The decisive dates for the Early Christian Movement are generally deemed to be from the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt (167 BCC to 160 BCC) to the final destruction of Jewish national independence in 70 CC, and later in the Bar-Kokba revolt from 132 CC to 135 CC -- a period of about three centuries. During this fruitful epoch, Jewish patriotism asserted itself through the Maccabean movement, and, for a time, won national independence.
The effects of this development on Judaism as a whole were significant. The range of Jewish influence in Palestine was decisively extended. The community expanded on a large scale, and Judaism itself became intensely proud and self-conscious. These results were by no means destroyed when Judea, her national independence finally lost, became a Roman province in 6 CC. The national feeling flared up from time to time and culminated finally in the disastrous rebellion against Rome from 66 CC to 70 CC, which ended in the destruction of the Temple and the ruin of the Holy City.
The party of peace, which had never approved of the rebellion, now for a time triumphed, and under Jochanan ben Zakkai, Judaism was reorganized at Jamnia. But the nationalist elements were by no means finally overcome, and rebellions broke out again, first in 117 CC, and finally in the great revolt of 132 CC to 135 CC, under Bar-Kokba, in which the most famous rabbi of the time, Akiba, took a prominent part, and with other rabbis, suffered martyrdom.
After the suppression of the final rebellion, Judaism devoted its energies, without distraction, to the task of consolidating its life as a community primarily on a religious basis. The teachers of the Law werre now supreme as leaders, and the Jews became "The People of the Book."
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The Maccabean Revolt (Hebrew: מרד החשמונאים) was a Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and against Hellenistic influence on Jewish life. The main phase of the revolt lasted from 167 to 160 BCE and ended with the Seleucids in control of Judea, but conflict between the Maccabees, Hellenized Jews, and the Seleucids continued until 134 BCE, with the Maccabees eventually attaining independence.
Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes launched a massive campaign of repression against the Jewish religion in 168 BCE. The reason he did so is not entirely clear, but it seems to have been related to the King mistaking an internal conflict among the Jewish priesthood as a full-scale rebellion. Jewish practices were banned, Jerusalem was placed under direct Seleucid control, and the Second Temple in Jerusalem was made the site of a syncretic Pagan-Jewish cult. This repression triggered exactly the revolt that Antiochus IV had feared, with a group of Jewish fighters led by Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) and his family rebelling in 167 BCE and seeking independence. The rebels as a whole would come to be known as the Maccabees, and their actions would be chronicled later in the books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees.
The rebellion started as a guerrilla movement in the Judean countryside, raiding towns and terrorizing Greek officials far from direct Seleucid control, but it eventually developed a proper army capable of attacking the fortified Seleucid cities. In 164 BCE, the Maccabees captured Jerusalem, a significant early victory. The subsequent cleansing of the temple and rededication of the altar on 25 Kislev is the source of the festival of Hanukkah. The Seleucids eventually relented and unbanned Judaism, but the more radical Maccabees, not content with merely reestablishing Jewish practices under Seleucid rule, continued to fight, pushing for a more direct break with the Seleucids. Judas Maccabeus died in 160 BCE at the Battle of Elasa against the Greek general Bacchides, and the Seleucids reestablished direct control for a time, but remnants of the Maccabees under Judas's brother Jonathan Apphus continued to resist from the countryside. Eventually, internal division among the Seleucids and problems elsewhere in their empire would give the Maccabees their chance for proper independence. In 141 BCE, Simon Thassi succeeded in expelling the Greeks from their citadel in Jerusalem. An alliance with the Roman Republic helped guarantee their independence. Simon would go on to establish an independent Hasmonean kingdom.
The revolt had a great impact on Jewish nationalism, as an example of a successful campaign to establish political independence and resist governmental anti-Jewish suppression.
Background
[edit]
Beginning in 338 BCE, Alexander the Great began an invasion of the Persian Empire. In 333–332 BCE, Alexander's Macedonian forces conquered the Levant and Palestine. At the time, Judea was home to many Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon thanks to the Persians. Alexander's empire was partitioned in 323 BCE after Alexander's death, and after the Wars of the Diadochi, the territory was taken by what would become Ptolemaic Egypt in 302–301 BCE.[1] Another of the Greek successor states, the Seleucid Empire, would conquer Judea from Egypt during a series of campaigns from 235–198 BCE. During both Ptolemaic and Seleucid rule, many Jews learned Koine Greek, especially upper class Jews and Jewish minorities in towns further afield from Jerusalem and more attached to Greek trading networks.[2] Greek philosophical ideas spread through the region as well. A Greek translation of the scriptures, the Septuagint, was also created during the third century BCE.[3] Many Jews adopted dual names with both a Greek name and a Hebrew name, such as Jason and Joshua.[4][5] Still, many Jews continued to speak the Aramaic language, the language that descended from what was spoken during the Babylonian exile.[6]
In general, the ruling Greek policy during this time period was to let Jews manage their own affairs and not interfere overtly with religious matters. Greek authors in the third century BCE who wrote about Judaism did so mostly positively.[7][8] Cultural change did happen, but was largely driven by Jews themselves inspired by ideas from abroad; Greek rulers did not undertake explicit programs of forced Hellenization. Antiochus IV Epiphanes came to the throne of the Seleucids in 175 BCE, and did not change this policy. He appears to have done little to antagonize the region at first, and the Jews were largely content under his rule. One element that would come to later prominence was Antiochus IV replacing the high priest Onias III with his brother Jason after Jason offered a large sum of money to Antiochus.[9] Jason also sought and received permission to make Jerusalem a self-governing polis, albeit with Jason able to control the citizenship lists of who would be able to vote and hold political office. These changes did not immediately appear to rouse any particular complaint from the majority of the citizenry in Jerusalem, and presumably he still kept the basic Jewish laws and tenets.[9][10] Three years later, a newcomer named Menelaus offered an even larger bribe to Antiochus IV for the position of high priest. Jason, resentful, turned against Antiochus IV; additionally, a rumor spread that Menelaus had sold golden temple artifacts to help pay for the bribe, leading to unhappiness, especially among the city council Jason had established. This conflict was largely political rather than cultural; all sides, at this point, were "Hellenized", content with Seleucid rule, and primarily divided over Menelaus's alleged corruption and sacrilege.[2][6]
In 170–168 BCE, the Sixth Syrian War between the Seleucids and the Ptolemaic Egyptians arose. Antiochus IV led an army to attack Egypt. On his way back through Jerusalem after the successful campaign, High Priest Menelaus allegedly invited Antiochus inside the Second Temple (in violation of Jewish law), and he raided the temple treasury for 1800 talents.[note 1] Tensions with the Ptolemaic dynasty continued, and Antiochus rode out on campaign again in 168 BCE.[12] Jason heard a rumor that Antiochus had perished, and launched an attempted coup against Menelaus in Jerusalem. Hearing of this, Antiochus, who was not dead, apparently interpreted this factional infighting as a revolt against his personal authority, and sent an army to crush Jason's plotters. From 168–167 BCE, the conflict spiraled out of control, and government policy radically shifted. Thousands in Jerusalem were killed and thousands more were enslaved; the city was attacked twice; new Greek governors were sent; the government seized land and property from Jason's supporters; and the Temple in Jerusalem was made the site of a syncretic Greek-Jewish religious group, polluting it in the eyes of the devout Jews.[13] A new citadel garrisoned by Greeks and pro-Seleucid Jews, the Acra, was built in Jerusalem. Antiochus IV issued decrees officially suppressing the Jewish religion; subjects were required to eat pork and violate Jewish dietary law, work on the Jewish Sabbath, cease circumcising their sons, and so on.[note 2] The policy of tolerance of Jewish worship was at an end.[2][14]
The rebellion
[edit]Mattathias sparks the uprising (167 BCE)
[edit]
In the aftermath of Antiochus IV issuing his decrees forbidding Jewish religious practice, a campaign of land confiscations paired with shrine and altar-building took place in the Judean countryside.[16] A rural Jewish priest from Modein, Mattathias (Hebrew: Matityahu) of the Hasmonean family, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods at Modein's new altar. Mattathias killed a Jew who had stepped forward to take Mattathias' place in sacrificing to an idol as well as the Greek officer who was sent to enforce the sacrifice. He then destroyed the altar.[17] Afterwards, he and his five sons fled to the nearby mountains, which sat directly next to Modein.[18]
Guerrilla campaign (167–164 BCE)
[edit]After Mattathias' death about one year later in 166 BCE, his son Judas Maccabeus (Hebrew: Judah Maccabee) led a band of Jewish dissidents that would eventually absorb other groups opposed to Seleucid rule and grow into an army. While unable to directly strike Seleucid power at first, Judas's forces could maraud the countryside and attack Hellenized Jews, of whom there were many. The Maccabees destroyed Greek altars in the villages, forcibly circumcised boys, burnt villages, and drove Hellenized Jews off their land.[19][17] Judas's nickname "Maccabee", now used to describe the Jewish partisans as a whole, is probably taken from the word "hammer" (Aramaic: maqqaba; Hebrew: makebet); the term "Maccabee" or "Maccabeus" would later be used as an honorific for Judas's brothers as well.[20]
Judas's campaign in the countryside became a full-scale revolt. Maccabean forces employed guerrilla tactics emphasizing speed and mobility. While less trained and under-equipped for pitched battles, the Maccabees could control which battles they took and retreat into the wilderness when threatened. They defeated two minor Seleucid forces at the Battle of the Ascent of Lebonah in 167 BCE and the Battle of Beth Horon in 166 BCE. Toward the end of summer in 165 BCE, Antiochus IV departed for Babylonia in the eastern half of his empire, and left Lysias in charge of the western half as regent. Shortly afterward, the Maccabees won a more substantial victory at the Battle of Emmaus. The factions attempted to negotiate a compromise, but failed; a large Seleucid army was sent to quash the revolt. After the Battle of Beth Zur in 164 BCE as well as news of the death of Antiochus IV in Persia, the Seleucid troops returned to Syria.[21] The Maccabees entered Jerusalem in triumph. They ritually cleansed the Second Temple, reestablishing traditional Jewish worship there; 25 Kislev, the date of the cleansing in the Hebrew calendar, would later become the date when the festival of Hanukkah begins. Regent Lysias, preoccupied with internal Seleucid affairs, agreed to a political compromise that revoked Antiochus IV's ban on Jewish practices. This proved a wise decision: many Hellenized Jews had cautiously supported the revolt due to the suppression of their religion.[22] With the ban retracted, their religious goals were accomplished, and the Hellenized Jews could more easily be potential Seleucid loyalists again. The Maccabees did not consider their goals complete, however, and continued their campaign for a starker break from Greek influence and full political independence. The rebels suffered a loss of support from moderates as a result.[22][23]
Continued struggle (163–160 BCE)
[edit]With the rebels now in control of most of Jerusalem and its environs, a second phase of the revolt began. The rebellion had additional resources, but also additional responsibilities. Rather than being able to retreat to the mountains, the rebels now had territory to defend; abandoning cities would leave their loyalists open to reprisals if the pro-Seleucid forces were allowed to take control again. As such, they focused on being able to win open battles, with additional trained heavy infantry. A civil struggle of low-level violence, reprisals, and murders arose in the countryside, especially in more distant areas where Jewish people were in the minority.[24] Judas launched expeditions to these regions outlying Judea to fight non-Jewish Idumeans, Ammonites, and Galileans. He recruited devout Jews and sent them into Judea to concentrate his allies where they could be protected, although this influx of refugees would soon create food scarcity issues in the land the Maccabees held.[25]
In 162 BCE, Judas began a long siege of the fortified Acra citadel in Jerusalem, still controlled by Seleucid loyalist Jews and a Greek garrison. Regent Lysias, having dealt with rivals back in Antioch, returned to Judea with an army to aid the Seleucid forces. The Seleucids besieged Beth-Zur and took it without a fight, as it was a fallow year and food supplies were meager.[26] They battled Judas's forces in an open fight at the Battle of Beth Zechariah next, with the Seleucids defeating the Maccabees. Judas's younger brother Eleazar Avaran died in battle after bravely attacking a war elephant and being crushed.[26] Lysias's army next besieged Jerusalem. With supplies of food short on both sides and reports of a political rival returning from the eastern provinces to Antioch, Lysias decided to sign an agreement with the rebels and confirm the repeal of the anti-Jewish decrees; the rebels, in return, abandoned their siege of the Seleucid Acra. Lysias and his army then returned to Antioch, with the province officially at peace, but neither the Hellenized Jews nor the Maccabees laid down their arms.[25]
At some point from 163–162 BCE, Lysias ordered the execution of despised High Priest Menelaus as another gesture of reconciliation to the Jews.[27] Shortly afterward, both regent Lysias and 11-year old king Antiochus V were executed after losing a succession struggle with Demetrius I Soter, who became the new Seleucid king. In the winter of late 162 BCE to early 161 BCE, Demetrius I appointed a new high priest, Alcimus, to replace Menelaus and sent an army led by general Bacchides to enforce Alcimus's station. Judas did not give battle, perhaps still rebuilding after his defeat at Beth Zechariah.[28] Alcimus was accepted into Jerusalem, and proved more effective at rallying moderate Hellenists to the pro-Seleucid faction than Menelaus had been. Still, violent tensions between the Maccabees and the Hellenized Jews continued.[29] Bacchides returned to Syria, and a new general, Nicanor, was appointed military governor of Judea. A truce was briefly made between Nicanor and the Maccabees, but was soon broken.[30] Nicanor gained the hatred of the Maccabees after reports surfaced that he had blasphemed in the Temple and threatened to burn it. Nicanor took his forces into the field, and fought the Maccabees first at Caphar-salama, and then at the Battle of Adasa in late winter of 161 BCE. Nicanor was killed early in the fight, and the rest of his army fled afterward.[31]
Judas had been negotiating with the Roman Republic and extracted a vague agreement of potential support. While this would be cause for caution to the Seleucid Empire in the long term, it was not a particular concern in the short term, as the Romans would be unlikely to intervene if the Judean unrest could be decisively crushed.[32]
Battle of Elasa (160 BCE)
[edit]In 160 BCE, Seleucid King Demetrius I went on campaign in the east to fight the rebellious Timarchus. He left his general Bacchides to govern the western part of the empire.[32] Bacchides led an army of 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry into Judea on a second expedition intending to reconquer the restive province before it grew too used to autonomy. The size of the rebel army facing them is disputed; 1 Maccabees implausibly claims that Judas's army at Elasa was tiny, with 3,000 men of which only 800–1,000 would fight. Historians suspect the true numbers were larger and possibly as many as 22,000 soldiers, and the author downplayed their strength in an attempt to explain the defeat.[33]
The Seleucid army marched through Judea after carrying out a massacre in the Galilee. This tactic would force Judas to respond in open battle, lest his reputation be damaged by inaction and Alcimus's faction gain strength by claiming he was better positioned to protect the people from future killings. Bacchides advanced toward Jerusalem, while Judas encamped on the rough terrain at Elasa to intercept the Seleucid army. Judas opted to attack the right flank of the Seleucid army hoping to kill the commander, similar to the victory over Nicanor at Adasa. The elite horsemen on the right retreated, and the rebels pursued. This may have been a tactic from Bacchides, however, to feign weakness and draw the Maccabees in where they could be surrounded and defeated, their own retreat cut off. Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, the Seleucids regained their formation and trapped the rebel army with their own left flank. Judas was eventually killed and the remaining Judeans fled.[32]
The Seleucids had reasserted their authority in Jerusalem. Bacchides fortified cities across the land, put allied Greek-friendly Jews in command in Jerusalem, and ensured children of leading families were held as hostages as a guarantee of good behavior. Judas's younger brother Jonathan Apphus (Hebrew: Yonatan) became the new leader of the Maccabees. A new tragedy struck the Hasmonean family when Jonathan's brother John Gaddi was seized and killed while on a mission in Nabatea. Jonathan fought Bacchides and his troops for a time, but the two eventually made a pact for a cease-fire. Bacchides then returned to Syria in 160 BCE.[34]
Autonomy (160–138 BCE)
[edit]
While the Maccabees had lost control of the cities, they seem to have built a rival government in the countryside from 160–153 BCE. The Maccabees avoided direct conflict with the Seleucids, but the internal Jewish civil struggle continued: the rebels harassed, exiled, and killed Jews seen as insufficiently anti-Greek.[35] According to 1 Maccabees, "Thus the sword ceased from Israel. Jonathan settled in Michmash and began to judge the people; and he destroyed the godless out of Israel."[36] The Maccabees were handed an opportunity as the Seleucids broke into infighting in a series of civil wars, the Seleucid Dynastic Wars. The Seleucid rival claimants to the throne needed all their troops elsewhere, and also wished to deny possible allies to other claimants, thus giving the Maccabees leverage. In 153–152 BCE, a deal was struck between Jonathan and Demetrius I. King Demetrius was fending off a challenge from Alexander Balas, and agreed to withdraw Seleucid forces from the fortified towns and garrisons in Judea, barring Beth-Zur and Jerusalem.[35] The hostages were also released. Seleucid control over Judea was weakened, and then weakened further; Jonathan promptly betrayed Demetrius I after Alexander Balas offered an even better deal. Jonathan was granted the title of both High Priest and strategos by Alexander, essentially acknowledging that the Maccabee faction was a more relevant ally to would-be Seleucid leaders than the Hellenist faction.[30] Jonathan's forces fought against Demetrius I, who would die in battle in 150 BCE.[35]
From 152–141 BCE, the rebels achieved a state of informal autonomy akin to a suzerain.[37] The land was de jure part of the Seleucid Empire, but continuing civil wars gave the Maccabees considerable autonomy. Jonathan was given official authority to build and maintain an army in exchange for his aid. During this period, the legitimized armies of Jonathan fought in these civil wars and border struggles to maintain the favor of allied Seleucid leaders.[38] The Seleucids did send an army back into Judea during this period, but Jonathan evaded it and refused battle until it eventually returned to the Seleucid heartland.[39] In 143 BCE, regent Diodotus Tryphon, perhaps eager to reassert control over the restive province, invited Jonathan to a conference. The conference was a trap; Jonathan was captured and executed, despite Jonathan's brother Simon raising the requested ransom and sending hostages. This betrayal led to an alliance between the new leader of the Maccabees, Simon Thassi (Hebrew: Simeon), and Demetrius II Nicator, a rival of Diodotus Tryphon and claimant to the Seleucid throne. Demetrius II exempted Judea from payment of taxes in 142 BCE, essentially acknowledging its independence.[37] The Seleucid settlement and garrison in Jerusalem, the Acra, finally came under Simon's control, peacefully, as did the remaining Seleucid garrison at Beth-Zur. Simon was appointed High Priest around 141 BCE, but he did so by acclamation from the Jewish people rather than appointment by the Seleucid king.[40][37] Both Jonathan and now Simon had maintained diplomatic contact with the Roman Republic; official recognition by Rome came in 139 BCE, as the Romans were eager to weaken and divide the Greek states. This new Hasmonean-Roman alliance was also worded more firmly than Judas Maccabeus's hazy agreement 22–23 years earlier. Continuing strife between rival Seleucid rulers made a government response to formal independence of the new state difficult. New Seleucid King Antiochus VII Sidetes refused an offer of help from Simon's troops while pursuing their mutual enemy Diodotus Tryphon, and made demands for both tribute and for Simon to cede control of the border towns Joppa and Gazara. Antiochus VII sent an army to Judea at some point between 139 and 138 BCE under command of a general named Cendebeus, but it was repulsed.[38]
The Hasmonean leaders did not immediately call themselves "king" or establish a monarchy; Simon called himself merely "nasi" (in Hebrew, "Prince" or "President") and "ethnarch" (in Koine Greek, "Governor").[41][42][43]
Aftermath
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In 135 BCE, Simon and two of his sons (Mattathias and Judas) were murdered by his son-in-law, Ptolemy son of Abubus, at a feast in Jericho. All five sons of Mattathias were now gone with Simon joining his brothers in death, leaving leadership to the next generation. Simon's third son, John Hyrcanus, became High Priest of Israel.[44] King Antiochus VII would personally invade and besiege Jerusalem in 134 BCE, but after Hyrcanus paid a ransom and ceded the cities of Joppa and Gazara, the Seleucids left peacefully. The conflict ceased, and Hyrcanus and Antiochus VII joined themselves in an alliance, with Antiochus making a respectful donation of a sacrifice at the Temple. For the reprieve and donation, Antiochus VII was referred to as "Eusebes" ("Pious") by the grateful populace.[45] With the suzerainty briefly re-established, Judea sent troops to aid Antiochus VII in his campaigns in Persia. After Antiochus VII's death in 129 BCE, the Hasmoneans ceased offering aid or tribute to the remnants of the declining Seleucid Empire.[46] John Hyrcanus and his children would go on to centralize power more than Simon had done. Hyrcanus's son Aristobulus I called himself "basileus" (king), abandoning pretensions that the High Priest managing political matters was a temporary arrangement.[47][48] The Hasmoneans exiled leaders on the council or gerusia that they felt might threaten their power.[49] The council of elders – which some see as a precursor to the Sanhedrin – ceased to be an independent check on the monarchy.[42][50][51][52] After the success of the Maccabean Revolt, leaders of the Hasmonean dynasty continued their conquest to surrounding areas of Judea, especially under Alexander Jannaeus. The Seleucid Empire was too riven with internal unrest to stop this, and Ptolemaic Egypt maintained largely friendly relations.[53] The Hasmonean court at Jerusalem would not make a sharp break from Hellenic culture and language, and continued with a blend of Jewish traditions and Greek ones.[54][55] They continued to be known by Greek names, would use both Hebrew and Greek on their coinage, and hired Greek mercenaries, but also restored Judaism to a place of primacy in Judea and fostered the new sense of Jewish nationalism that had sprouted during the revolt.[7]
The dynasty would last until 37 BCE, when Herod the Great, making use of heavy Roman support, defeated the last Hasmonean ruler to become a Roman client king.
