Simon bar Kokhba
? – 135 Judean leader of the Bar Kokhba revolt
Leader of the last major Jewish revolt against Rome, whose defeat led to mass displacement from Judea.
- Religion
- Judaism
- Affiliations
- Judean rebel state
Simon bar Kokhba led the last great Jewish revolt against Roman rule, from 132 to 135 CE, and for a few years ran an independent Judean administration. He is a historical figure: letters and administrative documents bearing his name, Simon bar Kosevah, have been found in caves near the Dead Sea. Some contemporaries, including the rabbi Akiva in later tradition, hailed him as a messianic deliverer, the name Bar Kokhba meaning son of a star; after the revolt failed, other rabbis reportedly called him Bar Koziva, son of the lie. Rome crushed the rising with heavy casualties, barred Jews from Jerusalem, and renamed the province Syria Palaestina. The defeat marked a deepening of the Jewish diaspora.
In the timeline
- 132 – 136 Bar Kokhba Revolt leader of the revolt
- 135 Judea Renamed Syria Palaestina the defeated leader whose revolt prompted the renaming