Hadrian's edicts spark the Bar-Kochba Rebellion. Most…
132 CE
Hadrian's edicts spark the Bar-Kochba Rebellion.
Most of Palestine's contemporary Jewish scholars consider a revolt against Rome futile, as the Romans have crushed virtually all the numerous rebellions by Diaspora Jewish communities in the past couple of decades.
The influential Jewish sage, Rabbi Akiva (alternatively Akiba) ben Joseph, indulges his followers in the possibility that Simon Bar Kosiba (Bar Kokhba) could be the Jewish Messiah, and gives him the surname "Bar Kokhba" meaning "son of a star" in the Aramaic language, from the Star Prophecy verse from Numbers 24:17: "There shall come a star out of Jacob".
The Jewish leaders carefully plan this revolt to avoid numerous mistakes that had plagued the first Great Jewish Revolt sixty years earlier.
A revolt in 132 led by Bar Kokhba quickly spreads from Modi'in across the country, cutting off the Roman garrison in Jerusalem.
Akiva from its beginnings supports Bar Kokhba's uprising against Roman rule in Palestine.
(Dio Cassius noted that the Christian sect refused to join the revolt.)