Tactics and technology
[edit]
Both sides were influenced by Hellenistic army composition and tactics. The basic Hellenistic battle deployment consisted of heavy infantry in the center, mounted cavalry on the flanks, and mobile skirmishers in the vanguard. The most common infantry weapon used was the sarissa, the Macedonian pike. The sarissa was a powerful weapon; it was held in two hands and had great reach (approximately ~6 meters), making it difficult for opponents to approach a phalanx of sarissa-wielding infantry safely. Hellenistic cavalry also used pikes, albeit slightly shorter ones.[56] The Seleucids also had access to trained war elephants imported from India, who sported natural armor in their thick hides and could terrify opposing soldiers and their horses.[57] Rarely, they also made use of scythed chariots.[57]
In terms of army size, the respected historian Polybius reports that in 165 BCE, a military parade near the Seleucid capital Antioch held by Antiochus IV consisted of 41,000 foot soldiers and 4,500 cavalrymen. These soldiers were preparing to fight in an expedition to the east, not in Judea, but give a rough estimate to the total size of the Seleucid forces in the Western part of their empire capable of being deployed wherever the ruler needed them, not including local auxiliaries and garrisons. Antiochus IV appears to have augmented the size of his army by hiring additional mercenaries, at cost to the Seleucid treasury.[58] Most of the forces at that parade would be deployed on matters more important to the Seleucid leadership than suppressing the Judean rebellion, however, and as such only a portion of them likely participated in the battles of the rebellion. They may have been supplemented by local Seleucid-allied militias and garrisons, however.[59]
The Maccabees started as a guerrilla force that likely used the traditional weapons effective in small unit combat in mountainous terrain: archers, slingers, and light infantry peltasts armed with sword and shield. Later writers would romantically portray the Maccabees as ordinary people fighting as irregulars, but the Maccabees did eventually train a standing army similar to the Seleucids, complete with Hellenic-style heavy infantry phalanxes, horse-mounted cavalry, and siege weaponry.[22][60] However, while manufacturing the mostly wooden sarissa would have been easy for the rebels, their body armor was lower quality. They likely used simple leather armor due to a paucity of metals and craftsmen capable of making Greek-style metal armor.[61] It is speculated that diaspora Jews in countries hostile to the Seleucids, such as Ptolemaic Egypt and Pergamon, may have joined the cause as volunteers, bringing their own local talents to the rebel army.[61]
The rebel forces grew with time. There were 6,000 men in Judas's army near the start of the revolt, 10,000 men at the Battle of Beth Zur, and possibly as many as 22,000 soldiers by the time of the defeat at Elasa.[33] In several battles, the rebels may have had numerical superiority to compensate for shortfalls in training and equipment.[62][note 3] After Jonathan was legitimized as high priest and governor by the Seleucid rulers, the Hasmoneans had easier access to recruitment; 20,000 soldiers are reported as repulsing Cendebeus in 139 BCE.[64]
Much of the combat in the revolt took place in hilly and mountainous terrain, which complicated warfare.[65] Seleucid phalanxes trained for mountain combat would fight at somewhat greater distance from each other compared to packed lowland formations, and used slightly shorter but more maneuverable Roman-style pikes.[66]
Writings
[edit]Original histories
[edit]The most detailed contemporaneous writings that survived were the deuterocanonical books of First Maccabees and Second Maccabees, as well as Josephus's The Jewish War and Book XII and XIII of Jewish Antiquities.[67] The authors were not disinterested parties; the authors of the books of Maccabees were favorable to the Maccabees, portraying the conflict as a divinely sanctioned holy war and elevating the stature of Judas and his brothers to heroic levels.[22] In comparison, Josephus did not want to offend Greek pagan readers of his work, and is ambivalent toward the Maccabees.[68][69]
The book of 1 Maccabees is considered mostly reliable, as it was seemingly written by an eyewitness early in the reign of the Hasmoneans, most likely during John Hyrcanus's reign. Its depictions of battles are detailed and seemingly accurate, although it portrays implausibly large numbers of Seleucid soldiers, to better emphasize God's aid and Judas's talents.[62][70] The book also acts as Hasmonean dynasty propaganda in its editorial slant on events.[71][72][73] The new rule of the Hasmoneans was not without its own internal enemies; the office of High Priest had been occupied for generations by a descendant of the High Priest Zadok. The Hasmoneans, while of the priestly line (Kohens), were seen by some as usurpers, did not descend from Zadok, and had taken the office originally only via a deal with a Seleucid king. As such, the book emphasizes that the Hasmoneans' actions were in line with heroes of older scripture; they were God's new chosen and righteous rulers. For example, it dismisses a defeat suffered by other commanders named Joseph and Azariah as because "they did not listen to Judas and his brothers. But they did not belong to the family of those men through whom deliverance was given to Israel."[74][71]
2 Maccabees is an abridgment by an unknown Egyptian Jew of a lost five-volume work by an author named Jason of Cyrene. It is a separate work from 1 Maccabees and not a continuation of it. 2 Maccabees has a more directly religious focus than 1 Maccabees, crediting God and divine intervention for events more prominently than 1 Maccabees; it also focuses personally on Judas rather than other Hasmoneans. It has a special focus on the Second Temple: the controversies over the position of High Priest, its pollution by Menelaus into a Greek-Jewish mix, its eventual cleansing, and the threats by Nicanor at the Temple.[75] 2 Maccabees also represents an attempt to take the cause of the Maccabees outside Judea, as it encourages Egyptian Jews and other diaspora Jews to celebrate the cleansing of the temple (Hanukkah) and revere Judas Maccabeus.[75][69] In general, 2 Maccabees portrays the prospects of peace and cooperation more positively than 1 Maccabees. In 1 Maccabees, the only way for the Jews to honorably make a deal with the Seleucids involved first defeating them militarily and attaining functional independence. In 2 Maccabees, intended for an audience of Egyptian Jews who still lived under Greek rule, peaceful coexistence was possible, but misunderstandings or troublemakers forced the Jews into defensive action.[76][77]
Josephus wrote over two centuries after the revolt, but his friendship with the Flavian dynasty Roman emperors meant he had access to resources undreamt of by other scholars. Josephus appears to have used 1 Maccabees as one of his main sources for his histories, but supplements it with knowledge of events of the Seleucid Empire from Greek histories as well as unknown other sources. Josephus seems to be familiar with the work of historians Polybius and Strabo, as well as the mostly lost works of Nicolaus of Damascus.[78][45][79]
Daniel
[edit]The Book of Daniel appears to have been written during the early stages of the revolt around 165 BCE, and would eventually be included in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament.[note 4] While the setting of the book is 400 years earlier in Babylon, the book is a literary response to the situation in Judea during the revolt (Sitz im Leben); the writer chose to move the setting either for esoteric reasons or to evade scrutiny from would-be censors. It urges its readers to remain steadfast in the face of persecution. For example, Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar orders his court to eat the king's rich food; the prophet Daniel and his companions keep kosher and eat a diet of vegetables and water, yet emerge healthier than all the king's courtiers.[81] The message is clear: defy Antiochus's decree and keep Jewish dietary law. Daniel predicts the king will go insane; Antiochus's title, "Epiphanes" ("Chosen of God"), was mocked by his enemies as "Epimanes" ("Madman"), and he was known to keep odd habits. When Daniel and the Jews are threatened with death, they face it calmly, and are saved in the end, a relevant message among Jewish opposition to Antiochus IV.[82][83]
The final chapters of the book of Daniel include apocalyptic visions of the future. One of the motives for the author was to give heart to devout Jews that their victory was foreseen by prophecy 400 years earlier.[84] Daniel's final vision refers to Antiochus Epiphanes as the "king of the north" and describes his earlier actions, such as being repelled and humiliated by the Romans in his second campaign in Egypt, but also that the king of the north would "meet his end".[82] Additionally, all those who had died under the king of the north would be revived, with those who suffered rewarded while those who had prospered would be subjected to shame and contempt.[2] The main historical items taken away from Daniel is in its depiction of the king of the north desecrating the temple with an abomination of desolation, and stopping the tamid, the daily sacrifice at the Temple; these agree with the depictions in 1 and 2 Maccabees of the changes at the Second Temple.[82][85]
Related works
[edit]Other works appear to have at least been influenced by the Maccabean Revolt include the Book of Judith, the Testament of Moses, and parts of the Book of Enoch. The Book of Judith is a historical novel that describes Jewish resistance against an overwhelming military threat. While the parallels are not as stark as Daniel, some of its depictions of oppression seem influenced by Antiochus's persecution, such as General Holofernes demolishing shrines, cutting down sacred groves, and attempting to destroy all worship other than of the king. Judith, the story's heroine, also bears the feminine form of the name "Judas".[86] The Testament of Moses, similar to the Book of Daniel, provides a witness to Jewish attitudes leading up to the revolt: it describes persecution, denounces impious leaders and priests as collaborators, praises the virtues of martyrdom, and predicts God's retribution upon the oppressors. The Testament is usually considered to have been written in the first century CE, but it is at least possible it was written much earlier, in the Maccabean or Hasmonean era, and then appended onto with first century CE updates. Even if it was entirely written in the first century CE, it was still likely influenced by the experience of Antiochus IV's reign.[87][88] The Book of Enoch's early chapters were written around 300–200 BCE, but new sections were appended over time invoking the authority of Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. One section, the "Apocalypse of Weeks", is hypothesized to have been written around 167 BCE, just after Antiochus's persecution began.[89] Similar to Daniel, after the Apocalypse of Weeks recounts world history up to the point of the persecution, it predicts that the righteous will eventually triumph, and encourages resistance.[90] Another section of Enoch, the "Book of Dreams", was likely written after the Revolt had at least partially succeeded; it portrays the events of the revolt in the form of prophetic dream visions.[91]
A more uncertain work that has nevertheless attracted much interest is the Qumran Habakkuk Commentary, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Qumran religious community was not on good terms with the Hasmonean religious establishment in Jerusalem, and is believed to have favored the Zadokite line of succession to the High Priesthood. The commentary (pesher) describes a situation wherein a "Righteous Teacher" is unfairly driven from their post and into exile by a "Wicked Priest" and a "Man of the Lie" (possibly the same person). Many figures have been proposed as the identity of the people behind these titles; one theory goes that the Righteous Teacher was whoever held the High Priest position after Alcimus's death in 159 BCE, perhaps a Zadokite. If this person even existed, they lost their position after Jonathan Apphus, backed by his Maccabee army and his new alliance with Seleucid royal claimant Alexander Balas, took over the High Priest position in 152 BCE. Thus, the Wicked Priest would be Jonathan, and the Qumran community of the era would have consisted of religious opposition to the Hasmonean takeover: the first Essenes. The date of the work is unknown, and others scholars have proposed different candidates as possible identities of the Wicked Priest, so the identification with Jonathan is only a possibility, yet an intriguing and plausible one.[92][93]
Later analysis and historiography
[edit]In the First and Second Books of the Maccabees, the Maccabean Revolt is described as a collective response to cultural oppression and national resistance to a foreign power. Written after the revolt was complete, the books urged unity among the Jews; they describe little of the Hellenizing faction other than to call them lawless and corrupt, and downplay their relevance and power in the conflict.[72][94] While many scholars still accept this basic framework, that the Hellenists were weak and dependent on Seleucid aid to hold influence, this view has since been challenged. In the revisionist view, the heroes and villains were both Jews: a majority of the Jews cautiously supported Hellenizing High Priest Menelaus; Antiochus IV's edicts only came about due to pressure from Hellenist Jews; and the revolt was best understood as a civil war between traditionalist Jews in the countryside and Hellenized Jews in the cities, with only occasional Seleucid intervention.[95][96][97] Elias Bickerman is generally credited as popularizing this alternative viewpoint in 1937, and other historians such as Martin Hengel have continued the argument.[98][85] For example, Josephus's account directly blames Menelaus for convincing Antiochus IV to issue his anti-Jewish decrees.[23][99] Alcimus, Menelaus's replacement as High Priest, is blamed for instigating a massacre of devout Jews in 1 Maccabees, rather than the Seleucids directly.[23] The Maccabees themselves fight and exile Hellenists as well, most clearly in the final expulsion from the Acra, but also in the earlier countryside struggles against the Tobiad clan of Hellenist-friendly Jews.[19]
In general, scholarly opinion is that Hellenistic historians were biased, but also that the bias did not result in excessive distortion or fabrication of facts, and they are mostly reliable sources once the bias is removed.[100] There exist revisionist scholars who are inclined to discount the reliability of the primary histories more aggressively, however.[101] Daniel R. Schwartz argues that Antiochus IV's initial attacks on Jerusalem from 168–167 BCE were not out of pure malice, as 1 Maccabees depicts, or a misunderstanding as 2 Maccabees depicts (and most scholars accept), but rather suppressing an authentic rebellion whose members were lost to history, as the Hasmoneans wished to show only themselves as capable of bringing victory.[11] Sylvie Honigman argues that the depictions of Seleucid religious oppression are misleading and likely false. She advances the view that the loss of civil rights by the Jews in 168 BCE was an administrative punishment in the aftermath of local unrest over increased taxes; that the struggle was fundamentally economic, and merely interpreted as religiously driven in retrospect.[85] She also argues that the moralistic slant of the sources means that their depictions of impious acts by Hellenists cannot be trusted as historical. For example, the claim that Menelaus stole temple vessels to pay for a bribe to Antiochus is merely aimed at delegitimizing them both.[102] John Ma argues that the Temple was restored in 164 BCE upon petition by Menelaus to Antiochus, not liberated and rededicated by the Maccabees.[76] These views have attracted partial support, but have not become a new consensus themselves. Modern defenders of more direct readings of the sources cite that evidence of such an unrecorded popular rebellion is thin-to-nonexistent. Assuming that Antiochus IV would not have started an ethno-religious persecution for irrational reasons is an ahistorical position in this criticism, as many leaders both ancient and modern clearly were motivated by religious concerns.[85][103]
Later scholars and archaeologists have found and preserved various artifacts from the time period and analyzed them, which have informed historians on the plausibility of various elements in the books.[68] For recent examples, a stele (the "Helidorus stele") was discovered and deciphered in 2007 that dated from around 178 BCE, and gives insight to Seleucid government appointments and policy in the era immediately preceding the revolt.[104][105] The Givati Parking Lot dig in Jerusalem from 2007–2015 has found possible evidence of the Acra; it might resolve a seeming contradiction between Josephus's account of the Acra's fate (he claimed it was torn down) and 1 Maccabees's account (it was merely occupied) in favor of the 1 Maccabees version.[106][107]
Legacy
[edit]
The Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Temple following Judas Maccabeus's victory over the Seleucids.[108] According to rabbinic tradition, the victorious Maccabees could only find a small jug of oil that had remained pure and uncontaminated by virtue of a seal, and although it only contained enough oil to sustain the Menorah for one day, it miraculously lasted for eight days, by which time further oil had been procured. During the era of the Hasmonean kingdom, Hanukkah was observed prominently; it acted as a "Hasmonean Independence Day" to commemorate the success of the revolt and the legitimacy of the Hasmonean rulers.[109] Diaspora Jews celebrated it as well, fostering a sense of Jewish collective identity: it was a liberation day for all Jews, not merely Judean Jews.[note 5][111] As a result, Hanukkah outlasted Hasmonean rule, although its importance receded as time passed. Hanukkah would gain new prominence in the 20th century and rekindle interest in its origins in the Maccabees.[112]
The Jewish victory at the Battle of Adasa led to an annual festival as well, albeit one less prominent and remembered than Hanukkah. The defeat of Seleucid general Nicanor is celebrated on 13 Adar as Yom Nicanor.[113][114]
The traumatic time period helped define the genre of the apocalypse and heightened Jewish apocalypticism.[115] The portrayal of an evil tyrant like Antiochus IV attacking the holy city of Jerusalem in the Book of Daniel became a common theme during later Roman rule of Judea, and would contribute to Christian conceptions of the Antichrist.[116]
The persecution of the Jews under Antiochus, and the Maccabees response, would influence and create new trends in Jewish strains of thought with regard to divine rewards and punishments. In earlier Jewish works, devotion to God and adherence to the law led to rewards and punishments in life: the observant would prosper, and disobedience would result in disaster. The persecution of Antiochus IV directly contradicted this teaching: for the first time, Jews were suffering precisely because they refused to violate Jewish law, and thus the most devout and observant Jews were the ones suffering the most. This resulted in literature suggesting that those who suffered in their earthly life would be rewarded afterward, such as the Book of Daniel describing a future resurrection of the dead, or 2 Maccabees describing in detail the martyrdom of a woman and her seven sons under Antiochus, but who would be rewarded after their deaths.[117][118][119]
As a victory of the "few over the many", the revolt served as inspiration for future Jewish resistance movements, such as the Zealots.[120] The most famous of these later revolts are the First Jewish–Roman War in 66–73 CE (also called the "Great Revolt") and the Bar Kochba revolt from 132 to 136 CE.[116][121] After the failure of these revolts, Jewish interpretation of the Maccabean Revolt became more spiritual; it instead focused on stories of Hanukkah and God's miracle of the oil, rather than practical plans for an independent Jewish polity backed by armed might. The Maccabees were also discussed less as time went on; they appear only rarely in the mishnah, the writings of the Tannaim, after these Jewish defeats.[122][123][124] Rabbinical displeasure with the later rule of the Hasmoneans after the revolt also contributed to this; even when stories were explicitly set during the Maccabean period, references to Judas by name were explicitly removed to avoid hero-worship of the Hasmonean line.[125] The books of Maccabees were downplayed and relegated in the Jewish tradition and not included in the Jewish Tanakh (Hebrew Bible); it would be Christians who would produce more art and literature referencing the Maccabees during the medieval era, as the books of Maccabees were included in the Catholic and Orthodox Biblical canon.[112] Medieval Christians during the Carolingian era esteemed the Maccabees as early examples of chivalry and knighthood, and the Maccabees were invoked in the later Middle Ages as holy warriors to emulate during the Crusades.[126][127] In the 14th century, Judas Maccabeus was included in the Nine Worthies, medieval exemplars of chivalry for knights to model their conduct on.
The Jewish downplaying of the Maccabees would be challenged centuries later in the 19th century and early 20th century, as Jewish writers and artists held up the Maccabees as examples of independence and victory.[128] Proponents of Jewish nationalism of that era saw past events, such as the Maccabees, as a hopeful suggestion to what was possible, influencing the nascent Zionist movement. A British Zionist organization formed in 1896 is named the Order of Ancient Maccabeans, and the Jewish sporting organization Maccabi World Union names itself after them.[129][note 6] The revolt is featured in plays of the playwrights Aharon Ashman, Ya'akov Cahan, and Moshe Shamir. Various organizations in the modern state of Israel name themselves after the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans or otherwise honor them.
See also
[edit]
Notes
[edit]- ^ The date of the treasury raid is disputed. 1 Maccabees suggests the Temple treasury was raided in 169 BCE after the first expedition to Egypt. 2 Maccabees suggests the treasury was raided in 168 BCE after the second expedition to Egypt. Possibly, the Book of Daniel (Daniel 11:28–11:30) suggests Antiochus IV raided Jerusalem twice, after each trip. Josephus says Antiochus IV visited Jerusalem twice and looted the city the first time, the Temple the second time.[11]
- ^ 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees are both sources heavily slanted against the Seleucids and in favor of the Maccabees, so historians such as Lester L. Grabbe caution that the outrages described within them should be taken with some skepticism. Nevertheless, it is clear enough that whatever actions the Seleucids did take were sufficient to enrage the populace, even if they were later exaggerated.[2]
- ^ Historian Bezalel Bar-Kochva propounds the view that the Seleucid army was a small but elite force that largely consisted of high-morale Greeks devoted to maintaining "their" empire, hence his writings that the rebels likely outnumbered the Seleucids despite the Books of Maccabees claiming otherwise. That said, the matter is not settled; other scholars such as Israel Shatzman keep to the older view that the Seleucids deployed a larger but less disciplined force with many non-Greek soldiers with low morale, fighting only for money and with little care for the Seleucid cause.[63]
- ^ The nature of Chapters 1–6 of Daniel is contested; some scholars believe that these chapters existed prior to the Revolt and were lightly modified at most, while others suggest that such reliance on pre-existing legends of Daniel was minor.[80]
- ^ The degree to which diaspora Jews celebrated Hanukkah in the centuries after the revolt but before the medieval age is unclear and disputed, however. The main surviving somewhat contemporary Jewish source mentioning Hanukkah outside Judea is Josephus, who as a distant relation to the Hasmonean family line and who grew up in Jerusalem, would be more inclined to play up its importance.[110]
- ^ The Maccabi World Union organizes the Maccabiah Games, first held in 1932. Commentators have noted the irony of naming an Olympics-style sporting competition, whose origin was from ancient Greece, after a group that explicitly fought Greek influence.[42]
References
[edit]- ^ Grabbe 2008, p. 278-281
- ^ a b c d e Grabbe 2010, p. 10–16
- ^ Grabbe 2008, p. 65-68; 305-306
- ^ Hengel 1973, p. 64
- ^ Grabbe 2008, p. 144-146
- ^ a b Cohen 1988, p. 46–53
- ^ a b Regev 2013, p. 17–25
- ^ Bar-Kochva, Bezalel (2010). The Image of the Jews in Greek Literature: The Hellenistic Period. University of California Press. p. 4. ISBN 9780520290846.
- ^ a b Hengel 1973, p. 277
- ^ Tcherikover 1959, p. 170–190
- ^ a b Schwartz, Daniel R. (2001). "Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Jerusalem". Historical Perspectives: From the Hasmoneans to Bar Kokhba in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. p. 45–57. ISBN 90-04-12007-6.
- ^ Grainger 2012, p. 25–29
- ^ Hengel 1973 p. 280–281; 286–297.
- ^ Cohen 1988, p. 37–39
- ^ Josephus, Flavius (2017) [c. 75]. The Jewish War. Translated by Hammond, Martin. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-19-964602-9.
- ^ Honigman 2014, p. 388–389. Honigman downplays strongly the claims of actual religious persecution, however.
- ^ a b Grainger 2012, p. 32–36
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 194–198.
- ^ a b Honigman 2014, p. 282–284
- ^ Grainger 2012, p. 17
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 276–282.
