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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

and destroy all the children of Seth " (Num. xxiv. 17). Eusebius also ("Hist. Eccl." iv. 6, 2) adds to the name flapx(->xcP a e the remark that it signifies " star, " and so does Syncellus (" Chronographia, " in the " Script. Byz. " ix. 348), indicating that they knew that the name was only a figurative one. It is singular that Syncellus also calls Bar Kokba " an only

son " (fiovoytvift), which corresponds with the Hebrew "yahid." If this is not a Messianic name, as Renan surmises ("L'Eglise Cbretienne," 2d ed., p. 200), one must understand by it the interesting family fact that Bar Kokba was the only son of his parents even in this trifling circumstance the heated imagination of the champions of liberty endeavored to find some special merit. The attempt was also made to discover in the name of a certain counterfeit coin (" mahaginot," Yer. Ket. i. 25J) the word /wvoyevys (N. Brull, in " Jahrbucher, " i. 183; compare Rapoport,

" Orient, " 1840, p. 248) and so refer it to Bar Kokba just as the Talmud mentions " Kozbi-coins " that is, coins of Bar Kokba (Tos. Ma'as. Sheni i. 6, and Bab.



B. K. 97b); but such an interpretation of the word is rendered impossible by the context. These latter coins would intimate that Bar Kokba's name was Simeon, similar examples of the omission of this name being afforded by the names Ben Zoma and Ben Azzai, each of whom was also named Simeon; but, as the coins in question have been traced to Simeon the Hasmonean, their association with Bar Kokba is untenable (Renan, ib. p. 197). This is about all that is known concerning the personality of Bar Kokba and even the meager data here presented are so uncertain that the very name of Everything else pertaining the hero is doubtful. Like the slaveto him is mythical. His Per- prince, "Eunus of Sicily," he is said

have blown burning tow from his mouth (Jerome, " Apol. ii. adv. Ruf ") strength that he was able to hurl back

sonality.

to

.

such was his with his knees the stones discharged from the Roman Bar Kokba is said to have ballistoe (Lam. R. ii. 2). tested the valor of his soldiers by ordering each one to cut off a finger; and when the wise men beheld this, they objected to the self-mutilation involved, and advised him to issue an order to the effect that every horseman must show that he could tear a cedar

Lebanon up by the

roots while riding at full In this way he eventually had 200,000 soldiers who passed the first ordeal, and 200,000 heroes who accomplished the latter feat (Yer. Ta'anit iv. It must have been during the war, when he 68a"). had already performed miracles of valor, that R. Akiba said of him, "This is the King Messiah" (ib.); but he had the presumption so runs the legend to pray to God " We pray Thee, do not give assistance " (ib. Lam. to the enemy; us Thou needst not help R. ii. 2 Git. 57a et seq. Yalk. Deut. 946) and it was inevitable that many persons, among them his uncle R. Eleazar of Modi'im, should disbelieve in his Mes-

of the speed.

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!





,





sianic mission.

Jewish medieval sources also mention a son and a nephew of Bar Kokba. After the death of the exlatter, his son Rufus— whose name is rightly plained as " red "—succeeded him as ruler, and he, again, was followed by his son, Romulus; and it was onlv in the days of Romulus, the son of Rufus, the

Bar Kokba

son of Koziba, that the emperor Hadrian succeeded the insurrection (Abr. b. David, in

in quelling

Neubauer's

"

Medieval Jewish ChronJoseph ibn Zaddik (ib. p. Medieval 90) mentions Romulus, but not Bar Sources. Kokba. The earlier Nizzahon (ed. Hackspan) on Dan. ix. 24 adds that Bar Kokba was of the house of David, an assertion which appears genuine, inasmuch as such relationship would have been essential to the Messianic mission. Both Gedaliah ibn Yah yah, in " Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah" (s.v. "R. Akiba"), and Heilprin, in "Seder ha-Dorot" (i. 126a, ed. Wilna, 1891), mention three generations of these kings a fact controverted by David Gans in " Zemah David " (part i. for the year 880), who adds, however, that Romulus, like his grandfather, was called Koziba, and that there is no discrepancy with the Talmudic records. The twentyone years claimed by Gans for Bar Kokba and his sons can be explained if the whole period from 118 to 135 be accepted, which, however, would only amount to seventeen years. Singularly enough, Graetz and other Jewish historians fail entirely to speak of these Jewish traditions, whereas Miinter (ib. pp. 47, 75) and Gregorovius ("Der Kaiser Ha-

Jewish.

icles,"

i.

5!5).

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drian," p. 195, note 1, Stuttgart, 1884) considered them at least worthy of mention. As if to increase the irritation of the Jews, it so happened that the government of Judea had at this time been entrusted to one of the most rascally subjects of the Roman empire, the governor-general Tinnius Rufus, as he is probably correctly called

(Borghesi, Gregorovius, Renan, Mommsen, and Schitrer whereas others call him variously Tinnius, Titus Annius, or Tacinius, Rufus). Cause of Rufus offended the Jews in their most

sacred relations. He was reputed to be a regular debaucher of young women (G. R6sch, in " Theol. Studien und Kritiken, 1873, pp. 77 et seq.), and was probably the prototype from whom was taken the description of the voluptuary Holof ernes, as given in the Book of Judith. Associated with this is the Talmudic saga that the immediate cause of the war was the insult offered

the "War.

by the Romans to a bridal couple (Git. 57a). So long as the emperor Hadrian remained in the vicinity that is, in Syria and Egypt (about 130 common era) the Jews kept still (Dio Cassius. lxix. 12) and even struck coins in his honor, which bore the motto " Adventui Aug. Judaeas," in commemoration It was probof the visit of the emperor to Judea. ably at this time that Hadian desired to erect the Roman colony ^Elia Capitolina upon the ruins of Jerusalem, and to replace the old Temple by one dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus. Dio Cassius, at least, mentions this fact as the cause of the war, while Eusebius and other ecclesiastical historians It is therefore assumed refer to them as a result. that the building was already begun before the war, but interrupted by it (Miinter, Graetz, Gregorovius).

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report (Spartian, ch. xiv.) that the Jews were rite of circumcision may also have originated after the war but Jewish sources state that in' the days of Bar Kokba many who had before endeavored to disguise the Abrahamic cove-

The

forbidden to exercise the



nant submitted themselves anew to circumcision