The Bar Kochba Revolt
Messianic figure Simeon
Bar Kochba led the Jews in a failed revolt against Roman rule.
By Lawrence H. Schiffman
Reprinted with permission
from From
Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple & Rabbinic Judaism (Ktav).
The debacle of the first
revolt against Rome was followed by a period of relative calm. Yet during the
years of rule by the autonomous Hillelite patriarchs and the leaders of the
tannaitic academies, problems were brewing, both inside and outside the Land of
Israel. These developments took place despite the separation of Judea from the
province of Syria and the appointment of higher‑level Roman governors of
senatorial rank. In particular, the need to pay a capitation tax to the Temple
of Jupiter in Rome must have made the Jews very unhappy.
Messianic Yearnings
It was not until the reign of
the Roman emperor Trajan (98-117 C.E.) that the problems came to the surface.
In 115‑117 C.E., while Trajan was occupied in Mesopotamia, Jews
throughout the Diaspora rose up against their non‑Jewish neighbors in a
violent confrontation. Before long pitched battles were being fought in Egypt.
The Jews of Cyrene (in North Africa) were said to have massacred their neighbors.
Similar disturbances followed in Cyprus and Mesopotamia. The Roman general Lucius
Quietus, ferocious in putting down the Mesopotamian revolt, was rewarded with
the governorship of Palestine. When Hadrian became emperor in 117 C.E. he had
to spend his first year mopping up the last of the rebels. The Land of Israel
seems to have been involved in these battles only to a limited extent.
What is especially
significant in these disturbances is the evidence that they were fueled by the
very same messianic yearnings that had helped to fan the flames of the Great
Revolt, and would soon lead to the Bar Kokhba Revolt. To be sure, other social,
economic, and political causes were at work, especially a general decline in
relations between Jews and their neighbors in the Hellenistic world, but when
these finally led to the of a rebellion, it was the belief in a messianic
future that made possible the leap of faith to the belief that the revolt might
succeed.
Early in the time of Hadrian
there was an abortive attempt to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, believed by some
scholars to have had Hadrian's support. The failure of this effort was another
great disappointment for the Jewish community of Palestine. Soon after, Hadrian
founded a city of his own in Jerusalem called Aelia Capitolina, where he
erected a temple to Zeus. It is also probable that Hadrian prohibited
circumcision even before the Bar Kokhba
Revolt, although some see the outlawing of circumcision as a measure enacted
after the uprising had begun, much like the persecutions of Antiochus IV. It
was in this context, as well as on the basis of the strong messianic yearnings
we have observed already, that some elements in the Jewish population of
Palestine began preparing for revolt in the 120's.
A Guerilla Struggle
The revolt did not begin
until it had found its leader. From letters and documents unearthed in the
Judean Desert we know the real name of the leader to have been Simeon bar Kosiba.
The sobriquet Bar Kokhba, "Son of a Star," was given to him in accord
with Num. 24:17 ("A star shall go forth from Jacob"), taken to refer
to the messiah. The tannaim were divided, some supporting his rebellion, others
not. Those who supported him saw him as a messianic figure.
The war began as a guerilla
struggle against Rome in 132 C.E. Within a short time it had spread throughout
the country, and the rebels took Jerusalem, which had not been heavily
fortified by the Romans. It is possible that sacrifices were now reinstituted
and that work was begun on rebuilding the sanctuary. From the coins Bar Kokhba
struck we know of his high Priest, Eleazar, who must have taken the lead in
efforts to reestablish sacrificial worship. Here we see a reflection of the
ancient concept of two messiahs, a lay and a priestly figure, prominent in the
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and in certain Qumran scrolls.
We know from the documents
that the country was organized into administrative districts, that taxes were
collected, and that governmental operations were carried out by Bar Kokhba's
supporters. Bar Kokhba observed Jewish law, and it may be stated that the
documents confirm the close relationship between this "messiah" and
tannaitic Judaism. Parenthetically, the texts also show that Hebrew was very
much a living language at this time, and that, along with Aramaic and Greek,
it served a large segment of the population.
Little is known of the actual course of the revolt and of Rome's
successful attempt to regain control. Hadrian sent one of his finest
generals, and he suceeded in turning the tide by means of a series of sieges,
starving out the rebels in their strongholds and places of refuge. Jerusalem
was retaken and future Jewish settlement there was prohibited by Hadrian. The
last fortress to fall was Betar, not far to the southwest of Jerusalem, which
was captured by the Romans during the Summer of 136 C.E. By the end of the war
many Jews had been massacred, the land had been devastated again, and
distinguished rabbis had been martyred. Indeed, the execution of these rabbis,
together with the biblical story of the binding of Isaac, would serve as a
paradigm for Jewish martyrdom (termed kiddush Hashem,
"sanctification of God's name") in the medieval and modern periods.
Once again a Jewish attempt to defeat the Romans and to bring the messianic era
had failed.
The Process of
Rebuilding
As if history were repeating
itself, recovery and reinstatement of Jewish self-governmen ensued once again. With
the accession of the emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161 C.E.), virtually all of Hadrian's
decrees were rescinded…The latter years of Roman rule, in the aftermath of the
Bar Kochba Revolt and on the verge of the Christianization of the empire, were
extremely fertile ones for the development of Judaism. It was in this period that
tannaitic Judaism came to its final stages, and that the work of gathering its
intellectual heritage, the Mishnah, into a redacted collection began. All the
suffering and the fervent yearnings for redemption had culminated not in a
messianic state, but in a collection of traditions which set forth the dreams
and aspirations for the perfect holiness that state was to engender. As prayer
had replaced sacrifice, Torah, in the form of the Mishnah, had now replaced
messianism. A different kind of redemption was now at hand.
Lawrence H. Schiffman is a Professor of Hebrew and Judaic
Studies at New York University. c. Lawrence H. Schiffman, 1991, Ktav Publishing
House, Inc.