- ^ a b c d Grabbe 2010, p. 67–68
- ^ a b c Mendels 1997, p. 119–129
- ^ Regev 2013, p. 273–274
- ^ a b Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 342–346
- ^ a b Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 335–339
- ^ Mendels 1997, p. 129
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 348–350
- ^ Scolnic 2004, p. 12–36
- ^ a b Tcherikover 1959, p. 230–233
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 359–361
- ^ a b c Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 376–402
- ^ a b Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 47–62
- ^ Schürer 1896, p. 235–238
- ^ a b c Schürer 1896, p. 239–242
- ^ 1 Maccabees 9:73
- ^ a b c Tcherikover 1959, p. 236–240
- ^ a b Mendels 1997, p. 174–179
- ^ Schürer 1896, p. 251
- ^ Honigman 2014, p. 163
- ^ Schürer 1896, p. 265
- ^ a b c Spiro, Ken (2001). "History Crash Course #29: Revolt of the Maccabees". Aish HaTorah. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
- ^ Regev 2013, p. 115–117. Regev translates "Nasi" as "King", however, and credits Simon with less restraint than other authors, though he acknowledges the different terms.
- ^ Schürer 1896, p. 271–273
- ^ a b Rajak, Tessa (1980). "Roman Intervention in a Seleucid Siege of Jerusalem?". The Jewish Dialogue with Greece and Rome. Brill Academic Publishers. pp. 81–98. doi:10.1163/9789047400196_010. ISBN 978-90-47-40019-6. Alternate location: Rajak, Tessa (March 1981). "Roman Intervention in a Seleucid Siege of Jerusalem?". Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. 22 (1): 65–81. Rajak hypothesizes a Roman intervention to explain Antiochus VII's seeming change of heart.
- ^ Mendel 1997, p. 180–181
- ^ Regev 2013, p. 165–172
- ^ Mendels 1997, p. 62
- ^ "GERUSIA - JewishEncyclopedia.com". www.jewishencyclopedia.com.
- ^ "GOVERNMENT - JewishEncyclopedia.com". jewishencyclopedia.com.
- ^ Cohen 1988, p. 123–125
- ^ Mantel, Hugo (1961). Studies in the History of the Sanhedrin. Harvard Semitic Series. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 49–50, 62–63. LCCN 61-7391. Note that Mantel himself is skeptical of the claimed connection between the gerusia and the Sanhedrin, and attributes it to Salomo Sachs and Elias Bickerman.
- ^ Tcherikover 1959, p. 246–255
- ^ Hengel, Martin (1980) [1976]. Jews, Greeks and Barbarians: Aspects of the Hellenization of Judaism in the pre-Christian Period. Translated by Bowden, John. Fortress Press. p. 114–117. ISBN 0-8006-0647-7.
- ^ Schwartz, Seth (2001). Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. 33–36. ISBN 0-691-08850-0.
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 8–14
- ^ a b Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 16–19
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 30–36
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 40–43
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 68–75
- ^ a b Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 85–89. Note that historian Israel Shatzman directly doubts Bar-Kochva's suggestion of diaspora Jews providing training to the Maccabees, suspecting Jews trained as mercenaries abroad would have been more likely to aid the Seleucids instead (Shatzman 1991, p. 19).
- ^ a b Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 63–67
- ^ Mendels 1997, p. 167.
- ^ Shatzman 1991, p. 29–31
- ^ Shatzman 1991, p. 12, 310
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 116-127
- ^ Bickerman 1937, p. 9
- ^ a b Regev 2013, p. 25–30
- ^ a b Bickerman 1937, p. 22–23
- ^ Shatzman 1991, p. 26
- ^ a b Harrington 1988, p. 57–59
- ^ a b Bickerman 1937, p.17–21
- ^ Honigman 2014, p. 6–7
- ^ 1 Maccabees 5:60–5:62
- ^ a b Harrington 1988, p. 36–56
- ^ a b Doran, Robert (2016). "Resistance and Revolt. The Case of the Maccabees.". In Collins, John J.; Manning, J. G. (eds.). Revolt and Resistance in the Ancient Classical World and the Near East: In the Crucible of Empire. Brill. pp. 175–178, 186–187. ISBN 978-90-04-33017-7.
- ^ Schwartz 2008, p. 48–50
- ^ Harrington 1988, p. 109
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 191
- ^ Grabbe 2020, p. 88–91
- ^ Portier-Young 2011, p. 211–212
- ^ a b c Harrington 1988, p. 17–35
- ^ Portier-Young 2011, p. 258–262
- ^ Portier-Young 2011, p. 41
- ^ a b c d Collins, John J. (2016). "Temple or Taxes: What Sparked the Maccabean Revolt?". In Manning, J. G. (ed.). Revolt and Resistance in the Ancient Classical World and the Near East: In the Crucible of Empire. Brill. pp. 189–201. doi:10.1163/9789004330184_013. ISBN 978-90-04-33017-7.
- ^ Harrington 1988, p. 114–119
- ^ Harrington 1988, p. 110–114
- ^ Portier-Young 2011, p. 391
- ^ Portier-Young 2011, p. 317–319
- ^ Portier-Young 2011, p. 314–345
- ^ Portier-Young 2011, p. 346–352. Portier-Young suggests 165–160 BCE for a more specific guess as to the date of authorship of the Book of Dreams on p. 388, but the matter is disputed.
- ^ Eshel, Hanan (February 2008). The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdsmans Publishing Company. p. 27–61. ISBN 9780802862853.
Appointed high priest in 152 BCE, he [Jonathan] was probably the figure designated by the Qumran authors as 'the wicked priest.'
- ^ Harrington 1988, p. 119–123
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 302
- ^ Hengel 1973, p. 290
- ^ Schultz, Joseph P. (1981). Judaism and the Gentile Faiths: Comparative Studies in Religion. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 155. ISBN 0-8386-1707-7.
- ^ Honigman 2014, p. 383–385
- ^ Scolnic 2004, p. 2
- ^ Josephus, Flavius (1943) [c. 93]. "Book XII, 12.383-385". Jewish Antiquities. Translated by Marcus, Ralph. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 199–201. ISBN 0-674-99577-5.
For Lysias had advised the king to slay Menelaus, if he wished the Jews to remain quiet and not give him any trouble; it was this man, he said, who had been the cause of the mischief by persuading the king's father to compel the Jews to abandon their father's religion.
- ^ Mendels 1997, p. 4
- ^ Linda Zollschan, "Review of Sylvie Honigman, 'Tales of High Priests and Taxes'", in Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2015.08.07
- ^ Hongiman 2014, p. 3–4; 20–21; 91–93; 227
- ^ Mendels, Doron (2021). "1 Maccabees". In Oegema, Gerbern S. (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha. Oxford University Press. pp. 150–168. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190689643.013.9. ISBN 978-0-19-068966-7. Mendels also cites:
Bar-Kochva, Bezalel (2016). "The Religious Persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes as a Historical Reality". Tarbiz (in Hebrew). 84 (3): 295–344. JSTOR 24904720. - ^ Barkat, Amiram (May 8, 2007). "Ancient Greek Inscription, Dating to 178 B.C.E., Goes on Display at Israel Museum". Haaretz. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
- ^ Portier-Young 2011, p. 80–82
- ^ Lawler, Andrew (April 22, 2016). "Jerusalem Dig Uncovers Ancient Greek Citadel". National Geographic. Archived from the original on May 13, 2021. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
- ^ The Middle Maccabees: Archaeology, History, and the Rise of the Hasmonean Kingdom. The Society of Biblical Literature. 2021. ISBN 978-0884145042.
- ^ Farmer 1956, p. 132–145
- ^ Regev 2013, p. 50–57
- ^ Schwartz 2008, p. 37, 87
- ^ Regev 2013, p. 278–279
- ^ a b Harrington 1988, p. 131
- ^ Bar-Kochva 1989, p. 372
- ^ Farmer 1956, p. 145–155
- ^ Portier-Young 2011, xxi–xxiii; 3–5
- ^ a b Hengel 1973, p. 306
- ^ Cohen 1988, p. 105–108
- ^ Grabbe 2010, p. 94
- ^ Ehrman, Bart (2020). Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife. Simon & Schuster. p. 142–146; 151–158. ISBN 9781501136757.
- ^ Farmer 1956, p. 175–179; 203
- ^ Mendels 1997, p. 371–376
- ^ Stemberger, Günter (1992). "The Maccabees in Rabbinic Tradition". The Scriptures and the Scrolls: Studies in Honour of A.S. van der Woude on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. E. J. Brill. p. 192–203.
- ^ Bickerman 1937, p. 100
- ^ Farmer 1956, p. 126–128
- ^ Noam, Vered (2018). Shifting Images of the Hasmoneans: Second Temple Legends and Their Reception in Josephus and Rabbinic literature. Translated by Ordan, Dena. Oxford University Press. p. 219–221. ISBN 978-0-19-881138-1.
- ^ Signori, Gabriela (2012). Dying for the Faith, Killing for the Faith: Old-Testament Faith-Warriors (1 and 2 Maccabees) in Historical Perspective. Brill. p. 12–20. ISBN 978-90-04-21104-9.
- ^ Dunbabin, Jean (1985). "The Maccabees as Exemplars in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries". Studies in Church History: Subsidia. 4: 31–41. doi:10.1017/S0143045900003549.
- ^ Arkush, Allan (December 4, 2018). "In Memory of Judah Maccabee". The Jewish Review of Books. New York. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
- ^ Skolnik, Fred, ed. (2007). "Maccabi World Union; Order of Ancient Maccabaeans". Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 13 (Second ed.). Macmillan Reference USA.
Bibliography
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- Bickerman, Elias (1979) [1937]. The God of the Maccabees: Studies on the Meaning and Origin of the Maccabean Revolt. Translated by Moehring, Horst R. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-05947-4.
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- Mendels, Doron (1997) [1992]. The Rise and Fall of Jewish Nationalism. Jewish and Christian Ethnicity in Ancient Palestine. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8028-4329-8.
- Portier-Young, Anathea (2011). Apocalypse Against Empire: Theologies of Resistance in Early Judaism. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 9780802870834.
- Regev, Eyal (2013). The Hasmoneans: Ideology, Archaeology, Identity. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 978-3-525-55043-4.
- Schürer, Emil (1896) [1890]. A History of the Jewish People in the Times of Jesus Christ. Translated by MacPherson, John. Hendrickson Publishers. ISBN 1565630491. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
- Schwartz, Daniel R. (2008). 2 Maccabees. Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-019118-9.
- Scolnic, Benjamin (2004). Alcimus, Enemy of the Maccabees. University Press America, Inc. ISBN 0-7618-3044-8.
- Shatzman, Israel (1991). The Armies of the Hasmonaeans and Herod: From Hellenistic to Roman Frameworks. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism. Vol. 25. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 3-16-145617-3.
- Tcherikover, Victor (1959). Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews. Translated by Applebaum, S. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America.
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Akiba ben Joseph, (born ad 40—died c. 135, Caesarea, Palestine), Jewish sage, one of the founders of rabbinic Judaism. He is said to have been an illiterate shepherd who began to study after age 40. He believed that Scripture contained many implied meanings in addition to its overt meaning, and he regarded written law (Torah) and oral law (Halakhah) as ultimately one. He collected and systematized the oral traditions concerning the conduct of Jewish social and religious life, thus laying the foundation of the Mishna. He may have been involved in Bar Kokhba’s unsuccessful rebellion against Rome; he gave the rebel leader his title and recognized him as the messiah. He was imprisoned by the Romans and martyred for his public teaching.
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Rabbi Akiva | |
|---|---|
 16th-century illustration | |
| Title | Tanna |
| Personal | |
| Born | c. 50 CE |
| Died | 28 September 135 Caesarea, Judaea, Roman Empire |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Buried | Tiberias, Galilee |
Akiva ben Joseph (Mishnaic Hebrew: עֲקִיבָא בֶּן יוֹסֵף, ʿĂqīḇāʾ ben Yōsēp̄; c. 50 – 28
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Akiva ben Joseph (Mishnaic Hebrew: עֲקִיבָא בֶּן יוֹסֵף, ʿĂqīḇāʾ ben Yōsēp̄; c. 50 – 28 September 135 CE),[1] also known as Rabbi Akiva (רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא), was a leading Jewish scholar and sage, a tanna of the latter part of the first century and the beginning of the second. Rabbi Akiva was a leading contributor to the Mishnah and to Midrash halakha. He is referred to in Tosafot as Rosh la-Hakhamim ("Chief of the Sages").[2] He was executed by the Romans in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt.
Biography
[edit]Early years
[edit]Akiva ben Joseph (written עֲקִיבָא in the Babylonian Talmud and עֲקִיבָה in the Jerusalem Talmud),[3] born c. 50 CE, was of humble parentage.[4][5] According to some sources, he was descended from converts to Judaism.[6]
When Akiva married the daughter of Ben Kalba Sabuaʿ (בֶּן כַּלְבָּא שָׂבוּעַ),[a] a wealthy citizen of Jerusalem, Akiva was an uneducated shepherd employed by him. The first name of Akiva's wife is not provided in earlier sources, but a later version of the tradition gives it as Rachel.[4][8] She stood loyally by her husband during the period of his late initiation into rabbinic studies after he was 40 years of age,[4] and in which Akiva dedicated himself to the study of Torah.
A different tradition[8] narrates that, at the age of 40, Akiva attended the academy of his native town, Lod, presided over by Eliezer ben Hurcanus. Hurcanus was a neighbour of Joseph, the father of Akiva. The fact that Eliezer was his first teacher, and the only one whom Akiva later designates as "rabbi", is of importance in settling the date of Akiva's birth. These legends set the beginning of his years of study at about 75–80.
Besides Eliezer, Akiva studied under Joshua ben Hananiah[8] and Nachum Ish Gamzu.[9] According to the Jerusalem Talmud, R. Joshua ordained Akiva as his fellow-student, presumably with semikhah.[10] Akiva was on equal footing with Gamaliel II, whom he later met. Rabbi Tarfon was considered as one of Akiva's masters,[11] but the pupil outranked his teacher and he became one of Akiva's greatest admirers.[4][12] Akiva remained in Lod[4][13] as long as Eliezer dwelt there, and then moved his own school to Beneberak.[4][14] Akiva also lived for some time at Ziphron,[15] modern Zafran[16] near Hamath.[17]
Marriage
[edit]According to the Talmud, Akiva was a shepherd for Ben Kalba Sabuaʿ when the latter's daughter noticed his modesty and fine character traits. She offered to marry him if he would agree to begin studying Torah, as at the time he was 40 years old and illiterate. When her father found out she was secretly betrothed[18] to an unlearned man, he was furious. He drove his daughter out of his house, swearing that he would never help her while Akiva remained her husband. Akiva and his wife lived in such poverty that they used straw for their bed. The Talmud relates that once Elijah the prophet assumed the guise of a poor man and came to their door to beg for some straw for a bed for his wife[4] after she had given birth. When Akiva and his wife saw that there were people even poorer than they, Rachel said to him, "Go, and become a scholar".[19]
By agreement with his wife, Akiva spent twelve years away from home, pursuing his studies. He would make a living by cutting wood from the forest, selling half for his wife's and children's wellbeing, and using the other half for keeping a fire burning at night to keep himself warm and to provide light thereby for his own studies.[20] Returning at the end of twelve years accompanied by 12,000 disciples, at the point of entering his home he overheard his wife say to a neighbour who was critical of his long absence: "If I had my wish, he should stay another twelve years at the academy." Without crossing the threshold, Akiva went back to the academy. He returned twelve years later escorted by 24,000 disciples. When his wife went out to greet him, some of his students, not knowing who she was, sought to restrain her.[4] But Akiva exclaimed, "Let her alone; for what is mine and yours, is hers" (she deserves the credit for our Torah study). Not knowing who he was, Ben Kalba Sabuaʿ also approached Akiva and asked him for help annulling his vow to disown his daughter and her husband. Akiva asked him, "Would you have made your vow if you had known that he would become a great scholar?" Ben Kalba Sabuaʿ replied, "Had I known that he would learn even one chapter or one single Halakha, [I would not have made the vow]". Akiva said to him, "I am that man". Ben Kalba Sabuaʿ fell at Akiva's feet and gave him half his wealth.[19][21]
According to another source,[22] Akiva saw that at some future time he would take in marriage the wife of Turnus Rufus (his executioner, also known as Quintus Tineius Rufus) after she converted to Judaism, for which reason he spat on the ground (for having come from a fetid drop), smiled (at her conversion) and wept (at such beauty eventually rotting in the dust after death). The motive behind this marriage is not given.
_-_The_Tomb_of_Rabbi_Akiva.jpg)
Later years
[edit]The greatest tannaim of the middle of the second century came from Akiva's school, notably Rabbi Meir, Judah bar Ilai, Simeon bar Yochai, Jose ben Halafta, Eleazar ben Shammua, and Rabbi Nehemiah. Besides these, Akiva had many disciples whose names have not been handed down, but the Aggadah variously gives their number as 12,000,[23] 24,000[21][24] and 48,000.[19]
Akiva is reported to have had a rabbinic relationship with Rabban Gamaliel dated as before their trip to Rome.[25][26] Convinced of the necessity of a central authority for Judaism, Akiva became a devoted adherent and friend of Rabban Gamaliel, who aimed at constituting the patriarch the true spiritual chief of the Jews.[4][27] However, Akiva was just as firmly convinced that the power of the patriarch must be limited both by the written and the oral law, the interpretation of which lay in the hands of the learned; and he was accordingly brave enough to act in ritual matters in Rabban Gamaliel's own house contrary to the decisions of Rabban Gamaliel himself.[4][28] Akiva filled the office of an overseer of the poor.[4][29] Various rabbinic texts testify to his personal qualities, such as benevolence and kindness toward the sick and needy.[30]
In 95–96 CE, Akiva was in Rome,[4][31] and some time before 110 he was in Nehardea.[32] During his travels, it is probable that he visited other places having important Jewish communities.[4][33]
Akiva allegedly took part in the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136, but his role here is not historically determined.[4] The only established fact concerning Akiva's connection with Bar Kochba is that he regarded Bar Kochba as the promised Messiah;[34] this is the only evidence of active participation by Akiva in the revolution.[4] Some modern scholars argue that Akiva's thousands of students died fighting for Bar Kochba, but this opinion was first formulated by Nachman Krochmal around 200 years ago and has no earlier source.[35] A baraita[36] states that Akiva suffered martyrdom on account of his transgression of Hadrian's edicts against the practice and the teaching of the Jewish religion, being sentenced to die by Turnus Rufus in Caesarea.[4][37] As this story credits the execution to religious rather than political reasons, it may be evidence against Akiva's having a role in the revolt.[4] Akiva's death occurred after several years of imprisonment,[38] which places it at about 132,[4] before the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolution; otherwise the delay of the Romans in executing him would be quite inexplicable.[39] That the religious interdicts of Hadrian preceded the overthrow of Bar Kochba is shown by the Mekhilta.[40][4]
Jewish sources relate that he was subjected to combing, a Roman torture in which the victim's skin was flayed with iron combs.
Death
[edit]
The death of Akiva is usually rendered as some redacted form of three separate versions of the circumstances. Each version shares the same basic plot points: Akiva defies the Roman prohibition on teaching Torah, the consul Turnus Rufus orders his execution, Akiva is flayed alive, and his final words are the Shema prayer.
The most common version of Akiva's death is that the Roman government ordered him to stop teaching Torah, on pain of death, and that he refused. When Turnus Rufus, as he is called in Jewish sources, ordered Akiva's execution, Akiva is said to have recited his prayers calmly, though suffering agonies; and when Rufus asked him whether he was a sorcerer, since he felt no pain, Akiva replied, "I am no sorcerer; but I rejoice at the opportunity now given to me to love my God 'with all my life,' seeing that I have hitherto been able to love Him only 'with all my means' and 'with all my might.'" He began reciting the Shema, and with the word Echad, "[God is] One!", he expired.[4][41]
The version in the Babylonian Talmud tells it as a response of Akiva to his students, who asked him how he could yet offer prayers to God. He says to them, "All my life I was worried about the verse, 'with all your soul' (and the sages expounded this to signify), even if He takes away your soul. And I said to myself, when will I ever be able to fulfil this command? And now that I am finally able to fulfil it, I should not?" Then he said the Shema and he extended the final word Echad ("One") until his life expired with that word. A heavenly voice went out and announced: "Blessed are you, Rabbi Akiva, that your life expired with Echad".[42]
Another legend is that Elijah bore the body by night to Caesarea. The night, however, was as bright as the finest summer's day. When they arrived, Elijah and Joshua entered a cavern that contained a bed, table, chair, and lamp, and deposited Akiva's body there. No sooner had they left it than the cavern closed of its own accord, so that no one has found it since.[4][43] Rebbe Akiva's modern day tomb is located in Tiberias.[44] Annually, on the night of Lag BaOmer, pilgrims light bonfires at the tomb of Rebbe Akiva. The pilgrims include some from Boston, Massachusetts, a tradition reinstated by the Bostoner Rebbe in 1983.[45]
Religious and scholarly perspectives
[edit]Religious philosophy
[edit]A Tannaitic tradition mentions that of the four who delved into the Pardes (legend), Akiva was the only one who was able to properly absorb this wisdom, with the other three suffering various consequences as a result of the attempt.[46] This serves at least to show how strong in later ages was the recollection of Akiva's philosophical speculation.[4]
The relationship between God and man
[edit]Akiva's opinion about the creation of man is recorded in Pirkei Avot:
- How favoured is man, for he was created after an image; as Scripture says,[47] "for in an image, God made man."[48]
Akiva's ontology is based upon the principle that man was created בצלם, that is, not in the image of God—which would be בצלם אלהים—but after an image, after a primordial type; or, philosophically speaking, after an Idea—what Philo calls in agreement with Judean theology, "the first heavenly man" (see Adam ḳadmon). Strict monotheist that Akiva was, he protested against any comparison of God with the angels, and declared the plain interpretation of כאחד ממנו[49] as meaning "like one of us" to be arrant blasphemy.[4][50] It is quite instructive to read how a Christian of Akiva's generation, Justin Martyr, calls the literal interpretation—thus objected to by Akiva—a "Jewish heretical one".[51] In his earnest endeavours to insist as strongly as possible upon the incomparable nature of God, Akiva indeed lowers the angels somewhat to the realms of mortals, and (alluding to Psalms 78:25) maintains that manna is the actual food of the angels.[4][52] This view of Akiva's, in spite of the energetic protests of his colleague Rabbi Ishmael, became the one generally accepted by his contemporaries.[53][4]
From his views as to the relation between God and man, he deduces that a murderer is to be considered as committing the crime against the divine archetype (דמות) of man.[4][54] Similarly, he recognizes as the chief and greatest principle of Judaism the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."[4][55] He does not, indeed, maintain thereby that the execution of this command is equivalent to the performance of the whole Law; and in one of his polemic interpretations of Scripture he protests strongly against a contrary opinion allegedly held by Christians, and other non-Jews since the diaspora, according to which Judaism is at best "simply morality."[4][56] For, in spite of his philosophy, Akiva was an extremely strict and national Jew.[4]
But he is far from representing strict justice as the only attribute of God: in agreement with the ancient Israel theology of the מדת הדין, "the attribute of justice", and מדת הרחמים, "the attribute of mercy,"[4][57] he teaches that God combines goodness and mercy with strict justice.[58] Hence his maxim, referred to above, "God rules the world in mercy, but according to the preponderance of good or bad in human acts."[4]
Eschatology
[edit]As to the question concerning the frequent sufferings of the pious and the prosperity of the wicked—truly a burning one in Akiva's time—this is answered by the explanation that the pious are punished in this life for their few sins, so that in the next they may receive only reward; while the wicked obtain in this world all the recompense for the little good they have done, and in the next world will receive only punishment for their misdeeds.[59] Consistent as Akiva always was, his ethics and his views of justice were only the strict consequences of his philosophical system. Justice as an attribute of God must also be exemplary for man. "No mercy in [civil] justice!" is his basic principle in the doctrine concerning law,[4][60] and he does not conceal his opinion that the action of the Jews in taking the spoil of the Egyptians is to be condemned.[4][61]
Biblical canon
[edit]Akiva was instrumental in drawing up the canon of the Tanakh. He protested strongly against the canonicity of certain of the Apocrypha,[4] the Wisdom of Sirach, for instance,[62] in which passages קורא is to be explained according to Kiddushin 49a, and חיצונים according to its Aramaic equivalent ברייתא; so that Akiva's utterance reads, "He who reads aloud in the synagogue from books not belonging to the canon as if they were canonical," etc. But he was not opposed to a private reading of the Apocrypha,[4] as is evident from the fact that he himself makes frequent use of Sirach.[63] Akiva stoutly defended, however, the canonicity of the Song of Songs, and Esther.[4][64] Grätz's statements[65] respecting Akiva's attitude toward the canonicity of the Song of Songs were viewed as misconceptions by I.H. Weiss.[4][66]
Aquila, meanwhile, was a disciple of Akiva and, under Akiva's guidance, gave the Greek-speaking Jews a rabbinical Bible.[4][67] Akiva probably also provided for a revised text of the Targums; certainly, for the essential base of the Targum Onkelos, which in matters of Halakha reflects Akiva's opinions completely.[4][68]
Akiva as systematizer
[edit]Akiva worked in the domain of the Halakha, both in the systematization of its traditional material and in its further development. The condition of the Halakha, that is, of religious praxis, and indeed of Judaism in general, was a very precarious one at the turn of the 1st century of the common era. The lack of any systematized collection of the accumulated halachot rendered impossible any presentation of them in a form suitable for practical purposes. Means for the theoretical study of the Halakha were also scant; both logic and exegesis—the two props of the Halakha—being differently conceived by the various rulings Tannaim, and differently taught. According to a tradition (which has historical confirmation[4]), it was Akiva who systematized and arranged the "Mishna" (the halakhic codex); the "midrash" (the exegesis of the Halkha), and the "halachot" (the logical amplification of the Halakha).[69] The Mishna of Akiva, as his pupil Rabbi Meir had taken it from him, became the basis of the Six Orders of the Mishna.
