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ZAKHORIUM
PTEN

The last great revolt, and the most obscure

Date

132CE

132–135 CE

From 132 to 135 CE, Shimon Bar Kosiba led a revolt in Judea whose causes and goals remain uncertain; it ended at Bethar, and the repression devastated Judea and probably ended the hope of restoring the Temple.

Political historyReligious history31.7772°N 35.2350°E
50 BCE
50 CE
100 CE
Between Caesar and God: each bar is an event of the period; this one is in coral.

Sourced narrative

Each block is a verifiable statement. The number opens the cited page; amber or coral blocks flag tradition or contested interpretation.

15 statements

01Why did they revolt?

It is not known for sure why the revolt broke out, and perhaps it never will be. The few sources (late mentions in Roman, Christian and rabbinic texts) suggest two causes. The first would be an imperial ban on circumcision, or on castration confused with it; but there is hardly any proof of such a law, and it is hard to see why Rome would strike at so many subjects, Jewish and not, who circumcised. Many scholars therefore prefer the second: a reaction to Hadrian's plan to remake Jerusalem as a pagan city, Aelia Capitolina. 'Aelia' referred to Hadrian's family; 'Capitolina', to Jupiter Capitolinus. A temple of Jupiter may even have been raised where the Temple had stood. Such a city would have wounded the Jews, who would lose the hope of rebuilding the sanctuary and see Jerusalem's Jewish identity erased. Yet this hypothesis has problems too: there are signs that the pagan refoundation came after the revolt, as a punishment, and not before it, as a cause. For the authors, we simply cannot say what sparked the uprising.

02Messiah, prince or general?

07

Contested interpretation

Little is known about the leadership either. Rabbinic literature says that Rabbi Akiba saw in Simon bar Kosiba, whom his followers called Bar Kochba, the messiah foretold in Scripture; the nickname, 'Son of a Star', alludes to Numbers 24:17. Perhaps, then, the aim was to open the messianic age. In the rebels' own documents, however, Bar Kochba is a devout commander who never claims a messianic or supernatural role.

08

Contested interpretation

Bar Kochba is known to have had his own administration, able to issue coinage: in fact Roman coins restruck, with the imperial portraits erased and his name put in their place. From them we know he used the title nasi, rendered 'prince', 'patriarch' or 'president', a term Ezekiel applies to a quasi-royal figure. Some carry the name of a priest, Eleazar, and the Temple façade, a hint that they may have wanted to restore it; but, the authors say, that is only an educated guess.

09

One of the Bar Kochba rebels' coins shows on one face what looks like the Temple façade, perhaps with the lost Ark of the Covenant inside; on the other, a lulav and etrog, emblems of the Sukkot festival, which was tied to the Temple's inauguration. These images allow the supposition that restoring the Temple was among the revolt's aims.

03The course of the war

Of the war's course there is only a sketch. It apparently began in the summer of 132 CE and took in much of Judea; it is debated whether it reached Galilee and whether the rebels ever held Jerusalem. Coins inscribed 'for the freedom of Jerusalem' do not settle whether this was an achievement or only a wish. Judging by inscriptions, Rome may have deployed up to 11 or 12 legions, over 50,000 soldiers by one estimate; a triumphal arch about ten meters high, whose remains lie near Beth Shean, suggests how highly the Romans prized the victory. The end came in 135 CE at Bethar, near Jerusalem to the southwest: in the last major battle, Bar Kochba died.

04After the defeat

11

Contested interpretation

In rabbinic sources the following years appear as a time of fierce persecution: Rome supposedly banned circumcision and Torah study, among other practices, and cruelly executed those who kept them in public. The martyrdom of Akiba and nine other sages attained legendary status, as an example of kiddush ha-shem, the 'sanctification of the Name'. Scholars, however, doubt that such a persecution ever existed.

03

Persecution or not, Judea came out devastated and lost much of its Jewish population. Cassius Dio speaks of 985 villages destroyed, 580,000 killed and so many captives that slave prices plunged across the empire. Entering Jerusalem became a capital offense, except on the ninth of Av, when mourning the Temple was allowed. Jewish culture lived on in Galilee and in the diaspora, as in Babylonia and Rome, yet within Judea it was largely wiped out.

12

To sever the bond between the land and the Jewish people, the Romans renamed the region Palestina, a name taken from the Philistines, former inhabitants of its coast.

Context

13

The First Revolt opened a series of uprisings, in the diaspora and in Judea itself. The later ones are less well known because no historian like Josephus narrated them in order, but they may have threatened Rome even more and brought even harsher reprisals.

