Simon bar Kokhba

In his own letters the leader of the revolt is Simeon (Shim’on) bar Kosiba (Bar Kokhba letters), and a coin of the revolt’s first year gives Shimon the title “Prince of Israel” (Coin of Bar Kokhba, year 1 (Harvard Art Museums 2008.2.105)). The letters show a commander who gives sharp orders, threatens officers who are slow to obey, and sends for palm branches, citrons, myrtles and willows for his camp (Bar Kokhba letters).

The name Bar Kokhba, “son of the star”, comes from others. The Jerusalem Talmud, compiled more than two centuries later, says that Rabbi Akiva applied to him the verse “A star will come out of Jacob” and called him the King Messiah, and that Rabbi Yohanan ben Torta answered that grass would grow from Akiva’s jaws before the son of David came (Numbers 24:17) (Jerusalem Talmud, Ta’anit 4:5). The same passage spells his name Bar Koziba. Justin Martyr, his contemporary, says that he had Christians punished unless they denied Jesus (Justin, First Apology 31). Eusebius says that the name means a star and that he “suffered his just punishment” when the siege of Betar ended (Eusebius, Church History 4.6). See the Bar Kokhba Revolt and Aelia Capitolina.