The δευτερώσεις τοῦ καλουμένου Ραββὶ Ακιβά (Mishnah of the one called "Rabbi Akiva") mentioned by Epiphanius,[70] as well as the "great Mishnayot of Akiva",[71] are probably not to be understood as independent Mishnayot (δευτερώσεις) existing at that time, but as the teachings and opinions of Akiva contained in the officially recognized Mishnayot and Midrashim. At the same time, it is fair to consider the Mishnah of Judah ha-Nasi (called simply "the Mishnah"), as well as the majority of all halakhic Midrashim now extant, as derived from the school of Akiva.[4]
According to Joḥanan bar Nappaḥa (199–279), "Our Mishnah comes directly from Rabbi Meir, the Tosefta from R. Nehemiah, the Sifra from R. Judah, and the Sifre from R. Simon; but they all took Akiva for a model in their works and followed him."[72] One recognizes here the threefold division of the halakhic material that emanated from Akiva: (1) The codified halakhah (i.e. Mishnah); (2) the Tosefta, which in its original form contains a concise logical argument for the Mishnah, somewhat like the Lebush of Mordecai Jafe on the Shulchan Aruch; (3) the halakhic Midrash.[4]
The following halakhic Midrashim originating in Akiva's school: the Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon on Exodus; Sifra on Leviticus; Sifre Zuṭṭa on Numbers;[73] and the Sifre to Deuteronomy, the halakhic portion of which belongs to Akiva's school.[4]
Akiva's Halakha
[edit]Admirable as is the systematization of the Halakha by Akiva, his hermeneutics and halakhic exegesis—which form the foundation of all Talmudic learning—surpassed it.[4]
The enormous difference between the Halakha before and after Akiva may be briefly described as follows: The old Halakha was (as its name indicates) the religious practice sanctioned as binding by tradition, to which were added extensions and (in some cases) limitations of the Torah, arrived at by strict logical deduction. The opposition offered by the Sadducees (which became especially strenuous in the first century BC) led to the development of the halakhic midrash, whose purpose was to deduce these amplifications of the Law, by tradition and logic, out of the Law itself.[4]
It might be thought that with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem—which event made an end of Sadduceeism—the halakhic Midrash would also have disappeared, seeing that the Halakha could now dispense with the Midrash. This probably would have been the case had not Akiva created his own Midrash, by means of which he was able "to discover things that were even unknown to Moses."[4][75] Akiva made the accumulated treasure of the oral law—which until his time was only a subject of knowledge, and not a science—an inexhaustible mine from which, by the means he provided, new treasures might be continually extracted.[4]
If the older Halakha is to be considered as the product of the internal struggle between Phariseeism and Sadduceeism, the Halakha of Akiva must be conceived as the result of an external contest between Judaism on the one hand and Hellenism and Hellenistic Christianity on the other. Akiva no doubt perceived that the intellectual bond uniting the Jews—far from being allowed to disappear with the destruction of the Jewish state—must be made to draw them closer together than before. He pondered also the nature of that bond. The Bible could never again fill the place alone; for the Christians also regarded it as a divine revelation. Still less could dogma serve the purpose, for dogmas were always repellent to rabbinical Judaism, whose very essence is development and the susceptibility to development. Mention has already been made of the fact that Akiva was the creator of a rabbinical Bible version elaborated with the aid of his pupil, Aquila (though this is traditionally debated), and designed to become the common property of all Jews.[4]
But this was not sufficient to obviate all threatening danger. It was to be feared that the Jews, by their facility in accommodating themselves to surrounding —even then a marked characteristic—might become entangled in the net of Grecian philosophy, and even in that of Gnosticism. The example of his colleagues and friends, Elisha ben Abuyah, Ben Azzai, and Ben Zoma strengthened him still more in his conviction of the necessity of providing some counterpoise to the intellectual influence of the non-Jewish world.[4]
Akiva's hermeneutic system
[edit]Akiva sought to apply the system of isolation followed by the Pharisees (פרושים = those who "separate" themselves) to doctrine as they did to practice, to the intellectual life as they did to that of daily discourse, and he succeeded in furnishing a firm foundation for his system. As the fundamental principle of his system, Akiva enunciates his conviction that the mode of expression used by the Torah is quite different from that of every other book. In the language of the Torah nothing is mere form; everything is essence. It has nothing superfluous; not a word, not a syllable, not even a letter. Every peculiarity of diction, every particle, every sign, is to be considered as of higher importance, as having a wider relation and as being of deeper meaning than it seems to have. Like Philo,[76] who saw in the Hebrew construction of the infinitive with the finite form of the same verb and in certain particles (adverbs, prepositions, etc.) some deep reference to philosophical and ethical doctrines, Akiva perceived in them indications of many important ceremonial laws, legal statutes, and ethical teachings.[4][77]
He thus gave the Jewish mind not only a new field for its own employment, but, convinced both of the immutability of Holy Scripture and of the necessity for development in Judaism, he succeeded in reconciling these two apparently hopeless opposites by means of his remarkable method. The following two illustrations will serve to make this clear:[4]
- The high conception of woman's dignity, which Akiva shared in common with most other Pharisees, induced him to abolish the folk custom that banished ritually impure women from all social communication. He succeeded, moreover, in fully justifying his interpretation of those Scriptural passages upon which this ostracism could be incorrectly sourced.[4][78]
- For him a "Jewish slave" is a contradiction in terms, for every Jew is to be regarded as a prince.[4][79] Akiva therefore teaches, in opposition to the competing halakhah, that the sale of an underage daughter by her father conveys to her purchaser no legal title to marriage with her, but, on the contrary, carries with it the duty to keep the female slave until she is of age, and then to marry her.[4][80] How Akiva endeavours to substantiate this from the Hebrew text is shown.[4][81]
His hermeneutics frequently put him at odds with the interpretation of his colleagues, as particularly demonstrated by his attitude toward the Samaritans. He considered friendly discussion with these potential converts as desirable on political as well as on religious grounds, and he permitted not only eating their bread,[82] but also intermarriage, considering them as full converts.[83] This is quite remarkable, seeing that in matrimonial legislation he went so far as to declare every forbidden betrothal as absolutely void[84] and the offspring as illegitimate.[85] For similar reasons, Akiva rules leniently in the Biblical ordinance of Kil'ayim; nearly every chapter in the treatise of that name contains a mitigation by Akiva.[4]
Love for the Holy Land, which he as a genuine nationalist frequently and warmly expressed,[4][86] was so powerful with him that he would have exempted agriculture from much of the rigour of the Law. These examples will suffice to justify the opinion that Akiva was the man to whom Judaism owes pre-eminently its activity and its capacity for further development in accordance with the tradition he received.[4]
Selected legends
[edit]In a Talmudic sugya, Rav Yehudah narrates the story when Moses sees Rabbi Akiva (Menachot 29b). In this legend, Moses ascended to heaven (or Mount Sinai) and saw God preoccupied with making ornamental "crowns" for the letters of the Torah. When Moses inquired what the purpose of these embellishments were, God explained that a man named Akiva would be born in several generations, and that he would be able to deduce halakha from every little curve and crown of the letters of the Law. Moses requested that he be allowed to see this man, and God assented: Moses found himself sitting in Akiva's study hall. As Moses listened to Akiva's lesson, he grew weary, because he could not understand it. However, when one of the students asked Akiva for the source of his teaching, Akiva replied that it was "A law to Moses at Sinai", and Moses was put at ease. When Moses returns to God and asks what the pious Akiva's ultimate reward will be, he is shown the grisly aftermath of Akiva's execution. Horrified, Moses demands God explain His actions, at which point God commands Moses to be silent and respect His judgement.[4][87] According to Louis Ginzberg, "this story gives in naive style a picture of Akiba's activity as the father of Talmudical Judaism."[4]
Tinnius Rufus asked: "Which is the more beautiful—God's work or man's?" Akiva replied: "Undoubtedly man's work is the better, for while nature at God's command supplies us only with the raw material, human skill enables us to elaborate the same according to the requirements of art and good taste." Rufus had hoped to drive Akiva into a corner by his strange question; for he expected quite a different answer and intended to compel Akiva to admit the wickedness of circumcision. He then put the question, "Why has God not made man just as He wanted him to be?" Akiva had an answer ready: "For the very reason, man must perfect himself."[4][88]
The aggadah explains how Akiva, in the prime of life, commenced his rabbinical studies. Legendary allusion to this change in Akiva's life is made in two slightly varying forms. Likely the older of the two goes as follows:[4] "Akiva, noticing a stone at a well that had been hollowed out by drippings from the buckets, said: If these drippings can, by continuous action, penetrate this solid stone, how much more can the persistent word of God penetrate the pliant, fleshly human heart, if that word but be presented with patient insistency."[89]
Akiva taught thousands of students: on one occasion, twenty-four thousand students of his died in a plague. His five main students were Judah bar Ilai, Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Eleazar ben Shammua, Jose ben Halafta and Shimon bar Yochai.[24]
Once he was called upon to decide between a dark-skinned king and the king's wife; the wife having been accused of infidelity after bearing a white child. Akiva ascertained that the royal chamber was adorned with white marble statuary, and, based on the theory that a child is similar in nature to whatever its parents gazed upon while conceiving the child, he exonerated the queen from suspicion.[90] It is related that, during his stay in Rome, Akiva became intimately acquainted with the Jewish proselyte Ketia bar Shalom, a very influential Roman (according to some scholars identical with Flavius Clemens, Domitian's nephew[91]), who, before his execution for pleading the cause of the Jews, bequeathed to Akiva all his possessions.[4][92]
The Talmud enumerates six occasions in which Akiva gained wealth.[93] In one case, his success as a teacher led his wealthy father-in-law Kalba Savua to acknowledge such a distinguished son-in-law and to support him. Another source of his wealth was said to be a large sum of money borrowed from a heathen woman, a matrona. As bondsmen for the loan, Akiva named God and the sea, on the shore of which the matrona's house stood. Akiva, being sick, could not return the money at the time appointed; but his bondsmen did not leave him in the lurch. An imperial princess suddenly became insane, in which condition she threw a chest containing imperial treasures into the sea. It was cast upon the shore close to the house of Akiva's creditor, so that when the matrona went to the shore to demand of the sea the amount she had lent Akiva, the ebbing tide left boundless riches at her feet. Later, when Akiva arrived to discharge his indebtedness, the matrona not only refused to accept the money, but insisted upon Akiva's receiving a large share of what the sea had brought to her.[4][94]
This was not the only occasion on which Akiva was made to feel the truth of his favourite maxim ("Whatever God does, He does for the best"). Once, being unable to find any sleeping accommodation in a certain city, he was compelled to pass the night outside its walls. Without a murmur he resigned himself to this hardship; and even when a lion devoured his donkey, and a cat killed the rooster whose crowing was to herald the dawn to him, and the wind extinguished his candle, the only remark he made was, "All that God does is for the good." When morning dawned he learned how true his words were. A band of robbers had fallen upon the city and carried its inhabitants into captivity, but he had escaped because his abiding place had not been noticed in the darkness, and neither beast nor fowl had betrayed him.[4][95]
Another legend according to which the gates of the infernal regions opened for Akiva is analogous to the more familiar tale that he entered paradise and was allowed to leave it unscathed.[4][96] There exists the following tradition: Akiva once met a coal-black man carrying a heavy load of wood and running with the speed of a horse. Akiva stopped him and inquired: "My son, why do you work so hard? If you are a slave and have a harsh master, I will buy you from him. If it be out of poverty that you do this, I will take care of your needs." "It is for neither of these," the man replied; "I am dead and am compelled because of my great sins to build my funeral pyre every day. In life, I was a tax-gatherer and oppressed the poor. Let me go at once, lest the demon tortures me for my delay." "Is there no help for you?" asked Akiva. "Almost none," replied the deceased; "for I understand that my sufferings will end only when I have a pious son. When I died, my wife was pregnant; but I have little hope that she will give my child proper training." Akiva inquired about the man's name and that of his wife and her dwelling place. When, in the course of his travels, he reached the place, Akiva sought information concerning the man's family. The neighbours very freely expressed their opinion that the deceased and his wife deserved to inhabit the infernal regions for all time—the latter because she had not even performed brit milah for the child. Akiva, however, was not to be turned from his purpose; he sought the son of the tax-gatherer and laboured long and assiduously in teaching him the word of God. After fasting for 40 days and praying to God to bless his efforts, he heard a heavenly voice (bat kol) asking, "Why do you go to so much trouble on behalf of this person?" "Because he is just the kind to work for," was the prompt answer. Akiva persevered until his pupil was able to officiate as a reader in the synagogue; and when there for the first time he recited the prayer, "Bless the Lord!" the father suddenly appeared to Akiva and overwhelmed him with thanks for his deliverance from the pains of hell through the merit of his son.[4][97] This legend has been somewhat elaborately treated in Yiddish.[98] Another version of this story exists in which Johanan ben Zakkai's name is given in place of Akiva.[99]
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Midrash Genesis Rabbah 53; Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1:10.
- ^ Tosafot BT Kesubot 105a 'Kashya'
- ^ "Jastrow, עֲקִיבָא II 1". www.sefaria.org.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "AKIBA BEN JOSEPH". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography:- Frankel, Darke ha-Mishnah, pp. 111-123;
- J. Brüll, Mebo ha-Mishnah, pp. 116-122;
- Weiss, Dor, 2 107-118;
- H. Oppenheim, in Bet Talmud, 2:237-246, 269-274;
- I. Gastfreund, Biographic des R. Akiba, Lemberg, 1871;
- J. S. Bloch, in Mimizraḥ u-Mima'arab, 1894, pp. 47-54;
- Grätz, Gesch. d. Juden, iv. (see index);
- Ewald, Gesch. d. Volkes Israel, 7 367 et seq.;
- Derenbourg, Essai, pp. 329-331, 395 et seq., 418 et seq.;
- Hamburger, R. B. T. ii. 32-43;
- Bacher, Ag. Tan. i. 271-348;
- Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums und Seiner Sekten, ii. 59 et seq.;
- Landau, in Monatsschrift, 1854, pp. 45-51, 81-93, 130-148;
- Dünner, ibid. 1871, pp. 451-454;
- Neubürger, ibid. 1873, pp. 385-397, 433-445, 529-536;
- D. Hoffmann, Zur Einleitung in die Halachischen Midraschim, pp. 5-12;
- Grätz, Gnosticismus, pp. 83-120;
- F. Rosenthal, Vier Apokryph. Bücher . . . R. Akiba's, especially pp. 95-103, 124-131;
- S. Funk, Akiba (Jena Dissertation), 1896;
- M. Poper, Pirḳe R. Akiba, Vienna, 1808;
- M. Lehmann, Akiba, Historische Erzählung, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1880;
- J. Wittkind, Ḥuṭ ha-Meshulash, Wilna, 1877;
- Braunschweiger, Die Lehrer der Mischnah, pp. 92-110.
- ^ Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot chapter 4, page 7d, Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 27b.
- ^ B. Sanhedrin 96b in MS Yad HaRav Herzog and MS T-S Misc. 26.55 reads מבני בניו שלסיסרא לימדו תורה בירושלם [ומנו ר' עקיבה], "Some of Sisera's descendants taught Torah in Jerusalem [and among these was Akiva]" but not other manuscripts. This version is cited by Nissim ben Jacob's commentary to Brachot 27b and by the Bab fi al-Male v'al-Haser (MS Vat. 44 f. 382b). Maimonides writes (Mishneh Torah, introduction) that Akiva's father Joseph was a convert, followed by Moses da Rieti (Miqdash Me‘at f. 76r). In Sifrei Num. 75:1, Tarfon says, "Praised be Abraham, that Akiva sprang from your loins"; Zacuto speculates (p. 37) that only Akiva's mother was Jewish, which Ibn Yahya repeats (p. 63). Others (see Azulai, Petah Einayim p. 239) claim that he was a descendent of Sisera by Yael.
- ^ Mishnah Yadayim 3:5
- ^ a b c Avot of Rabbi Natan, ed. Solomon Schechter, 4:29
- ^ Babylonian Talmud Hagigah 12a
- ^ Rozenboim, David Yonah, ed. (2010). Jerusalem Talmud תלמוד ירושלמי עוז והדר [Talmud Yerushalmi] (in Hebrew). Vol. 9 (Sanhedrin) (Oz ve-Hadar ed.). New York: Friedman–Oz ve-Hadar. p. 8a [Sanhedrin 1:2]. OCLC 695123759.
- ^ Babylonian Talmud Ketubot 84b
- ^ Sifre, Book of Numbers 75
- ^ Rosh Hashanah 1:6
- ^ Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 32b; Tosefta Shabbat 3:[4:]3
- ^ Sifre on Numbers 5:8
- ^ Z. P. V. 8:28
- ^ See Friedmann, Meir (ed.). Sifre ספרי (in Hebrew). Vienna. Numbers 4. Retrieved 19 January 2017. and the parallel passages quoted in the Talmudical dictionaries of Levy and Jastrow. For another identification of the place, and other forms of its name, see Neubauer, Adolf (1868). La Géographie du Talmud (in French). Paris. Retrieved 19 January 2017. p. 391, and Jastrow, l.c.
- ^ according to Nedarim 50a; according to Ketubot 62b, they were married
- ^ a b c Nedarim 50a
- ^ David Hadad, Sefer Ma'asei Avot, Beer Sheva 2005, p. 202, citing Avot de-Rabbi Nathan, chapter 6.
- ^ a b "Kesuvos 63". dafyomi.co.il. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
- ^ Talmud, Avodah Zara 20a
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 61:3
- ^ a b Yevamot 62b
- ^ Makkot 24a-24b
- ^ "Tragedy in Perspective: Why Did Rabbi Akiva Laugh?" Orthodox Union. 19 July 2011. [1]
- ^ Rosh Hashanah 2:9
- ^ Tosefta, Berakhot 4:12.
- ^ Ma'aser Sheni 5:9; Kiddushin 27a
- ^ Nedarim 40a; Leviticus Rabbah 34:16; Tosefta Megillah 4:16
- ^ Heinrich Graetz, Gesch. d. Juden, 4:121
- ^ Yevamot 16:7
- ^ Neuburger, Monatsschrift, 1873, p. 393.
- ^ Yerushalmi Ta'anit, 4 68d; also Sanhedrin 93b in Yad HaRav Herzog manuscript
- ^ "האם תלמידי רבי עקיבא מתו במרד בר כוכבא?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ Berakhot 61b
- ^ Midrash Shoher Tov, on Proverbs (§ 9), Jerusalem 1968
- ^ Sanhedrin 12a
- ^ Frankel, "Darkei haMishnah," p. 121
- ^ Mekhilta Mishpaṭim 18, where Akiva regards the martyrdom of two of his friends as ominous of his own fate. After the fall of Beitar no omens were needed to predict evil days.
- ^ Talmud Yerushalmi Berachot 9 14b, and somewhat modified in Babylonian Talmud 61b
- ^ Berachot 61b https://www.sefaria.org/Berakhot.61b
- ^ Jellinek, Beit ha-Midrash, 6:27,28; 2:67,68; Braunschweiger, Lehrer der Mischnah, 192–206
- ^ "Google Maps".
