Customer Reviews

Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome (Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism, 100)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first few essays in this book are the most interesting to nonspecialists, because they get across what we don't know: why the Bar Kochba revolt started. I had always thought that it arose from a ban on circumcision- but in fact, modern scholars disagree about whether the ban even existed, let alone whether it preceded the revolt. Another possible cause is the construction of a pagan city (Aelia Capitolina) on the site of Jerusalem- but again, scholars disagree about whether the construction of that city was a cause of the revolt or a punishment for the revolt. (And one of the essays suggests that, contrary to what one ancient commentator writes, the city was not built near the Temple Mount, probably because there was too much rubble lying around from war).

Most of the essays in the second half of the book are less easy to read than the first few but even those were somewhat informative, teaching that scholars also disagree about the geographic scope of the revolt (whether it was limited to the core of Judea, or spread into the north of Israel) and about whether non-Jews joined Jews in the rebellion.

The last essay discusses the evolution of Bar Kochba in Israeli culture; in the early days of the Israeli republic, he was a common subject of children's books and usually treated as a military hero, with little attention given to the failure of his revolt. More recently, bar Kochba has been deemphasized and treated more critically in Israeli culture.