish Messiah claimants
- Lukuas
- Rabbinic stance on Bar Kokhba revolt
Notes
- ^ Starting in the 16th century, based on Akiva's homily in y. Taanit 4:5 that "A כוכב star set out from Jacob (Num. 24:17) -- ben כוזבא Kosiba set out from Jacob".
- ^ The 2nd century chronicler, Rabbi Yose b. Halpetha (Halafta), says in his work, Seder Olam, chapter 30, that the wars waged by Ben Koziba (i.e. Bar Kokhba) lasted two and half years, although the siege on the Jewish stronghold, Betar, is said to have lasted three and a half years.[17]
- ^ Milik read: הב]רך]; Tzeitlin read: חבריך
- ^ Milik: יפס?; Tzeitlin: [ופס[ק
- ^ Tzeitlin: שהצלת
- ^ Milik: ת כבלים
- ^ Milik: ב[ן כוסבה] על [נפשה]
References
- ^ "Simeon Bar Kochba". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
- ^ Derman, Ushi (3 May 2018). "Who's A Real Hero? An Historic Glimpse on Simon Bar Kokhba". Beit HaTfutsot. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
- JSTOR 27925250.; BOURGEL, J. (2023). "Ezekiel 40–48 as a Model for Bar Kokhba's Title "Nasi Israel"?". Journal of Ancient Judaism. 1 (aop): 1–36.;
- ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
- ^ a b "Bar Kokhba: The Man and the Leader". Encyclopaedia Judaica. Thomson Gale. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-85075-664-4.
- ^ Conder, Claude R. (1887). Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure (1887 ed.). R. Bentley & Son. p. 143.
- ^ Tamén, Conder, Claude R. (1887). Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure (1887 ed.). R. Bentley & Son. p. 143.
- ^ Schürer, E. (1891). Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi [A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ]. Geschichte de jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi.English. Vol. 1. Translated by Miss Taylor. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 298 (note 84).
- ^ Numbers 24:17
- Jewish Encyclopedia(1906) by Louis Ginzberg
- ^ Krauss, S. (1906). "BAR KOKBA AND BAR KOKBA WAR". In Singer, Isidore (ed.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. pp. 506–507.
Bar Kokba, the hero of the third war against Rome, appears under this name only among ecclesiastical writers: heathen authors do not mention him; and Jewish sources call him Ben (or Bar) Koziba or Kozba...
- ISBN 978-0-8028-3785-1.
- ^ Historia Augusta, Hadrian 14.2, where the Caesar forbade Jews to circumcise their infants. See also Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 8b and Sanhedrin 14a) where the Roman authority forbade Jews from appointing Jewish judges to adjudicate in cases of indemnities and fines.
- ^ a b [1] Chronicle of Jerome, s.v. Hadrian. See also Yigael Yadin, Bar-Kokhba, Random House New York 1971, p. 258.
- ^ OCLC 224145372.
- ^ Jerusalem Talmud, Taanit 4:5 (24a) and Midrash Rabba (Lamentations Rabba 2:5).
- ^ Jerusalem Talmud, Taanit 4:5 (24a–b)
- ^ Dio's Roman History, Epitome of Book LXIX, 14:1-2; pp. 447-451 in Loeb Classical Series.
- ^ In greek: 'εἰ αὐτοί τε καὶ οἱ παῖδες ὑμῶν ὑγιαίνετε, εὖ ἂν ἔχοι: ἐγὼ καὶ τὰ στρατεύματα ὑγιαίνομεν
- ^ Cassius Dio: Roman History 69.14:3; The Archaeology of the New Testament, E.M. Blaiklock, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids MI, p. 186
- ^ "When Palestine Meant Israel, David Jacobson, BAR 27:03, May/Jun 2001". Cojs.org. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
- ^ Lehmann, Clayton Miles (Summer 1998). "Palestine: History: 135–337: Syria Palaestina and the Tetrarchy". The On-line Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces. University of South Dakota. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 6 July 2008.
- Judaea", the Roman authorities renamed it Palaestina or Syria Palaestina.
- ^ "Diggers". Time. 5 May 1961. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
The Bar Kochba explorers—160 soldiers, students and kibbutz volunteers—had been led to the desert badlands just west of the Dead Sea by Archaeologist and former General Yigael Yadin. They found a treasure their first day at the diggings. In the same bat-infested, three-chambered Cave of Letters where he had discovered the rebel chieftain's papyri orders just a year ago. Archaeologist Yadin found some 60 more documents in a goatskin and a leather bag.
- ^ Shimeon bar Kosiba. "Texts on Bar Kochba: Bar Kochba's letters". Livius. Archived from the original on 15 May 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
- ^ "Bar Kokhba". Israel Museum: Jerusalem. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
- ^ https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/rare-coin-from-the-time-of-the-bar-kokhba-revolt-discovered-in-the-judean-desert-4-mar-2024#:~:text=A%20rare%20coin%20from%20the,bearing%20the%20name%20“Simeon”.title= Rare coin from the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt discovered in the Judean Desert | Ministry of Foreign Affairs | access-date= 2024-03-18
- OCLC 610669723.; P. Benoit, J.T Milik and R de Vaux, "Les grottes de Murabba'at" - Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD) II, Oxford: Clarendon, 1961, pp. 243-254.
- ^ a b c Jerusalem Talmud, Ta'anit 4:5 (24b); same episode repeated in Midrash Rabba (Lamentations Rabbah 2:5)
- ^ Jerusalem Talmud (Ta'anit 4:5 [24b])
- ^ G. Boccaccini, Portraits of Middle Judaism in Scholarship and Arts (Turin: Zamorani, 1992).
- ^ Estraikh, Gennady (2007). "Shmuel Halkin". Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2nd ed. Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, 2016-12-16.
- ^ (in Hungarian) kibarkochbázni
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: ISBN 90-04-12007-6
- Marks, Richard: The Image of Bar Kokhba in Traditional Jewish Literature: False Messiah and National Hero: University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press: 1994: ISBN 0-271-00939-X
- Reznick, Leibel: The Mystery of Bar Kokhba: Northvale: J.Aronson: 1996: ISBN 1-56821-502-9
- Schafer, Peter: The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: Tübingen: Mohr: 2003: ISBN 3-16-148076-7
- 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.
- ISBN 0-297-00345-3
Further reading
- Abramsky, Samuel; Gibson, Shimon (2007). "Bar Kokhba". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 3 (2 ed.). Thomson Gale. pp. 156–162. ISBN 978-0-02-865931-2.
External links
- Video Lecture on Bar Kochba by Henry Abramson
- Cave of Letters on Nova
- 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