- ^ Horowitz, Y. F. and Morgenstern, Ashira (24 November 2010). "Seasons: The Bostoner Rebbetzin remembers and reflects on the occasion of the first yahrtzeit of Grand Rabbi Levi Yitzchak HaLevi Horowitz, ztz"l, 18 Kislev 5771". Mishpacha, Family First supplement, p. 52.
- ^ Hagigah 14b; Tosefta Hagigah 2:3
- ^ Genesis 9:6
- ^ Pirkei Avot 3:14
- ^ Genesis 3:22
- ^ Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, Beshallaḥ 6
- ^ Dial. cum Tryph. 62
- ^ Yoma, 75b
- ^ As Justin Martyr, l.c., 57, indicates
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 34:14
- ^ Leviticus 19:18; Sifra, Ḳedoshim, 4
- ^ Mekhilta, Shirah, 3 (44a, ed. I.H. Weiss)
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 12, end; the χαριστική and κολαστική of Philo, Quis Rer. Div. Heres, 34 Thomas Mangey, 1:496
- ^ Hagigah 14a
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 33; Pesiḳ. ed. S. Buber, 9 73a
- ^ Mishna Ketubot 9:3
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 28:7
- ^ Sanhedrin 10:1, Bab. ibid. 100b, Talmud Yerushalmi ibid. 10 28a
- ^ W. Bacher, Ag. Tan. 1:277; H. Grätz, Gnosticismus, p. 120
- ^ Yadayim 3:5, Megillah 7a
- ^ Shir ha-Shirim, p. 115, and Kohelet, p. 169
- ^ Dor, 2:97
- ^ Jerome on Isaiah 8:14, Yerushalmi Kiddushin 1 59a
- ^ F. Rosenthal, Bet Talmud, 2:280
- ^ Yerushalmi Sheḳ. 5 48c, according to the correct text given by Rabbinowicz, Diḳduḳe Soferim, p. 42; compare Giṭ. 67a and Dünner, in Monatsschrift, 20 453, also W. Bacher, in Revue des Etudes Juives, 38:215.
- ^ Adversus Hæreses, 33:9, and 15, end
- ^ In the Midr. Cant. R. 8:2, Eccl. R. 6:2
- ^ Sanhedrin 86a
- ^ Excerpts in Yalkut Shimoni, and a manuscript in Midrash ha-Gadol edited for the first time by B. Koenigsberger, 1894
- ^ Avot deRabbi Natan ch. 18; see also Gittin 67a
- ^ Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, Parah, ed. S. Buber, 39b
- ^ Siegfried, Philo, p. 168
- ^ compare D. Hoffmann, Zur Einleitung, pp. 5–12, and H. Grätz, Gesch. 4:427
- ^ Sifra, Meẓora, end; Shabbat 64b
- ^ Bava Metzia 113b
- ^ Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, Mishpaṭim, 3
- ^ Urschrift, p. 187
- ^ Shevu'ot 8:10
- ^ Kiddushin 75b
- ^ Yevamot 92a
- ^ Kiddushin 68a
- ^ Avot of Rabbi Natan 26
- ^ "Menachot 29b:3". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
- ^ Tanhuma, Tazri'a, 5, ed. S. Buber 7
- ^ Avot of Rabbi Natan ed. S. Schechter, 6:28
- ^ Numbers Rabbah 9:34
- ^ Keti’a Bar Shalom
- ^ Avodah Zarah 10b
- ^ Nedarim 50a–b
- ^ Commentaries to Nedarim 50a
- ^ Berachot 60b
- ^ Hagigah 14b
- ^ Kallah, ed. Coronel, 4b, and see quotations from Tanhuma in Isaac Aboab's Menorat ha-Maor, 1:1, 2, § 1, ed. Jacob Raphael Fürstenthal, p. 82; also Maḥzor Vitry, p. 112
- ^ Under the title, Ein ganz neie Maase vun dem Tanna R. Akiba, Lemberg, 1893
- ^ Tanna debe Eliyahu Zuṭṭa 17
See also
[edit]Sources
[edit]- Rothenberg, Naftali, Rabbi Akiva's Philosophy of Love, New York, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017.
- Aleksandrov, G. S. "The Role of Aqiba in the Bar Kochba Rebellion." In Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Vol. 2, by Jacob Neusner. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1973.
- Finkelstein, Louis. Akiba: Scholar, Saint, and Martyr. New York: Covici, Friede, 1936.
- Ginzberg, Louis. "Akiba" In Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1912.
- Goldin, Judah. "Toward a Profile of a Tanna, Aqiba ben Joseph." Journal of the American Oriental Society 96 (1976): 38–56.
- Lau, Binyamin. The Sages, Volume III: The Galilean Period. Jerusalem: Maggid Books, 2013.
- Neusner, Jacob, ed. Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity. Vol. 20, The Jews Under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian, by E. Mary Smallwood. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1976.
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Bar Kokhba Revolt, (132–135 ce), Jewish rebellion against Roman rule in Judaea. The revolt was preceded by years of clashes between Jews and Romans in the area. Finally, in 132 ce, the misrule of Tinnius Rufus, the Roman governor of Judaea, combined with the emperor Hadrian’s intention to found a Roman colony on the site of Jerusalem and his restrictions on Jewish religious freedom and observances (which included a ban on the practice of male circumcision), roused the last remnants of Palestinian Jewry to revolt. A bitter struggle ensued. Bar Kokhba became the leader of this second Jewish revolt (see First Jewish Revolt [66–70]); although at first successful, his forces proved no match against the methodical and ruthless tactics of the Roman general Julius Severus. With the fall of Jerusalem and then Bethar, the fortress to the southwest of Jerusalem where Bar Kokhba was slain, the rebellion was crushed in 135. According to Christian sources, Jews were thenceforth forbidden to enter Jerusalem.
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The Bar Kokhba revolt (Hebrew: מֶרֶד בַּר כּוֹכְבָא Mereḏ Bar Kōḵḇāʾ) was a large-scale armed rebellion initiated by the Jews of Judea, led by Simon bar Kokhba, against the Roman Empire in 132 CE.[6] Lasting until 135 or early 136, it was the third and final escalation of the Jewish–Roman wars.[7] Like the First Jewish–Roman War and the Second Jewish–Roman War, the Bar Kokhba revolt resulted in a total Jewish defeat; Bar Kokhba himself was killed by Roman troops at Betar in 135 and the Jewish rebels who remained after his death were all killed or enslaved within the next year.
Roman rule in Judea was not well-received among the Jewish population, especially after the destruction of the Second Temple during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70. The Romans had also continued to maintain a large military presence across the province; pushed unpopular changes in administrative and economic life;[8] constructed the colony of Aelia Capitolina over the destroyed city of Jerusalem; and erected a place of worship for Jupiter on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, where the Jews' Second Temple had stood.[9] Rabbinic literature and the Church Fathers emphasize the role of Quintus Tineius Rufus, the erstwhile Roman governor of Judea, in provoking the Bar Kokhba revolt.[10] The charismatic and messianic nature of Bar Kokhba may have also been a factor in popularizing the uprising across all of Judea.[11]
With the onset of the conflict, initial rebel victories established an independent Jewish enclave covering much of the province for several years. Bar Kokhba was appointed nasi (נָשִׂיא, lit. 'prince') of the rebels' provisional state, and much of Judea's populace regarded him as the Messiah of Judaism who would restore Jewish national independence.[12] This initial setback for the Romans led Hadrian to assemble a large army—six full legions with auxiliaries and other elements from up to six additional legions, all under the command of Sextus Julius Severus—and launch an extensive military campaign across Judea in 134, ultimately crushing the revolt.[13]
The killing of Bar Kokhba and the subsequent defeat of his rebels yielded disastrous consequences for Judea's Jewish populace, even more so than the crackdown that had taken place during and after the First Jewish–Roman War.[14] Based on archeological evidence, ancient sources, and contemporary analysis, between 500,000–600,000 Jews are estimated to have been killed in the conflict.[5] Judea was heavily depopulated as a result of the number of Jews killed or expelled by Roman troops, with a significant number of captives sold into slavery.[15][16][17] Following the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt, the center of Jewish society shifted from Judea to Galilee.[18] The province of Judaea was renamed Syria Palaestina[19] as an intended punishment for the Jews and as a result of the desires of the region’s non-Jewish inhabitants.[20] The Jews were also subjected to a series of religious edicts by the Romans, including an edict that barred all Jews from entering Jerusalem.[9][21] The Bar Kokhba revolt also had philosophical and religious ramifications; Jewish belief in the Messiah was abstracted and spiritualized, and rabbinical political thought became deeply cautious and conservative. The rebellion was also among the events that helped differentiate Early Christianity from Judaism.[22]
Naming
[edit]The Bar Kokhba revolt is named for its leader, Simon bar Kokhba.[23] Since it was the last of three major Jewish–Roman wars, it is also known as the Third Jewish–Roman War or the Third Jewish Revolt. Some historians also refer to it as the Second Revolt of Judea,[24] not counting the Diaspora Revolt (115–117 CE), which had only marginally been fought in Judea.
Background
[edit]
After the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), Roman authorities took measures to suppress the rebellious province of Roman Judea. Instead of a procurator, they installed a praetor as a governor and stationed an entire legion, the X Fretensis, in the area. Tensions continued to build up in the wake of the Kitos War, the second large-scale Jewish insurrection in the Eastern Mediterranean during 115–117, the final stages of which saw fighting in Judea. Mismanagement of the province during the early 2nd century might well have led to the proximate causes of the revolt, largely bringing governors with clear anti-Jewish sentiments to run the province. Gargilius Antiques may have preceded Rufus during the 120s.[25] The Church Fathers and rabbinic literature emphasize the role of Rufus in provoking the revolt.[10]
Historians have suggested multiple reasons for the sparking of the Bar Kokhba revolt, long-term and proximate. Several elements are believed to have contributed to the rebellion; changes in administrative law, the widespread presence of legally-privileged Roman citizens, alterations in agricultural practice with a shift from landowning to sharecropping, the impact of a possible period of economic decline, and an upsurge of nationalism, the latter influenced by similar revolts among the Jewish communities in Egypt, Cyrenaica and Mesopotamia during the reign of Trajan in the Kitos War.[9]
The proximate reasons seem to centre around the construction of a new city, Aelia Capitolina, over the ruins of Jerusalem and the erection of a temple to Jupiter on the Temple mount.[9] Until recently, some historians had tried to question the Colonia foundation event as one of the causes of the revolt, suggesting to rather time the Colonia establishment to the aftermath of the revolt as a punishment.[26] However, the 2014 archaeological finding of the Legio Fretensis inscription in Jerusalem dedicated to Hadrian and dated to 129/130 CE,[27] as well as identification of Colonia Aelia Capitolina struck coins have since been largely accepted as confirmation to the sequence of events depicted in Jewish traditional literature. One interpretation involves the visit in 130 CE of Hadrian to the ruins of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. At first sympathetic towards the Jews, Hadrian promised to rebuild the Temple, but the Jews felt betrayed when they found out that he intended to build a temple dedicated to Jupiter upon the ruins of the Second Temple.[4] A rabbinic version of this story claims that Hadrian planned on rebuilding the Temple, but that a malevolent Samaritan convinced him not to. The reference to a malevolent Samaritan is, however, a familiar device of Jewish literature.[28]
An additional legion, the VI Ferrata, arrived in the province to maintain order. Works on Aelia Capitolina, as Jerusalem was to be called, commenced in 131 CE. The governor of Judea, Tineius Rufus, performed the foundation ceremony, which involved ploughing over the designated city limits.[29] "Ploughing up the Temple",[30][31][32] seen as a religious offence, turned many Jews against the Roman authorities. The Romans issued a coin inscribed Aelia Capitolina.[33][34][35]
The Historia Augusta, a text which is problematic when used as a source for historical fact,[36][37] states tensions rose after Hadrian banned circumcision, referred to as mutilare genitalia,[38][39] taken to mean brit milah.[40] Were the claim true it has been conjectured that Hadrian, as a Hellenist, would have viewed circumcision as an undesirable form of mutilation.[41] The claim is often considered suspect, and it may in reality have been intended to constitute a form of mockery of Jewish traditions which seemed absurd to the Romans. [42][43][44]
Preparations
[edit]Cassius Dio reports that:
Dio's account has been corroborated by the discovery of hundreds of hiding complexes, especially in the Shephelah.[45]
Dio also states that the Jews manufactured their own weapons in preparation for the revolt: "The Jews [...] purposely made of poor quality such weapons as they were called upon to furnish, in order that the Romans might reject them and that they themselves might thus have the use of them." However, there is no archaeological evidence to support Dio's claim that the Jews produced defective weapons. In fact, weapons found at sites controlled by the insurgents are identical to those used by the Romans.[45]
Bethar was selected as the rebels' headquarters due to its strategic location near Jerusalem, abundant springs, and defensible position. Excavations have revealed fortifications likely built by Bar Kokhba's forces, though determining whether these defenses were constructed at the beginning of the revolt or later in the conflict remains unresolved.[46]
Bar Kokhba
[edit]The revolt was led by Simon bar Kokhba. While earlier scholars debated whether Bar Kokhba (meaning "son of the star") was the leader's original name and Bar Kosiba (meaning "son of disappointment") a later derogatory term, documents discovered in the 1950s in the Judaean Desert confirm that his original name was Simeon ben Kosiba. The name Bar Kokhba was bestowed by supporters including Rabbi Akiva, who endorsed him as the Messiah based on the biblical prophecy "A star (kokhav) rises from Jacob." However, this claim was contested by other contemporary sages like Yohanan ben Torta.[46]
Seventeen letters discovered in the Judaean Desert reveal some details on Bar Kokhba's personality.[47]
Timeline of events
[edit]Jewish leaders carefully planned the second revolt to avoid the numerous mistakes that had plagued the first First Jewish–Roman War sixty years earlier.[48] In 132, the revolt, led by Simon bar Kokhba and Elasar, quickly spread from Modi'in across the country, cutting off the Roman garrison in Jerusalem.[6]
After Legio X and Legio VI failed to subdue the rebels, additional reinforcements were dispatched from neighbouring provinces. Gaius Poblicius Marcellus, the Legate of Roman Syria, arrived commanding Legio III Gallica, while Titus Haterius Nepos, the governor of Roman Arabia, brought Legio III Cyrenaica.[49] Later on it is proposed by some historians[vague] that Legio XXII Deiotariana was sent from Arabia Petraea, but was ambushed and massacred on its way to Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem), and possibly disbanded as a result.[50]
According to Rabbinic sources some 400,000 men were at the disposal of Bar Kokhba at the peak of the rebellion.[51]
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Simon bar Kokhba took the title Nasi Israel[52] and ruled over an entity named Israel that was virtually independent for over two and a half years. The Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva, who was the spiritual leader of the revolt,[53] identified Simon Bar Koziba as the Jewish messiah, and gave him the Aramaic patronymic bar Kokhba, meaning "Son of a Star", a reference to the Star Prophecy in Numbers 24:17: "A star rises from Jacob".[54] The name Bar Kokhba does not appear in the Talmud but in ecclesiastical sources.[55]
With the slowly advancing Roman army cutting supply lines, the rebels engaged in long-term defense. The defense system of Judean towns and villages was based mainly on underground hiding complexes, which were created in large numbers in almost every population center. Many houses utilized underground hideouts, where Judean rebels hoped to withstand Roman superiority by the narrowness of the passages and even ambushes from underground. The cave systems were often interconnected and used not only as hideouts for the rebels but also for storage and refuge for their families.[56] Hideout systems were employed in the Judean hills, the Judean desert, northern Negev, and to some degree also in Galilee, Samaria and Jordan Valley. As of July 2015, some 350 hideout systems have been mapped within the ruins of 140 Jewish villages.[57]
Following a series of setbacks, Hadrian called his general Sextus Julius Severus from Britannia,[58] and troops were brought from as far as the Danube. In 133/4, Severus landed in Judea with three legions from Europe (including Legio X Gemina and possibly also Legio IX Hispana), cohorts of additional legions and between 30 and 50 auxiliary units.[citation needed]
The size of the Roman army amassed against the rebels was much larger than that commanded by Titus sixty years earlier—nearly one third of the Roman army took part in the campaign against Bar Kokhba. It is estimated that forces from at least 10 legions participated in Severus' campaign in Judea, including Legio X Fretensis, Legio VI Ferrata, Legio III Gallica, Legio III Cyrenaica, Legio II Traiana Fortis, Legio X Gemina, cohorts of Legio V Macedonica, cohorts of Legio XI Claudia, cohorts of Legio XII Fulminata and cohorts of Legio IV Flavia Felix, along with 30–50 auxiliary units, for a total force of 60,000–120,000 Roman soldiers facing Bar Kokhba's rebels. It is plausible that Legio IX Hispana was among the legions Severus brought with him from Europe, and that its demise occurred during Severus' campaign, as its disappearance during the second century is often attributed to this war.[59][unreliable source?]
According to some views one of the crucial battles of the war took place near Tel Shalem in the Beit She'an valley, near what is now identified as the legionary camp of Legio VI Ferrata. This theory was proposed by Werner Eck in 1999, as part of his general maximalist work which did put the Bar Kokhba revolt as a very prominent event on the course of the Roman Empire's history.[60] Next to the camp, archaeologists unearthed the remnants of a triumphal arch, which featured a dedication to Emperor Hadrian, which most likely refers to the defeat of Bar Kokhba's army.[61] Additional finds at Tel Shalem, including a bust of Emperor Hadrian, specifically link the site to the period. The theory for a major decisive battle in Tel Shalem implies a significant extension of the area of the rebellion, with Werner Eck suggesting the war encompassed also northern Valleys together with Galilee.[62]
After losing many of their strongholds, Bar Kokhba and the remnants of his army withdrew to the fortress of Betar, which subsequently came under siege in the summer of 135. Legio V Macedonica and Legio XI Claudia are said to have taken part in the siege.[63] According to Jewish tradition, the fortress was breached and destroyed on the fast of Tisha B'av, the ninth day of the lunar month Av, a day of mourning for the destruction of the First and the Second Jewish Temple. Rabbinical literature ascribes the defeat to Bar Kokhba killing his maternal uncle, Rabbi Elazar Hamudaʻi, after suspecting him of collaborating with the enemy, thereby forfeiting Divine protection.[64] The horrendous scene after the city's capture could be best described as a massacre.[65] The Jerusalem Talmud relates that the number of dead in Betar was enormous, that the Romans "went on killing until their horses were submerged in blood to their nostrils."[66]
According to a rabbinic midrash, the Romans executed eight leading members of the Sanhedrin (The list of Ten Martyrs includes two earlier rabbis): Rabbi Akiva; Haninah ben Teradion; the interpreter of the Sanhedrin, Rabbi Huspith; Eleazar ben Shammua; Hanina ben Hakinai; Jeshbab the Scribe; Judah ben Dama; and Judah ben Bava. The precise date of Akiva's execution is disputed, some dating it to the beginning of the revolt based on the midrash, while others link it to final phases. The rabbinic account describes agonizing tortures: Akiva was flayed with iron combs, Ishmael had the skin of his head pulled off slowly, and Haninah was burned at a stake, with wet wool held by a Torah scroll wrapped around his body to prolong his death.[67]
Following the Fall of Betar, the Roman forces went on a rampage of systematic killing, eliminating all remaining Jewish villages in the region and seeking out the refugees. Legio III Cyrenaica was the main force to execute this last phase of the campaign. Historians disagree on the duration of the Roman campaign following the fall of Betar. While some claim further resistance was broken quickly, others argue that pockets of Jewish rebels continued to hide with their families into the winter months of late 135 and possibly even spring 136. By early 136 however, it is clear that the revolt was defeated.[68] The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 93b) says that Bar Kokhba reigned for a mere two and a half years.