14

For a long time, Bar Kochba was more legend than history. Greek and Roman authors say little; Christian and rabbinic texts, written much later and already aware of the tragic outcome, make him a bandit and a false messiah, with much that is legendary. Even his name was uncertain: 'Son of a Star' (Bar Kochba), as in Christian sources, or 'Son of a Liar' (Bar Kozeba), as in rabbinic ones?

15

Josephus had already concluded that revolting against Rome was folly; after Bar Kochba, Jewish thinkers seem to have reached a similar conclusion. Rabbinic literature, the main Jewish literary source from 200 to 650 CE, holds diverse opinions: some sages praise Rome and work with it (Judah the Patriarch is said to have been close to the emperor), while others denounce its oppression. On the whole, though, it steps back from open confrontation, keeps its distance from Bar Kochba and sharply limits the cases in which martyrdom is justified.

§ 01Geography

Where it happened

Gazetteer coordinates (Pleiades for ancient places; Natural Earth and Wikidata for modern ones) over modern physical geography (Natural Earth). Coastlines and the Dead Sea have changed since antiquity.
▮ loading geography

§ 02Museum

Objects and images

Each item states whether it is an ancient object, a modern photograph or a later artistic interpretation.

§ 03Historiography

What scholars debate

Positions shown side by side, unranked, as the source reports them. The source’s own assessment appears separately.

Scholarly debate · 01

What caused the Bar Kochba Revolt?

2 positions · no single answer · take a seat →

  1. A

    A ban on circumcision

    Suggested by some later ancient sources

    An imperial decree against circumcision (or against castration, conflated with it) would have triggered the revolt. There is little evidence of such a ban, and it is unclear why Rome would target so many Jews and non-Jews who practiced circumcision.

  2. B

    The founding of Aelia Capitolina

    Many scholars

    The revolt would have been a reaction to Hadrian's plan to turn Jerusalem into a pagan city dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus. The problem: there are indications that the city was refounded only after the revolt, as punishment.

The source’s assessmentThe authors consider the debate probably irresolvable: with far less literary evidence than for the earlier revolts, we simply do not know what caused it.

Scholarly debate · 02

What did Bar Kochba and his rebels want?

3 positions · no single answer · take a seat →

  1. A

    To inaugurate the messianic age

    Rabbinic literature (tradition about Rabbi Akiba)

    Akiba is said to have recognized Bar Kochba as a divinely sent redeemer; the nickname 'Son of a Star' refers to the prophecy of Numbers 24:17.

  2. B

    Independence under a pious leader

    Evidence left by the rebels themselves

    In the rebels' own documents, Bar Kochba comes across as a devout commander in the field, with no claim to messianic or supernatural status.

  3. C

    To restore the Temple

    A hypothesis suggested by the coins

    The Temple façade, the lulav and etrog and the name of the priest Eleazar on the coins suggest that the goal may have been to restore the Temple, though this is only an educated guess.

The source’s assessmentWithout a Josephus to narrate the revolt, the authors say they do not know whether the title nasi on the coins points to a messianic figure: we know very little about those involved.

Scholarly debate · 03

Was there a religious persecution after the Bar Kochba Revolt?

2 positions · no single answer · take a seat →

  1. A

    An age of persecution

    Rabbinic sources

    Rome forbade circumcision and the teaching of the Torah and executed those who publicly kept the commandments; Akiba and nine other sages died as martyrs.

  2. B

    Persecution questioned

    Scholars (not named in the book)

    Historians have cast doubt on whether that persecution ever took place.

The source’s assessmentEither way, the authors say, Judea endured an especially harsh ordeal and lost much of its Jewish population.

§ 04Network

Connections

§ 05Bibliography

Further reading

  • Yigael Yadin, Bar-Kochba: The Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Last Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971).

    Bar Kochba, his letters and the Babatha archive (source of the box's translations) · recommended in Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 102

§ 06Apparatus

Sources on this page

  1. 01Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 99; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 520inspect
  2. 02Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 103; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 520inspect
  3. 03Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 103; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 103inspect
  4. 04Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 109inspect
  5. 05Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 100; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 100inspect
  6. 06Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 100; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 101inspect
  7. 07Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 101; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 101inspect
  8. 08Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 101; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 103inspect
  9. 09Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 102inspect
  10. 10Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 103; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 103inspect
  11. 11Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 103; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 103inspect
  12. 12Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 103inspect
  13. 13Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 99inspect
  14. 14Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 102inspect
  15. 15Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 103inspect
  • Documented evidenceAttested by contemporary evidence: texts, inscriptions, coins, papyri or archaeology.
  • Scholarly reconstructionHistorians' inference from indirect evidence.
  • Tradition or narrativeA literary, traditional or religious account; significant in itself, but not independently verified.
  • Contested interpretationScholars explicitly disagree; see the positions in the debate.
  • Illustrative reconstructionA hypothesis or visual scheme to guide reading; not a historical claim.