Aftermath
[edit]Destruction and extermination
[edit]The Bar Kokhba Revolt had catastrophic consequences for the Jewish population in Judaea, with profound loss of life, extensive forced displacements, and widespread enslavement. The scale of suffering surpassed even the aftermath of the First Jewish–Roman War, leaving central Judea in a state of desolation.[14][17] Some scholars characterize these consequences as an act of genocide.[14][69] Several decades after the revolt's suppression, Roman historian Cassius Dio (c. 155–235) wrote:[5]
While several scholars, such as Peter Schäfer, thought the numbers to be exaggerations,[70] they nonetheless indicate the large scale of the disaster for Judea's Jewish population. Archaeological evidence confirms widespread destruction in Judea, as every village in the region exhibits signs of devastation from the revolt.[21] The majority of Roman-period settlements in Judea that have been excavated exhibit destruction or abandonment layers, indicating a significant settlement gap above these layers. It appears that Jewish settlement in Judea was almost completely eradicated by the end of the revolt.[5]
Shimeon Applebaum estimates that about two-thirds of the Jewish population of Judea died during the revolt.[71] In 2003, Cotton described Dio's figures as highly plausible, given accurate Roman census declarations.[72] In 2021, an ethno-archaeological comparison analysis by Dvir Raviv and Chaim Ben David supported the accuracy of Dio's depopulation claims, describing his account as "reliable" and "based on contemporaneous documentation."[5][73]
Expulsion and enslavement
[edit]Jewish survivors of the revolt faced harsh punitive measures from the Romans, who often used social engineering to stabilize conflict zones.[74] In the aftermath of the war, Jews were expelled from Jerusalem and its surroundings.[75] Menahem Mor notes that Jews were also expelled from the districts of Gophna, Herodion, and Aqraba.[76] Additionally, the revolt prompted a widespread migration of Jews from Judea to coastal cities and Galilee.[73]
Eusebius writes that: "[...] all the families of the Jewish nation have suffered pain worthy of wailing and lamentation because God's hand has struck them, delivering their mother-city over to strange nations, laying their Temple low, and driving them from their country, to serve their enemies in a hostile land."[77] Jerome provides a similar account: "in Hadrian's reign, when Jerusalem was completely destroyed and the Jewish nation was massacred in large groups at a time, with the result that they were even expelled from the borders of Judaea."[78]
Roman post-war policy also involved removing and enslaving large numbers of prisoners of war, a practice also observed after the revolt of the Salassi (25 BCE), the wars with the Raeti (15 BCE), and the Pannonian War (c. 12 BCE).[79] Sources indicate that Jewish captives were sold into slavery and sent to various parts of the empire, and the slave market was flooded with new slaves.[15] Jerome reports that following the war, "innumerable people of diverse ages and both sexes were sold at the marketplace of Terebinthus. For this reason it is an accursed thing among the Jews to visit this acclaimed marketplace." In another work, he notes that thousands of people were sold at this market. The 7th-century Chronicon Paschale, drawing on earlier sources, mentions that Hadrian sold Jewish captives "for the price of a daily portion of food for a horse."[79] William V. Harris puts the overall number of enslaved captives taken during the revolt at higher than 100,000.[80] Those who were not sold were transported to Gaza for auction. Many others were relocated to Egypt and other regions, significantly increasing the Jewish diaspora.[81]
While Jewish presence in the region significantly dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt,[82] there was a continuous small Jewish presence, and Galilee became its religious center.[83][84] Some of the Judean survivors resettled in Galilee, with some rabbinical families gathering in Sepphoris.[85] The Mishnah and part of the Talmud, central Jewish texts, were composed during the 2nd to 4th centuries CE in Galilee.[86] Jewish communities continued to live on the edges of Judea, including Eleutheropolis,[87] Ein Gedi[88] and the southern Hebron Hills. There were also Jewish communities along the coastal plain, in Caesarea, Beit She'an and on the Golan Heights.[89][90]
In the aftermath of the defeat, the maintenance of Jewish settlement in Palestine became a major concern of the rabbis.[91] They endeavored to halt Jewish dispersal, and even banned emigration from Palestine, branding those who settled outside its borders as idolaters.[91]
Religious and cultural suppression
[edit]
After the suppression of the revolt, Hadrian promulgated a series of religious edicts aimed at uprooting the Jewish nationalism in Judea.[9][21] He prohibited Torah law and the Hebrew calendar and executed Judaic scholars. The sacred scrolls of Judaism were ceremonially burned at the large Temple complex for Jupiter which he built on the Temple Mount. At this Temple, he installed two statues, one of Jupiter, another of himself. These proclamations remained in effect until Hadrian’s death in 138, which marked a significant relief to the surviving Jewish communities.[21]
Hadrian's post-war policy included a prohibition against Jews living in or even approaching Jerusalem, as described by several ancient sources. Eusebius notes that "Hadrian then commanded that by a legal decree and ordinances the whole nation should be absolutely prevented from entering from thenceforth even the district round Jerusalem, so that it could not even see from a distance its ancestral home [...] Thus when the city came to be bereft of the nation of the Jews, and its ancient inhabitants had completely perished, it was settled by foreigners." Similarly, Jerome writes that Jews were only allowed to visit the city to mourn its ruins, paying for the privilege.[92] Under the argument to ensure the prosperity of the newly founded Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina, Jews were forbidden to enter the city, except on the day of Tisha B'Av.[93]
A further, more lasting punishment was also implemented by the Romans.[21] In an attempt to erase any memory of Judea or Ancient Israel, the name Judaea was dropped from the provincial name, and Provincia Iudaea was renamed Syria Palaestina.[94][95][96] Despite such name changes taking place elsewhere, rebellions have never resulted in a nation's name being expunged.[21]
After Hadrian's death in 138, the Romans scaled back on their crackdown across Judea, but the ban on Jewish entry into Jerusalem remained in place, exempting only those Jews who wished to enter the city for Tisha B'Av.[22] By destroying the association of Jews with Judea and forbidding the practice of the Jewish faith, Hadrian aimed to root out a nation that had inflicted heavy casualties on the Roman Empire.
Confiscation of lands, colonization and resettlement
[edit]According to Eitan Klein, artistic, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence from post-revolt Judea indicates that the Roman authorities resettled the region with a diverse population. This included Roman veterans and immigrants from the western parts of the empire, who settled in Aelia Capitolina and its surroundings, administrative centers, and along main roads. Additionally, immigrants from the coastal plain and neighboring provinces such as Syria, Phoenicia, and Arabia settled in the Judean countryside.[97][98][99]
In the vicinity of Jerusalem, villages were depopulated, and arable land owned by Jews was confiscated. In the following centuries, the lack of an alternative population to fill the empty villages led Roman and later Byzantine authorities to seek a different approach to benefit the nobles, and ultimately the church, by constructing estate farms and monasteries on the empty village lands.[100] The Roman legionary tomb at Manahat, the ruins of Roman villas at Ein Yael, Khirbet er-Ras, Rephaim Valley and Ramat Rachel, and the Tenth Legion's kilns discovered near Giv'at Ram are all indications that the rural area surrounding Aelia Capitolina underwent a romanization process, with Roman citizens and Roman veterans settling in the area during the Late Roman period.[101] Indications for the settlement of Roman veterans in other parts of Judea proper includes a magnificent marble sarcophagus showing Dionysus discovered in Turmus Ayya, Latin-inscribed stone discovered at Khirbet Tibnah, a statue of Minerva discovered at Khirbat al-Mafjar, a tomb of a centurion at Beit Nattif and a Roman mansion with western elements discovered at Arak el-Khala, near Beit Guvrin.[97]
In Perea, a Roman military presence in the middle of the second century CE suggests that the Jews there were also victims of the revolt. The name of a Roman veteran from the village of Meason in Perea appears on a papyrus that was signed in Caesarea in the year 151 CE, implying that lands there had been expropriated and given to Roman settlers. A building inscription of the Sixth Legion from the second century CE was discovered at as-Salt, which is identified as Gadara, one of the principal Jewish settlements in Perea, and provides more proof of the Roman military presence there.[5]
Sharp decline of Hebrew language
[edit]Following the revolt, the Hebrew language disappeared from daily use. Before the revolt, Hebrew was still used as a living language among a very significant part of the Jewish population in this region of the country. In the 3rd century sages no longer knew how to identify the Hebrew names of many plants mentioned in the Mishnah. Only a small number of sages who resided in the south still spoke Hebrew. The Jerusalem Talmud and the classic legend midrashes (in which the majority of the acts and stories are in Aramaic) both demonstrate that Hebrew was used mostly as a literary and artificial language. Hebrew is only found on a small percentage of cemeteries and synagogues.[102]
Philosophical and religious consequences
[edit]Rabbinical political thought became deeply cautious and conservative, with Jewish belief in the Messiah becoming abstracted and spiritualized. The Talmud refers to Bar Kokhba as "Ben Koziva" (בֶּן כּוֹזִיבָא, lit. 'Son of Deception'), placing him among the false Messiahs.[22]
Eusebius of Caesarea wrote that Christians were killed and suffered "all kinds of persecutions" at the hands of rebel Jews when they refused to help Bar Kokhba against the Roman troops.[103][104] Although Christians regarded Jesus as the Messiah and did not support Bar Kokhba,[105] they were barred from Jerusalem along with the Jews.[106]
The rebellion contributed to the differentiation between early Christianity and Judaism, and their eventual clear separation.[22]
Roman losses
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Roman casualties are also considered to have been heavy; the Roman army disbanded Legio XXII Deiotariana following the revolt, perhaps due to serious losses.[107] Cassius Dio wrote that "Many Romans, moreover, perished in this war. Therefore, Hadrian, in writing to the Senate, did not employ the opening phrase commonly affected by the emperors: 'If you and your children are in health, it is well; I and the army are in health.'"[108] Some argue that the exceptional number of preserved Roman veteran diplomas from the late 150s and 160s CE indicate an unprecedented conscription across the Roman Empire to replenish heavy losses within military legions and auxiliary units between 133 and 135, corresponding to the revolt.[109]
As noted above, XXII Deiotariana may have been disbanded after serious losses.[107][110] In addition, some historians argue that Legio IX Hispana's disbandment in the mid-2nd century could have been a result of this war.[59] Previously it had generally been accepted that the Ninth disappeared around 108 CE, possibly suffering its demise in Britain, according to Mommsen; but archaeological findings in 2015 from Nijmegen, dated to 121 CE, contained the known inscriptions of two senior officers who were deputy commanders of the Ninth in 120 CE, and lived on for several decades to lead distinguished public careers. It was concluded that the Legion was disbanded between 120 and 197 CE—either as a result of fighting the Bar Kokhba revolt, or in Cappadocia (161), or at the Danube (162).[111][unreliable source?] Legio X Fretensis sustained heavy casualties during the revolt.[3]
Later relations between the Jews and the Roman Empire
[edit]Relations between the Jews in the region and the Roman Empire continued to be complicated. Constantine I allowed Jews to mourn their defeat and humiliation once a year on Tisha B'Av at the Western Wall. In 351–352 CE, the Jews of Galilee launched yet another revolt, provoking heavy retribution.[112] The Gallus revolt came during the rising influence of early Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire, under the Constantinian dynasty. In 355, however, the relations with the Roman rulers improved, upon the rise of Emperor Julian, the last of the Constantinian dynasty, who, unlike his predecessors, defied Christianity. In 363, not long before Julian left Antioch to launch his campaign against Sassanian Persia, he ordered the Jewish Temple rebuilt in his effort to foster religions other than Christianity.[113] The failure to rebuild the Temple has mostly been ascribed to the dramatic Galilee earthquake of 363, and traditionally also to the Jews' ambivalence about the project. Sabotage is a possibility, as is an accidental fire, though Christian historians of the time ascribed it to divine intervention.[114] Julian's support of Judaism caused Jews to call him "Julian the Hellene".[115]
In 438 CE, when the Empress Eudocia removed the ban on Jews' praying at the Temple site, the heads of the Community in Galilee issued a call "to the great and mighty people of the Jews" which began: "Know that the end of the exile of our people has come!" However, the Christian population of the city saw this as a threat to their primacy, and a riot erupted which chased Jews from the city.[116][117]
During the fifth and sixth centuries, a series of Samaritan revolts broke out across the Palaestina Prima province. Especially violent were the third and the fourth revolts, which resulted in near annihilation of the Samaritan community.[118] It is likely that the Samaritan revolt of 556 was joined by the Jewish community, which had also suffered brutal suppression of their religion under Emperor Justinian.[119][120][121]
In the belief of restoration to come, in the early seventh century, the Jews made an alliance with the Sasanian Empire, joining the invasion of Palaestina Prima in 614 to overwhelm the Byzantine garrison, and briefly gained autonomy in Jerusalem.[122]
Archaeology
[edit]Destroyed Jewish villages and fortresses
[edit]Several archaeological excavations have been performed during the 20th and 21st centuries in ruins of Roman-period Jewish villages across Judea and Samaria, as well in the Roman-dominated cities on the coastal plain. Most of the villages in Judea's larger region show signs of devastation or abandonment that dates to the Bar Kokhba revolt. Buildings and underground installations carved out beneath or close to towns, such as hiding complexes, burial caves, storage facilities, and field towers, have both been found to have destruction layers and abandonment deposits. Furthermore, there is a gap in settlement above these levels. Fragmentary material from Transjordan and the Galilee adds to the discoveries from Judea.[5]
Excavations at archaeological sites such as Hurvat Itri and Khirbet Badd ‘Isa have demonstrated that these Jewish villages were destroyed in the revolt, and were only resettled by pagan populations in the third century.[124][125][126] Discoveries from towns like Gophna, known to be Jewish before the revolt, demonstrate that pagans of Hellenistic and Roman culture lived there during the Late Roman period.[127]
Herodium was excavated by archaeologist Ehud Netzer in the 1980s, publishing results in 1985. According to findings, during the later Bar-Kokhba revolt, complex tunnels were dug, connecting the earlier cisterns with one another.[128] These led from the Herodium fortress to hidden openings, which allowed surprise attacks on Roman units besieging the hill.
The ruins of Betar, the last standing stronghold of Bar Kokhba, can be found at Khirbet al-Yahud, an archeological site located in the vicinity of Battir and Beitar Illit. A stone inscription bearing Latin characters and discovered near the site shows that the Fifth Macedonian Legion and the Eleventh Claudian Legion took part in the siege.[129]
Underground refuges
[edit]There were three categories of underground refuges: man-made hiding complexes with living spaces connected by tunnels, cliff shelters carved into steep cliff faces, and natural caves.
Hiding complexes
[edit]
The Bar Kokhba revolt has been better understood thanks to the discovery of artificially carved hiding complexes under many sites across Judea, and on a lesser level in the Lower Galilee. Their discovery is consistent with Cassius Dio's writings, which reported that the rebels used underground networks as part of their tactics to avoid direct confrontations with the Romans. Many were hewn in earlier times and were utilized by rebels during the revolt as indicated by the usage of the coinage produced by Bar Kokhba and other archaeological findings.[130][131]
Hiding complexes were found at more than 130 archaeological sites in Judea; most of them in the Judaean Lowlands, but also in the Judaean Mountains, and some also in Galilee.[130][132] Examples include: Hurvat Midras, Tel Goded, Maresha, Aboud and others.
Cliff shelters and natural caves
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Near the end of the uprising, many Jews fleeing for their life sought asylum in refuge caves, the most of which are found in Israel's Judaean Desert on high cliffs overlooking the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. The majority of these caves are large natural caverns (with few man-made modifications) that are situated in nearly inaccessible vertical cliffs. [130]
They carried luxury goods, cash, arms, papers and deeds, and even the keys to their homes as a hint that they intended to return there once the fighting was over. These items were frequently discovered with their owners' bones in caverns, which is evidence of their tragic fate. The Cave of Letters in Nahal Hever and the caverns in Wadi Murabba'at, which yielded a plethora of written records from the time of the revolt, are among the best-known refuge caves.[130]
The Cave of Letters was surveyed in explorations conducted in 1960–1961, when letters and fragments of papyri were found dating back to the period of the Bar Kokhba revolt.
Cave of Horror is the name given to Cave 8, where the skeletons of 40 Jewish refugees from the Bar Kokhba revolt, including men, women and children, were discovered.[133][134] Three potsherds with the names of three of the deceased were also found alongside the skeletons in the cave.
In 2023, archaeologists discovered a cache consisting of four Roman swords and a pilum concealed within a crevice in a cave located within the Ein Gedi nature reserve. Analysis of the sword types and the discovery of a Bar Kokhba revolt coin within the cave strongly support the hypothesis put forth by archaeologists, which suggests that these items were concealed by Jewish rebels during the Bar Kokhba revolt, serving as a precautionary measure to elude detection by Roman authorities.[135]
Coinage
[edit]As of 2023, twenty-four coins from the Bar Kokhba revolt have been discovered outside of Judaea in various parts of Europe, including what was then the provinces of Britannia, Pannonia, Dacia, and Dalmatia. The bulk of the coins were discovered near Roman military locations, including multiple legionary and auxiliary camps, though not necessarily in a strict military context. It has been suggested to attribute these findings to Roman soldiers who took part in the uprising and brought the coins as souvenirs or commemorative relics, or to Jewish captives, slaves or immigrants who arrived in those areas in the aftermath of the revolt.[136][137][138]
Hoards
[edit]One Baraita contains a rabbinic depiction of a widespread archeological phenomenon: the discovery of hoards of Bar Kokhba coinage all over Judea. The Jews who hid those hoards were unable to collect them due to the presence of Roman garrisons, or because they were killed during the revolt's suppression. It is reasonable to believe that the extensive destruction played a part in the loss of the hiding locations as well. Thirty hoards from this era have been found, more than any other decade.[139]
Roman legionary camps
[edit]A number of locations have been identified with Roman Legionary camps in the time of the Bar Kokhba War, including in Tel Shalem, Jerusalem, Lajjun and more.
Jerusalem inscription dedicated to Hadrian (129/30 CE)
[edit]In 2014, one half of a Latin inscription was discovered in Jerusalem during excavations near the Damascus Gate.[140] It was identified as the right half of a complete inscription, the other part of which was discovered nearby in the late 19th century and is currently on display in the courtyard of Jerusalem's Studium Biblicum Franciscanum Museum. The complete inscription was translated as follows:
The inscription was dedicated by Legio X Fretensis to the emperor Hadrian in the year 129/130 CE. The inscription is considered to greatly strengthen the claim that indeed the emperor visited Jerusalem that year, supporting the traditional claim that Hadrian's visit was among the main causes of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, and not the other way around.[140]
Tel Shalem triumphal arc and Hadrian's statue
[edit]The location was identified as a Roman military post during the 20th century, with archaeological excavation performed in the late 20th century following an accidental discovery of Hadrian's bronze statue in the vicinity of the site in 1975.[141] Remains of a large Roman military camp and fragments of a triumphal arc dedicated to Emperor Hadrian were consequently discovered at the site.
Geographic extent of the revolt
[edit]Over the years, two schools formed in the analysis of the Revolt. One of them is maximalists, who claim that the revolt spread through the entire Judea Province and beyond it into neighboring provinces. The second one is that of the minimalists, who restrict the revolt to the area of the Judaean hills and immediate environs.[142]
Judea proper
[edit]It is generally accepted that the Bar Kokhba revolt encompassed all of Judea, namely the villages of the Judean hills, the Judean desert, and northern parts of the Negev desert. It is not known whether the revolt spread outside of Judea.[143]
Jerusalem
[edit]Until 1951, Bar Kokhba Revolt coinage was the sole archaeological evidence for dating the revolt.[9] These coins include references to "Year One of the redemption of Israel", "Year Two of the freedom of Israel", and "For the freedom of Jerusalem". Despite the reference to Jerusalem, as of early 2000s, archaeological finds, and the lack of revolt coinage found in Jerusalem, supported the view that the revolt did not capture Jerusalem.[144]
In 2020, the fourth Bar Kokhba minted coin and the first inscribed with the word "Jerusalem" was found in Jerusalem Old City excavations.[145] Despite this discovery, the Israel Antiques Authority still maintained the opinion that Jerusalem was not taken by the rebels, due to the fact that of thousands of Bar Kokhba coins had been found outside Jerusalem, but only four within the city (out of more than 22,000 found within the city). The Israel Antiques Authority's archaeologists Moran Hagbi and Dr. Joe Uziel speculated that "It is possible that a Roman soldier from the Tenth Legion found the coin during one of the battles across the country and brought it to their camp in Jerusalem as a souvenir."[146]
Galilee
[edit]Among those findings are the rebel hideout systems in the Galilee, which greatly resemble the Bar Kokhba hideouts in Judea, and though are less numerous, are nevertheless important. The fact that Galilee retained its Jewish character after the end of the revolt has been taken as an indication by some that either the revolt was never joined by Galilee or that the rebellion was crushed relatively early there compared to Judea.[147]
Northern valleys
[edit]Several historians, notably W. Eck of the University of Cologne, theorized that the Tel Shalem arch depicted a major battle between Roman armies and Bar Kokhba's rebels in Bet Shean valley,[142] thus extending the battle areas some 50 km northwards from Judea. The 2013 discovery of the military camp of Legio VI Ferrata near Tel Megiddo.[148] However, Eck's theory on battle in Tel Shalem is rejected by M. Mor, who considers the location implausible given Galilee's minimal (if any) participation in the Revolt and distance from the main conflict flareup in Judea proper.[142]
Samaria
[edit]A 2015 archaeological survey in Samaria identified some 40 hideout cave systems from the period, some containing Bar Kokhba's minted coins, suggesting that the war raged in Samaria at high intensity.[57]
Transjordan
[edit]Jews from Peraea are thought to have taken part in the revolt. This is demonstrated by a destruction layer dating from the early second century at Tel Abu al-Sarbut in the Sukkoth Valley,[149] and by abandonment deposits from the same period that were discovered at al-Mukhayyat[150] and Callirrhoe.[151] There is also evidence for Roman military presence in Perea in the middle of the century, as well as evidence of the settlement of Roman veterans in the area.[5]
This view is supported by a destruction layer in Tel Hesban that dates to 130 CE,[152] and a decline in settlement from the Early Roman to the Late Roman periods discovered in the survey of the Iraq al-Amir region.[153] However, it is still unclear whether this decline was caused by the First Jewish–Roman War or the Bar Kokhba revolt.[5]
Bowersock suggested of linking the Nabateans to the revolt, claiming "a greater spread of hostilities than had formerly been thought... the extension of the Jewish revolt into northern Transjordan and an additional reason to consider the spread of local support among Safaitic tribes and even at Gerasa."[96]
Sources
[edit]Lacking detailed historical records or surviving accounts from Roman or Jewish sources, reconstructing the Bar Kokhba revolt is challenging. Reliance on sources with varying objectives, reliability, and dates leaves many crucial questions unresolved.[154] Only one brief account survives: an abridged section of Cassius Dio's Roman History. Although archaeological discoveries from 1952 onwards, particularly papyrological evidence, provide some insights, they do not offer a comprehensive narrative of the events.[154]
Dio Cassius
[edit]The best recognized source for the revolt is Cassius Dio, Roman History (book 69),[4][155] even though the writings of the Roman historian concerning the Bar Kokhba revolt survived only as fragments. The account extends on about two pages and is largely an historical perspective with the general course of the rebellion and its disastrous results, without mentioning specific names and locations.
Eusebius of Caesarea
[edit]The Christian author Eusebius of Caesarea wrote a brief account of the revolt within the Church History (Eusebius) compilation, notably mentioning Bar Chochebas (which means “star” according to Eusebius) as the leader of the Jewish rebels and their last stand at Beththera (i.e., Betar). Though Eusebius lived one and a half centuries after the revolt and wrote the brief account from the Christian theological perspective, his account provides important details on the revolt and its aftermath in Judea.
Jerusalem Talmud
[edit]The Jerusalem Talmud contains descriptions of the results of the rebellion, including the Roman executions of Judean leaders and religious persecution.
Primary sources
[edit]
The discovery of the Cave of Letters in the Dead Sea area, dubbed as "Bar Kokhba archive",[156] which contained letters actually written by Bar Kokhba and his followers, has added much new primary source data, indicating among other things that either a pronounced part of the Jewish population spoke only Greek or there was a foreign contingent among Bar Kokhba's forces, accounted for by the fact that his military correspondence was, in part, conducted in Greek.[157] Close to the Cave of Letters is the Cave of Horror, where the remains of Jewish refugees from the rebellion were discovered along with fragments of letters and writings. Several briefer sources have been uncovered in the area over the past century, including references to the revolt from Nabatea and Roman Syria.
Legacy
[edit]In Rabbinic Judaism
[edit]The disastrous end of the revolt occasioned major changes in Jewish religious thought. Jewish messianism was abstracted and spiritualized, and rabbinical political thought became deeply cautious and conservative. The Talmud, for instance, refers to Bar Kokhba as "Ben-Kusiba", a derogatory term used to indicate that he was a false Messiah. The deeply ambivalent rabbinical position regarding Messianism, as expressed most famously in Maimonides' "Epistle to Yemen," would seem to have its origins in the attempt to deal with the trauma of a failed Messianic uprising.[158]
In Zionism and modern Israel
[edit]In the post-rabbinical era, the Bar Kokhba Revolt became a symbol of valiant national resistance. The Zionist youth movement Betar took its name from Bar Kokhba's traditional last stronghold, and David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, took his Hebrew last name from one of Bar Kokhba's generals.[159]
A popular children's song, included in the curriculum of Israeli kindergartens, has the refrain "Bar Kokhba was a Hero/He fought for Liberty," and its words describe Bar Kokhba as being captured and thrown into a lion's den, but managing to escape riding on the lion's back.[160]
See also
[edit]- Jewish and Samaritan revolts
- History of the Jews in the Roman Empire
- Jewish–Roman wars
- First Jewish–Roman War, 66–73 CE
- Kitos War, 115–117 CE
- Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus, 352 CE
- Samaritan revolts, 484–572 CE
- Jewish revolt against Heraclius, 614-617/625
- Related topics
Explanatory notes
[edit]- ^ Legion was also possibly disbanded as a result of the campaigns in Brittania or Roman–Parthian War of 161–166
References
[edit]- ^ L. J. F. Keppie (2000). Legions and veterans: Roman army papers 1971–2000. Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 3-515-07744-8. pp. 228–229.
- ^ Menachem, Mor, Two Legions: The Same Fate?, JSTOR 20186341
- ^ a b Mor, M. The Second Jewish Revolt: The Bar Kokhba War, 132–136 CE. Brill, 2016. p. 334.
- ^ a b c Cassius Dio, Translation by Earnest Cary. Roman History, book 69, 12.1-14.3. Loeb Classical Library, 9 volumes, Greek texts and facing English translation: Harvard University Press, 1914 thru 1927. Online in LacusCurtius:[1][permanent dead link] and livius.org:[2] Archived 2016-08-13 at the Wayback Machine. Book scan in Internet Archive:[3].
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Raviv, Dvir; Ben David, Chaim (2021-05-27). "Cassius Dio's figures for the demographic consequences of the Bar Kokhba War: Exaggeration or reliable account?". Journal of Roman Archaeology. 34 (2): 585–607. doi:10.1017/S1047759421000271. ISSN 1047-7594. S2CID 236389017.
- ^ a b Axelrod, Alan (2009). Little-Known Wars of Great and Lasting Impact. Fair Winds Press. p. 29. ISBN 9781592333752.
- ^ for the year 136, see: W. Eck, The Bar Kokhba Revolt: The Roman Point of View, pp. 87–88.
- ^ Davies, W. D. (William David); Finkelstein, Louis; Horbury, William; Sturdy, John; Katz, Steven T.; Hart, Mitchell Bryan; Michels, Tony; Karp, Jonathan (1984). The Cambridge history of Judaism. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-521-21880-1.
- ^ a b c d e f Hanan Eshel, 'The Bar Kochba revolt, 132-135,' in William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, Steven T. Katz (eds.) The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period, pp.105-127, p.105.
- ^ a b Katz, Steven T. (2006). The Cambridge history of Judaism. Cambridge University press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-521-77248-8.
- ^ Mor 2016, p. 11.
- ^ John S. Evans (2008). The Prophecies of Daniel 2. Xulon Press. ISBN 9781604779035.
Known as the Bar Kokhba Revolt, after its charismatic leader, Simon Bar Kokhba, whom many Jews regarded as their promised messiah
- ^ "Israel Tour Daily Newsletter". 27 July 2010. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011.
- ^ a b c Taylor, J. E. (15 November 2012). The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199554485.
These texts, combined with the relics of those who hid in caves along the western side of the Dead Sea, tell us a great deal. What is clear from the evidence of both skeletal remains and artefacts is that the Roman assault on the Jewish population of the Dead Sea was so severe and comprehensive that no one came to retrieve precious legal documents, or bury the dead. Up until this date the Bar Kokhba documents indicate that towns, villages and ports where Jews lived were busy with industry and activity. Afterwards there is an eerie silence, and the archaeological record testifies to little Jewish presence until the Byzantine era, in En Gedi. This picture coheres with what we have already determined in Part I of this study, that the crucial date for what can only be described as genocide, and the devastation of Jews and Judaism within central Judea, was 135 CE and not, as usually assumed, 70 CE, despite the siege of Jerusalem and the Temple's destruction
- ^ a b Mor 2016, p. 471.
- ^ Powell, L.; Dennis, P. (2017). The Bar Kokhba War AD 132–136: The last Jewish revolt against Imperial Rome. Campaign. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-4728-1799-0.
- ^ a b Jones, A.H.M. (1971). The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces (2nd ed.). Oxford. p. 277.
This provoked the last Jewish war, which seems from our meager accounts [...] to have resulted in the desolation of Judaea and the practical extermination of its Jewish population.
- ^ David Goodblatt, 'The political and social history of the Jewish community in the Land of Israel,' in William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, Steven T. Katz (eds.) The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period, Cambridge University Press, 2006 pp.404-430, p.406.
- ^ Isaac, Benjamin (2015-12-22), "Judaea-Palaestina", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.3500, ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5, retrieved 2024-04-09
- ^ Eck, Werner (2015-07-30), "Bar Kokhba", Oxford Classical Dictionary, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.1056, ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5, retrieved 2024-04-09
- ^ a b c d e f Eshel 2006, pp. 105–127.
- ^ a b c d M. Avi-Yonah, The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule, Jerusalem 1984 p. 143
- ^ Eshel 2006, pp. 105.
- ^ Mor 2016, pp. i–xxiv.
- ^ "Ancient Inscription Identifies Gargilius Antiques as Roman Ruler on Eve of Bar Kochva Revolt". The Jewish Press. December 1, 2016.
- ^ "Jerusalem and the Bar Kokhba Revolt Again: A Note" by Eran Almagor, ELECTRUM Vol. 26 (2019): 141–157, http://www.ejournals.eu/electrum/2019/Volume-26/art/15133/ (abstract with link to full pdf article) which suggests Aelia Capitolina was founded during the last stage of the revolt which halted earlier reconstruction http://www.ejournals.eu/electrum/2019/Volume-26/art/15015/ and "Eusebius and Hadrian's Founding of Aelia Capitolina in Jerusalem" by Miriam Ben Zeev Hofman, ELECTRUM Vol. 26 (2019): 119–128 http://www.ejournals.eu/electrum/2019/Volume-26/art/15015/
- ^ "WATCH: 2,000-year-old inscription dedicated to Roman emperor unveiled in Jerusalem". The Jerusalem Post | Jpost.com.
- ^ Schäfer, Peter (2003). The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World: The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest. Translated by David Chowcat. Routledge. p. 146.
- ^ See Platner, Samuel Ball (1929). "Pomerium". A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome – via LacusCurtius. Gates, Charles (2011). Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome. Taylor & Francis. p. 335. ISBN 9781136823282.
- ^ The Mishnah has a segment: "[O]n the 9th of Ab...and the city was ploughed up." on mas. Taanith, Chapter 4, Mishnah no. 6. See:
- Blackman, Philip, ed. (1963). MISHNAYOTH, VOLUME II, ORDER MOED (in Hebrew and English). New York: Judaica. p. 432 – via HebrewBooks.
- Greenup, Albert William (1921). The Mishna tractate Taanith (On the public fasts). London: [Palestine House]. p. 32 – via Internet Archive.
- Sola, D. A.; Raphall, M. J., eds. (1843). "XX. Treatise Taanith, chapter IV, §6.". Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna – via Internet Sacred Text Archive.
- ^ The Babylonian Talmud and Jerusalem Talmud both explicate the segment refers to Rufus: Babylonian: mas. Taanith 29a. See
- "Shas Soncino: Taanith 29a". dTorah.com. Archived from the original on 2020-02-09. Retrieved 2014-06-28.
- "Bab. Taanith; ch.4.1-8, 26a-31a". RabbinicTraditions. Retrieved 2014-06-28.
- "Ta'anis 2a-31a" (PDF). Soncino Babylonian Talmud. Translated by I Epstein. Halakhah.com. pp. 92–93. Retrieved 2014-06-27.
AND THE CITY WAS PLOUGHED UP. It has been taught: When Turnus Rufus the wicked destroyed[note 20: Var lec.: 'ploughed'.] the Temple,...
.
- ^ The Jerusalem Talmud relates it to the Temple, Taanith 25b:
- "דף כה,ב פרק ד". Mechon Mamre (in Hebrew). הלכה ה גמרא. Archived from the original on 2023-10-06. Retrieved 2014-07-08.
ונחרשה העיר. חרש רופוס שחיק עצמות את ההיכל
- (in Hebrew) – via Wikisource.
- "דף כה,ב פרק ד". Mechon Mamre (in Hebrew). הלכה ה גמרא. Archived from the original on 2023-10-06. Retrieved 2014-07-08.
- ^ "Roman provincial coin of Hadrian [image]". Israel Museum. Archived from the original on 2014-07-02. Retrieved 2014-07-01 – via Europeana.
- ^ Boatwright, Mary Taliaferro (2003). Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire. Princeton University Press. p. 199. ISBN 0691094934.
- ^ Metcalf, William (2012-02-23). The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage. Oxford University Press. p. 492. ISBN 9780195305746.
- ^ Benjamin H. Isaac, Aharon Oppenheimer, 'The Revolt of Bar Kochba:Ideology and Modern Scholarship,' in Benjamin H. Isaac, The Near East Under Roman Rule: Selected Papers , BRILL (Volume 177 of Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. 177: Supplementum), 1998 pp.220-252, 226-227
- ^ Aharon Oppenheimer, 'The Ban on Circumcision as a cause of the Revolt: A Reconsideration,' in Peter Schäfer (ed.) The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World: The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest, Mohr Siebeck 2003 pp.55-69 pp.55f.
- ^ Craig A. Evans, Jesus and His Contemporaries: Comparative Studies, BRILL 2001 p.185:'moverunt ea tempestate et Iudaei bellum, quod vetabantur mutilare genitalia.'
- ^ Aharon Oppenheimer, ‘The Ban on Circumcision as a Cause of the Revolt: A Reconsideration,’ Aharon Oppenheimer, Between Rome and Babylon, Mohr Siebeck 2005 pp.243-254 pp.
- ^ Schäfer, Peter (1998). Judeophobia: Attitudes Toward the Jews in the Ancient World. Harvard University Press. pp. 103–105. ISBN 9780674043213. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
[...] Hadrian's ban on circumcision, allegedly imposed sometime between 128 and 132 CE [...]. The only proof for Hadrian's ban on circumcision is the short note in the Historia Augusta: 'At this time also the Jews began war, because they were forbidden to mutilate their genitals (quot vetabantur mutilare genitalia). [...] The historical credibility of this remark is controversial [...] The earliest evidence for circumcision in Roman legislation is an edict by Antoninus Pius (138-161 CE), Hadrian's successor [...] [I]t is not utterly impossible that Hadrian [...] indeed considered circumcision as a 'barbarous mutilation' and tried to prohibit it. [...] However, this proposal cannot be more than a conjecture, and, of course, it does not solve the questions of when Hadrian issued the decree (before or during/after the Bar Kokhba war) and whether it was directed solely against Jews or also against other peoples.
- ^ Christopher Mackay, Ancient Rome a Military and Political History Cambridge University Press 2007 p.230
- ^ Peter Schäfer, The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome, Mohr Siebeck 2003. p.68
- ^ Peter Schäfer, The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World: The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest, Routledge, 2003 p. 146.
- ^ Aharon Oppenheimer, 'The Ban on Circumcision as a cause of the Revolt: A Reconsideration,' in Peter Schäfer (ed.) The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World: The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest, Mohr Siebeck 2003 pp.55-69 pp.55f.
- ^ a b Eshel 2006, pp. 108.
- ^ a b Eshel 2006, pp. 109.
- ^ Eshel 2006, pp. 109–110.
- ^ Gilad, Elon (6 May 2015). "The Bar Kochba Revolt: A Disaster Celebrated by Zionists on Lag Ba'Omer". Haaretz. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
- ^ Eck, Werner. "The bar Kokhba Revolt: The Roman Point of View". The Journal of Roman Studies. 89: 81.
- ^ Eck, Werner. "The bar Kokhba Revolt: The Roman Point of View". The Journal of Roman Studies. 89: 80.
- ^ "The Creators of the Mishna, Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph". www.sefaria.org.il.
- ^ Bourgel, Jonathan (23 March 2023). "Ezekiel 40–48 as a Model for Bar Kokhba's Title "Nasi Israel"?". Journal of Ancient Judaism. 14 (3): 446–481. doi:10.30965/21967954-bja10037. ISSN 1869-3296. S2CID 257812293.
- ^ Mor 2016, p. 466.
- ^ "Numbers 24:17". www.sefaria.org.
What I see for them is not yet, What I behold will not be soon: A star rises from Jacob, A scepter comes forth from Israel; It smashes the brow of Moab, The foundation of all children of Seth.
- ^ 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...
- ^ Schäfer, Peter (September 10, 2003). The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome. Isd. ISBN 978-3-16-148076-8 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Hebrew: התגלית שהוכיחה: מרד בר כוכבא חל גם בשומרון [4] NRG. 15 July 2015.
- ^ Mor 2016, p. 491.
- ^ a b "Legio VIIII Hispana". livius.org. Retrieved 2014-06-26.
- ^ Journal of Roman Archaeology , Volume 12 , 1999 , pp. 294–313 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1047759400018043
- ^ Mohr Siebek et al. Edited by Peter Schäfer. The Bar Kokhba War reconsidered. 2003. P172.
- ^ Mor, Menahem (September 10, 2013). "What Does Tel Shalem Have To Do with the Bar Kokhba Revolt?". Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia (11) – via www.ceeol.com.
- ^ Charles Clermont-Ganneau, Archaeological Researches in Palestine during the Years 1873–1874, London 1899, pp. 463–470
- ^ Jerusalem Talmud Ta'anit iv. 68d; Lamentations Rabbah ii. 2
- ^ Jerusalem Talmud, Taanit 4:5 (24a); Midrash Rabba (Lamentations Rabba 2:5).
- ^ Ta'anit 4:5
- ^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "10447-martyrs-the-ten". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
The fourth martyr was Hananiah ben Teradion, who was wrapped in a scroll of the Law and placed on a pyre of green brushwood; to prolong his agony, wet wool was placed on his chest.
- ^ Mohr Siebek et al. Edited by Peter Schäfer. The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered. 2003. P160. "Thus it is very likely that the revolt ended only in early 136."
- ^ Totten, S. Teaching about genocide: issues, approaches and resources. p24. [5]
- ^ Schäfer, P. (1981). Der Bar Kochba-Aufstand. Tübingen. pp. 131ff.
- ^ Applebaum, Shimon (1989). "Romanization and Indigenism in Judaea". Judaea in Hellenistic and Roman Times. Judaea in Hellenistic and Roman Times (vol. 40). Brill. p. 157. doi:10.1163/9789004666641_017. ISBN 978-90-04-66664-1. Retrieved 2024-06-18.
- ^ Mohr Siebek et al. Edited by Peter Schäfer. The Bar Kokhba War reconsidered. 2003. P142-3.
- ^ a b Anderson, James Donald; Levy, Thomas Evan (1995). The Impact of Rome on the Periphery: The Case of Palestina - Roman Period (63 BCE - 324 CE). The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land. p. 449.
- ^ Powell, Lindsay; Dennis, Peter (2017). The Bar Kokhba War AD 132-136: the last Jewish revolt against imperial Rome. Campaign. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-1-4728-1798-3.
- ^ Bar, Doron (2005). "Rural Monasticism as a Key Element in the Christianization of Byzantine Palestine". The Harvard Theological Review. 98 (1): 49–65. doi:10.1017/S0017816005000854. ISSN 0017-8160. JSTOR 4125284. S2CID 162644246.
The phenomenon was most prominent in Judea, and can be explained by the demographic changes that this region underwent after the second Jewish revolt of 132-135 C.E. The expulsion of Jews from the area of Jerusalem following the suppression of the revolt, in combination with the penetration of pagan populations into the same region, created the conditions for the diffusion of Christians into that area during the fifth and sixth centuries. [...] This regional population, originally pagan and during the Byzantine period gradually adopting Christianity, was one of the main reasons that the monks chose to settle there. They erected their monasteries near local villages that during this period reached their climax in size and wealth, thus providing fertile ground for the planting of new ideas.
- ^ Mor 2016, pp. 483–484: "Land confiscation in Judaea was part of the suppression of the revolt policy of the Romans and punishment for the rebels. But the very claim that the sikarikon laws were annulled for settlement purposes seems to indicate that Jews continued to reside in Judaea even after the Second Revolt. There is no doubt that this area suffered the severest damage from the suppression of the revolt. Settlements in Judaea, such as Herodion and Bethar, had already been destroyed during the course of the revolt, and Jews were expelled from the districts of Gophna, Herodion, and Aqraba. However, it should not be claimed that the region of Judaea was completely destroyed. Jews continued to live in areas such as Lod (Lydda), south of the Hebron Mountain, and the coastal regions. In other areas of the Land of Israel that did not have any direct connection with the Second Revolt, no settlement changes can be identified as resulting from it."
- ^ Eusebius of Caesarea, Demonstratio Evangelica, VIII, 4, 23
- ^ Jerome, Commentary on Daniel (translation by Gleason L. Archer), III, ix, 24
- ^ a b Powell, Lindsay; Dennis, Peter (2017). The Bar Kokhba War AD 132-136: the last Jewish revolt against imperial Rome. Campaign. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-1-4728-1798-3.
- ^ Harris, William V. (1980). "Towards a Study of the Roman Slave Trade". Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. 36: 122. doi:10.2307/4238700. ISSN 0065-6801. JSTOR 4238700.
- ^ Powell, The Bar Kokhba War AD 132-136, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, ç2017, p.81
- ^ Oppenheimer, A'haron and Oppenheimer, Nili. Between Rome and Babylon: Studies in Jewish Leadership and Society. Mohr Siebeck, 2005, p. 2.
- ^ Cohn-Sherbok, Dan (1996). Atlas of Jewish History. Routledge. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-415-08800-8.
- ^ Lehmann, Clayton Miles (18 January 2007). "Palestine". Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces. University of South Dakota. Archived from the original on 7 April 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
- ^ Miller, 1984, p. 132
- ^ Morçöl 2006, p. 304
- ^ Zissu, B., Ecker, A., and Klein, E, 2017, "Archaeological Explorations North of Bet Guvrin (Eleutheropolis)", in: Speleology and Spelestology, Proceedings of the VIII International Scientific Conference. Nabereznye Chelny, pp. 183-203.
- ^ Hirschfeld, Y. (2004). Ein Gedi: A Large Jewish Village1. Qadmoniot, 37, 62-87. "The consequences of the Second Revolt were infinitely more catastrophic for the Jewish population than were those of the First Revolt. The chilling evidence found in the caves of Nahal Hever illustrates the scale of the killing and suffering. However, the Jewish settlement at Ein Gedi survived. As suggested above, relatives of refugees who had fled to the caves traveled to those sites at some point after the revolt to give the deceased a proper burial. The results of the excavations at Ein Gedi indicate a continuity of settlement during the transition from the Late Roman (Stratum III) to the Byzantine (II) period."
- ^ David Goodblatt, 'The political and social history of the Jewish community in the Land of Israel,' in William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, Steven T. Katz (eds.) The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period, Cambridge University Press, 2006 pp.404-430, p.406.
- ^ Mor 2016, pp. 483–484: "Land confiscation in Judaea was part of the suppression of the revolt policy of the Romans and punishment for the rebels. But the very claim that the sikarikon laws were annulled for settlement purposes seems to indicate that Jews continued to reside in Judaea even after the Second Revolt. There is no doubt that this area suffered the severest damage from the suppression of the revolt. Settlements in Judaea, such as Herodion and Bethar, had already been destroyed during the course of the revolt, and Jews were expelled from the districts of Gophna, Herodion, and Aqraba. However, it should not be claimed that the region of Judaea was completely destroyed. Jews continued to live in areas such as Lod (Lydda), south of the Hebron Mountain, and the coastal regions. In other areas of the Land of Israel that did not have any direct connection with the Second Revolt, no settlement changes can be identified as resulting from it."
- ^ a b Willem F. Smelik, The Targum of Judges, BRILL 1995 p.434.
- ^ Mor 2016, p. 473
- ^ H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, page 334: "Jews were forbidden to live in the city and were allowed to visit it only once a year, on the Ninth of Ab, to mourn on the ruins of their holy Temple."
- ^ H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 1976, ISBN 0-674-39731-2, page 334: "In an effort to wipe out all memory of the bond between the Jews and the land, Hadrian changed the name of the province from Judaea to Syria-Palestina, a name that became common in non-Jewish literature."
- ^ Ariel Lewin. The archaeology of Ancient Judea and Palestine. Getty Publications, 2005 p. 33. "It seems clear that by choosing a seemingly neutral name - one juxtaposing that of a neighboring province with the revived name of an ancient geographical entity (Palestine), already known from the writings of Herodotus - Hadrian was intending to suppress any connection between the Jewish people and that land." ISBN 0-89236-800-4
- ^ a b The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered by Peter Schäfer, ISBN 3-16-148076-7
- ^ a b Klein, E. (2010), “The Origins of the Rural Settlers in Judean Mountains and Foothills during the Late Roman Period”, In: E. Baruch., A. Levy-Reifer and A. Faust (eds.), New Studies on Jerusalem, Vol. 16, Ramat-Gan, pp. 321-350 (Hebrew).
- ^ קליין, א' (2011). היבטים בתרבות החומרית של יהודה הכפרית בתקופה הרומית המאוחרת (135–324 לסה"נ). עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 314–315. (Hebrew)
- ^ שדמן, ע' (2016). בין נחל רבה לנחל שילה: תפרוסת היישוב הכפרי בתקופות ההלניסטית, הרומית והביזנטית לאור חפירות וסקרים. עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 271–275. (Hebrew)
- ^ Seligman, J. (2019). Were There Villages in Jerusalem's Hinterland During the Byzantine Period? In. Peleg- Barkat O. et.al. (Eds.) Between Sea and Desert: On Kings, Nomads, Cities and Monks. Essays in Honor of Joseph Patrich. Jerusalem; Tzemach. Pp. 167-179.
- ^ Zissu, Boaz [in Hebrew]; Klein, Eitan (2011). "A Rock-Cut Burial Cave from the Roman Period at Beit Nattif, Judaean Foothills" (PDF). Israel Exploration Journal. 61 (2): 196–216. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-16. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
- ^ הר, משה דוד (2022). "היהודים בארץ-ישראל בימי האימפריה הרומית הנוצרית" [The Jews in the Land of Israel in the Days of the Christian Roman Empire]. ארץ-ישראל בשלהי העת העתיקה: מבואות ומחקרים [Eretz Israel in Late Antiquity: Introductions and Studies] (in Hebrew). Vol. 1. ירושלים: יד יצחק בן-צבי. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-965-217-444-4.
- ^ "Texts on Bar Kochba: Eusebius". Archived from the original on 2014-10-07. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
- ^ Bourgel, Jonathan, ″The Jewish-Christians in the storm of the Bar Kokhba Revolt″, in: From One Identity to Another: The Mother Church of Jerusalem Between the Two Jewish Revolts Against Rome (66-135/6 EC). Paris: Éditions du Cerf, collection Judaïsme ancien et Christianisme primitive, (French), pp. 127-175.
- ^ Justin, "Apologia", ii.71, compare "Dial." cx; Eusebius "Hist. Eccl." iv.6,§2; Orosius "Hist." vii.13
- ^ Davidson, Linda (2002). Pilgrimage: From the Ganges to Graceland: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 279. ISBN 1576070042.
- ^ a b L. J. F. Keppie (2000) Legions and Veterans: Roman Army Papers 1971-2000 Franz Steiner Verlag, ISBN 3-515-07744-8 pp 228–229
- ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History
- ^ E. Werner. The bar Kokhba Revolt: The Roman Point of View. The Journal of Roman Studies Vol. 89 (1999), pp. 76-89. [6]
- ^ livius.org account Archived 2015-03-17 at the Wayback Machine(Legio XXII Deiotariana)
- ^ "Legio VIIII Hispana - Livius". www.livius.org.
- ^ Bernard Lazare and Robert Wistrich, Antisemitism: Its History and Causes, University of Nebraska Press, 1995, I, pp.46-7.
- ^ Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, 23.1.2–3.
- ^ See "Julian and the Jews 361–363 CE" Archived 2012-05-20 at the Wayback Machine (Fordham University, The Jesuit University of New York) and "Julian the Apostate and the Holy Temple".
- ^ A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews, Avner Falk
- ^ Avraham Yaari, Igrot Eretz Yisrael (Tel Aviv, 1943), p. 46.
- ^ Jacobs, Andrew S. (September 10, 2004). Remains of the Jews: The Holy Land and Christian Empire in Late Antiquity. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804747059 – via Google Books.
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- ^ Weinberger, p. 143
- ^ Brewer, Catherine (2005). "The Status of the Jews in Roman Legislation: The Reign of Justinian 527-565 Ce". European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe. 38 (2): 127–139. JSTOR 41443760 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Evans, James Allan Stewart (September 10, 2005). The Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313325823 – via Google Books.
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- ^ Zissu, Boaz [in Hebrew]; Ganor, Amir (2002). "chorevet atari - kfar yahodi mitkupat havit hashani beshpalet yehuda" חורבת עתרי - כפר יהודי מתקופת הבית השני בשפלת יהודה [Horvat Ethri - a Jewish village from the Second Temple period in the Judean Lowlands] (PDF). קדמוניות. 1 (123). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-08.
- ^ Bar, Doron (2005). "Rural Monasticism as a Key Element in the Christianization of Byzantine Palestine". The Harvard Theological Review. 98 (1): 64. doi:10.1017/S0017816005000854. ISSN 0017-8160. JSTOR 4125284. S2CID 162644246.
- ^ Yitzhak Magen, Yoav Zionit, and Erna Sirkis, "Kiryat Sefer‒A Jewish Village and Synagogue of the Second Temple Period" (in Hebrew) Qadmoniot 117. Vol 32 (1999) 25–32.
- ^ Boaz Zisu, Amir Ganor, "Horvat 'Etri‒The Ruins of a Second Temple Period Jewish Village on the Coastal Plain" (in Hebrew). Qadmoniot 132, vol. 35. (2000). 18–27
- ^ Klein, E, 2011, "Gophna during the Late Roman Period in Light of Artistic and Epigraphic Finds", in: A. Tavger., Z. Amar and M. Billig (eds.), In the Highland's Depth: Ephraim Range and Binyamin Research Studies, Beit-El, pp. 119–134 (Hebrew).
- ^ Netzer E. and Arzi S., 1985. "Herodium Tunnels", Qadmoniot 18, Pp. 33–38. (in Hebrew)
- ^ C. Clermont-Ganneau, Archaeological Researches in Palestine during the Years 1873–74, London 1899, pp. 263–270.
- ^ a b c d Zissu, B., & Kloner, A. (2010). The Archaeology of the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (The Bar Kokhba Revolt)–Some New Insights. Bollettino di Archeologia online I Volume speciale F, 8, 40-52.
- ^ Kloner, A., Zissu, B., (2003). Hiding Complexes in Judaea: An Archaeological and Geographical Update on the Area of the Bar Kokhba Revolt. In P. SCHÄFER (ed), The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome. Tübingen, 181–216
- ^ Kloner A., and Zissu B., 2009, Underground Hiding Complexes in Israel and the Bar Kokhba Revolt, Opera Ipogea 1/2009, pp. 9-28
- ^ AHARONI, Y. (1962). "Expedition B—The Cave of Horror". Israel Exploration Journal. 12 (3/4): 186–199. JSTOR 27924906 – via JSTOR.
- ^ "Rare ancient scroll found in Israel Cave of Horror". BBC News. March 16, 2021.
- ^ Guy, Jack (2023-09-06). "Four 1,900-year-old Roman swords found in cave in Israel". CNN. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
- ^ Eshel, H., Zissu, B., & Barkay, G. (2009). Sixteen Bar Kokhba Coins from Roman Sites in Europe. Israel Numismatic Journal, 17, 91-97.
- ^ Grull, T. (2023), Bar Kokhba Coins from Roman Sites in Europe: A Reappraisal.
- ^ Cesarik, N., Filipčić, D., Kramberger, V. (2018). "Bar Kokhba’s bronze coin from Kolovare Beach in Zadar". Journal of the Archaeological Museum in Zadar, Vol. 32. No. 32.
- ^ ספראי, זאב. "הר המלך עדיין חידה". In ביליג, מרים (ed.). מחקרי יהודה ושומרון (in Hebrew). Vol. יט. אריאל: מו"פ אזורי השומרון ובקעת הירדן; המרכז האוניברסיטאי אריאל בשומרון. p. 70. ISSN 0792-8416.
- ^ a b Jerusalem Post. 21 October 2014 WATCH: 2,000-YEAR-OLD INSCRIPTION DEDICATED TO ROMAN EMPEROR UNVEILED IN JERUSALEM
- ^ Gergel, Richard A. (1991). "The Tel Shalem Hadrian Reconsidered". American Journal of Archaeology. 95 (2): 231–251. doi:10.2307/505724. JSTOR 505724. S2CID 193092889.
- ^ a b c M. Menahem. WHAT DOES TEL SHALEM HAVE TO DO WITH THE BAR KOKHBA REVOLT?. U-ty of Haifa / U-ty of Denver. SCRIPTA JUDAICA CRACOVIENSIA. Vol. 11 (2013) pp. 79–96.
- ^ Mor 2016, p. 152.
- ^ Eshel 2003, pp. 95–96: "Returning to the Bar Kokhba revolt, we should note that up until the discovery of the first Bar Kokhba documents in Wadi Murabba'at in 1951, Bar Kokhba coins were the sole archaeological evidence available for dating the revolt. Based on coins overstock by the Bar Kokhba administration, scholars dated the beginning of the Bar Kokhba regime to the conquest of Jerusalem by the rebels. The coins in question bear the following inscriptions: "Year One of the redemption of Israel", "Year Two of the freedom of Israel", and "For the freedom of Jerusalem". Up until 1948 some scholars argued that the "Freedom of Jerusalem" coins predated the others, based upon their assumption that the dating of the Bar Kokhba regime began with the rebel capture Jerusalem." L. Mildenberg's study of the dies of the Bar Kokhba definitely established that the "Freedom of Jerusalem" coins were struck later than the ones inscribed "Year Two of the freedom of Israel". He dated them to the third year of the revolt.' Thus, the view that the dating of the Bar Kokhba regime began with the conquest of Jerusalem is untenable. lndeed, archeological finds from the past quarter-century, and the absence of Bar Kokhba coins in Jerusalem in particular, support the view that the rebels failed to take Jerusalem at all."
- ^ "Rare Bar Kochba-Era Coin Discovered at Foot of Temple Mount". www.israelhayom.com. May 11, 2020. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
- ^ "'Year 2 of freedom': Ancient coin from Bar Kochba revolt found near Temple Mount". The Times of Israel.
- ^ Yehoshafat Harkabi (1983). The Bar Kokhba Syndrome: Risk and Realism in International Politics. SP Books. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-940646-01-8.
- ^ "Roman Legion Camp Unearthed in Megiddo - Inside Israel - News - Arutz Sheva". Arutz Sheva. 9 July 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
- ^ Steiner, M., Mulder-Hymans, N., and Boertien, J.. 2013. “Een joods huishouden in Perea? De resultaten van de eerste opgravingscampagne op Tell Abu Sarbut in 2012.” Tijdschrift voor Mediterrane Archeologie 50: 38–44
- ^ Sagiv, N. 2013. “Jewish Finds from Peraea (Transjordan) from the Second Temple Period until the Bar-Kokhba Revolt.” Jerusalem and Eretz-Israel 8–9: 191–210. (Hebrew)
- ^ Gerber, Y. 1998. Review of Fouilles archéologiques de ʿAïn ez-Zâra/Callirrhoé, villégiature hérodienne, by C. Clamer. BASOR 312: 86–89
- ^ Mitchel, L. A. 1992. Hesban 7: Hellenistic and Roman Strata. Berrien Springs, MI: Institute of Archaeology. p. 62-63
- ^ Ji, C. C., and Lee, J. K.. 2002. “The survey in the regions of 'Iraq al-Amir and Wadi al-Kafrayn, 2000.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 46: 179–95
- ^ a b Eshel 2006, pp. 105, 127.
- ^ Mordechai, Gihon. New insight into the Bar Kokhba War and a reappraisal of Dio Cassius 69.12-13. University of Pennsylvania Press. The Jewish Quarterly Review Vol. 77, No. 1 (Jul., 1986), pp. 15-43. doi:10.2307/1454444
- ^ Peter Schäfer. The Bar Kokhba War reconsidered. 2003. p184.
- ^ Mordechai Gichon, 'New Insight into the Bar Kokhba War and a Reappraisal of Dio Cassius 69.12-13,' The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 77, No. 1 (Jul., 1986), pp. 15-43, p.40.
- ^ Wikisource: "Epistle to Yemen"
- ^ "[7]"
- ^ The military and militarism in Israeli society by Edna Lomsky-Feder, Eyal Ben-Ari]." Retrieved on September 3, 2010
Bibliography
[edit]- Eshel, Hanan (2006). "The Bar Kochba Revolt, 132–135". In Katz, Steven T. (ed.). The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. The Cambridge History of Judaism. Vol. 4th. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77248-8.
- Schwartz, Daniel R. (1992). "On Barnabas and Bar-Kokhba". Studies in the Jewish Background of Christianity. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament (WUNT I) 60. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. pp. 147–153. ISBN 978-3-16-157327-9.
- Smallwood, E. Mary (1976). The Jews under Roman Rule from Pompey to Diocletian. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004502048_023. ISBN 978-90-04-50204-8.
- Feldman, Louis H. (1990). "Some Observations on the Name of Palestine". Hebrew Union College Annual. 61: 1–23. ISSN 0360-9049. JSTOR 23508170.
- Jacobson, David (2001). "When Palestine Meant Israel". Biblical Archaeology Review. 27 (3). Archived from the original on 7 April 2022.
- Mor, Menahem (4 May 2016). The Second Jewish Revolt: The Bar Kokhba War, 132-136 CE. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-31463-4.
- Eshel, Hanan (2003). "The Dates used during the Bar Kokhba Revolt". In Peter Schäfer (ed.). The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 95–96. ISBN 978-3-16-148076-8.
- Yohannan Aharoni & Michael Avi-Yonah, The MacMillan Bible Atlas, Revised Edition, pp. 164–65 (1968 & 1977 by Carta Ltd.)
- The Documents from the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters (Judean Desert studies). Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1963–2002.
- Vol. 2, "Greek Papyri", edited by Naphtali Lewis; "Aramaic and Nabatean Signatures and Subscriptions", edited by Yigael Yadin and Jonas C. Greenfield. (ISBN 9652210099).
- Vol. 3, "Hebrew, Aramaic and Nabatean–Aramaic Papyri", edited Yigael Yadin, Jonas C. Greenfield, Ada Yardeni, BaruchA. Levine (ISBN 9652210463).
- W. Eck, 'The Bar Kokhba Revolt: the Roman point of view' in the Journal of Roman Studies 89 (1999) 76ff.
- Peter Schäfer (editor), Bar Kokhba reconsidered, Tübingen: Mohr: 2003
- Aharon Oppenheimer, 'The Ban of Circumcision as a Cause of the Revolt: A Reconsideration', in Bar Kokhba reconsidered, Peter Schäfer (editor), Tübingen: Mohr: 2003
- Faulkner, Neil. Apocalypse: The Great Jewish Revolt Against Rome. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Tempus Publishing, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-7524-2573-0).
- Goodman, Martin. The Ruling Class of Judaea: The Origins of the Jewish Revolt against Rome, A.D. 66–70. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987 (hardcover, ISBN 0-521-33401-2); 1993 (paperback, ISBN 0-521-44782-8).
- Richard Marks: 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
- Morçöl, Göktuğ (2006). Handbook of Decision Making. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-57444-548-0.
- David Ussishkin: "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.
- Yadin, Yigael. Bar-Kokhba: The Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome. New York: Random House, 1971 (hardcover, ISBN 0-394-47184-9); London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971 (hardcover, ISBN 0-297-00345-3).
- Mildenberg, Leo. The Coinage of the Bar Kokhba War. Switzerland: Schweizerische Numismatische Gesellschaft, Zurich, 1984 (hardcover, ISBN 3-7941-2634-3).
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| Simon bar Kokhba שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כּוֹכְבָא | |
|---|---|
| Prince of Israel | |
._Bar_Kochba_(1927),_Paris.jpg) Watercolour and gouache impression of Bar Kokhba by Polish-Jewish artist Arthur Szyk (1927) | |
| Reign | 132–135[1] |
| Born | Simon bar Koseba (שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כֹסֵבָא)[2] |
| Died | 135 Betar, Judea, Roman Empire |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Occupation | Military leader |
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Bar Kokhba (died 135 ce, Bethar, Palestine [now Battīr, West Bank]) was a Jewish leader who led a bitter but unsuccessful revolt (132–135 ce) against Roman dominion in Judaea.
During his tour of the Eastern Empire in 131, the Roman emperor Hadrian decided upon a policy of Hellenization to integrate the Jews into the empire. Circumcision was proscribed, a Roman colony (Aelia) was founded in Jerusalem, and a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus was erected over the ruins of the Jewish Temple.
Enraged by these measures, the Jews rebelled in 132, the dominant and irascible figure of Simeon bar Kosba at their head. Reputedly of Davidic descent, he was hailed as the messiah by the greatest rabbi of the time, Akiva ben Yosef, who also gave him the title Bar Kokhba (“Son of the Star”), a messianic allusion. Bar Kokhba took the title nasi (“prince”) and struck his own coins, with the legend “Year 1 of the liberty of Jerusalem.”
The Roman historian Dion Cassius noted that the Christian sect refused to join the revolt. The Jews took Aelia by storm and badly mauled the Romans’ Egyptian Legion, XXII Deiotariana. The war became so serious that in the summer of 134 Hadrian himself came from Rome to visit the battlefield and summoned the governor of Britain, Gaius Julius Severus, to his aid with 35,000 men of the Legion X. Jerusalem was retaken, and Severus gradually wore down and constricted the rebels’ area of operation, until in 135 Bar Kokhba was himself killed at Bethar, his stronghold southwest of Jerusalem. The remnant of the Jewish army was soon crushed; Jewish war casualties are recorded as numbering 580,000, not including those who died of hunger and disease. Judaea was desolated, the remnant of the Jewish population annihilated or exiled, and Jerusalem barred to Jews thereafter. But the victory had cost Hadrian dear, and, in his report to the Roman Senate on his return, he omitted the customary salutation “I and the Army are well” and refused a triumphal entry.
In 1952 and 1960–61 a number of Bar Kokhba’s letters to his lieutenants were discovered in the Judaean desert.
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Simon bar Kokhba (Hebrew: שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כּוֹכְבָא Šīm‘ōn bar Kōḵḇāʾ) or Simon bar 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.
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.
Revolt leader
[edit]
Background
[edit]Despite the devastation wrought by the Romans during the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), which left the population and countryside in ruins, a series of laws passed by Roman Emperors provided the incentive for the second rebellion.[14] Based on the delineation of years in Eusebius' Chronicon (whose Latin translation is known as the Chronicle of Jerome) the Jewish revolt began under the Roman governor Tineius (Tynius) Rufus in the 16th year of Hadrian's reign, or what was equivalent to the 4th year of the 227th Olympiad. Hadrian sent an army to crush the resistance, but it faced a strong opponent, since Bar Kokhba, as the recognised leader of Israel, punished any Jew who refused to join his ranks.[15] Two and a half years later, after the war had ended, the Roman emperor Hadrian barred Jews from entering Aelia Capitolina, the pagan city he had built on the ruins of Jewish Jerusalem. The name Aelia was derived from one of the emperor's names, Aelius.[16] According to Philostorgius, this was done so that its former Jewish inhabitants "might not find in the name of the city a pretext for claiming it as their country."[16]
Overview
[edit]For many Jews of the time, this turn of events was heralded as the long hoped for Messianic Age. The Romans fared very poorly during the initial revolt facing a unified Jewish force, in contrast to the First Jewish–Roman War, where Flavius Josephus records three separate Jewish armies fighting each other for control of the Temple Mount during the three weeks after the Romans had breached Jerusalem's walls and were fighting their way to the center.[citation needed] Being outnumbered and taking heavy casualties, the Romans adopted a scorched earth policy which reduced and demoralised the Judean populace, slowly grinding away at the will of the Judeans to sustain the war.[citation needed]
During the final phase of the war, Bar Kokhba took up refuge in the fortress of Betar.[citation needed] The Romans eventually captured it after laying siege to the city.[citation needed]
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
[edit]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 Judaea, Galilee and Samaria into the new province of Syria Palaestina, which is commonly interpreted as an attempt to complete the disassociation with Judaea.[22][23][24]
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."
Character
[edit]Talmud
[edit]Simon bar Kokhba is portrayed in rabbinic literature as being somewhat irrational and irascible in conduct. The Talmud[30] says that he presided over an army of Jewish insurgents numbering some 200,000, but had compelled its young recruits to prove their valor by each man chopping off one of his own fingers. The Sages of Israel complained to him why he marred the people of Israel with such blemishes. Whenever he would go forth into battle, he was reported as saying: "O Master of the universe, there is no need for you to assist us [against our enemies], but do not embarrass us either!"[30] It is also said of him that he killed his maternal uncle, Rabbi Elazar Hamudaʻi, after suspecting him of collaborating with the enemy, thereby forfeiting Divine protection, which led to the destruction of Betar in which Bar Kokhba himself also perished.[30]
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
[edit]Bar Kokhba was a ruthless leader, punishing any Jew who refused to join his ranks. According to Eusebius' Chronicon, he severely punished the Christians with death by different means of torture for their refusal to fight against the Romans.[15]
In popular culture
[edit]
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 Abraham Goldfaden (mus. and libr.). The work was written in the wake of pogroms against Jews following the 1881 assassination of Czar Alexander II of 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 Yaacov Bilansky Levanon in Palestine in the 1920s.
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
[edit]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
[edit]- Bar Kokhba Revolt coinage
- Bar Kokhba weights
- Bar Kokhba Sculputure
- Jewish Messiah claimants
- Lukuas
- Rabbinic stance on Bar Kokhba revolt
Notes
[edit]- ^ 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
[edit]- ^ "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. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
- ^ KANAEL, B. (1971). "Notes on the Dates Used During The Bar Kokhba Revolt". Israel Exploration Journal. 21 (1): 39–46. ISSN 0021-2059. 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.;
- ^ Skolnik, Fred; Berenbaum, Michael, eds. (2007). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 3. Thomson Gale. pp. 156–7. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
- ^ a b "Bar Kokhba: The Man and the Leader". Encyclopaedia Judaica. Thomson Gale. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
- ^ Aharon Oppenheimer (1997). "Leadership and Messianism in the Time of the Mishnah". In Henning Graf Reventlow (ed.). Eschatology in the Bible and in Jewish and Christian Tradition. A&C Black. p. 162. 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
- ^ Akiba ben Joseph article in the 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...
- ^ Geoffrey W. Bromiley; Everett F. Harrison; Roland K. Harrison; William Sanford, eds. (2009). The International standard Bible encyclopedia ([Fully rev.]. ed.). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans. p. 440. 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.
- ^ a b Sozomen; Philostorgius (1855). The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen and The Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius. Translated by Edward Walford. London: Henry G. Bohn. p. 481 (epitome of book VII, chapter 11). 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.
- ^ Sharon, 1998, p. 4. According to Moshe Sharon: "Eager to obliterate the name of the rebellious 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
- ^ Yardeni, ʻAda (2000). Textbook of Aramaic, Hebrew and Nabataean Documentary Texts from the Judaean Desert and related material (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Hebrew University of Jerusalem on behalf of the Ben-Ṣiyyon Dinur Center for the Study of Jewish History. pp. 155–159. 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
[edit]- 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.
- Yadin, Yigael: Bar Kokhba: The Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Last Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome: London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson: 1971: ISBN 0-297-00345-3
Further reading
[edit]- 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.
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