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The Image of Bar Kokhba in Traditional Jewish Literature: False Messiah and National Hero (Hermeneutics, Studies in the History of Religions)

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In around 132 CE, Shimon bar Koziva led a Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire- a revolt which was successful at first, but which ultimately failed. Bar Koziba (commonly known as "Bar Kokhba" based on early Christian writings) was, according to the Talmud, supported by Rabbi Akiva(a leading Jewish sage) who may have proclaimed that he was the Messiah.

From this factual soil, a variety of legends and interpretations sprang. The Talmud and related midrashic sources contain two dominant types of stories about bar Koziva: one strain treating him as a harmful false Messiah, another treating him as a valiant but misguided warrior, like a later version of Samson. Both sets of stories support the same agenda: Jews should follow their religion and pray for the Messiah, rather than revolting against foreign oppressors and relying on charismatic non-rabbinic leadership.

After describing the earliest stories about bar Koziba, Marks discusses medieval and Renaissance Jewish thinkers, who reinterpreted these legends to suit their own needs.

For example, medieval thinkers such as Maimonides sought to combat the Karaites (a sect which rejected rabbinic authority). The Talmud presented a problem for Maimonides, because it suggests that Rabbi Akiva believed bar Koziba to be the Messiah- a possibility which in turn calls into question the validity of rabbinic leadership. Maimonides sought to deal with this problem by asserting that bar Koziba showed enough signs of Messianic status that a reasonable sage could have endorsed his claim to such status, and thus that the real Messiah would be a non-supernatural military leader like bar Koziba.

In the early 1500s, Isaac Abravanel, emphasized bar Koziba's military victories, treating him as a kind of instrument of Divine vengeance against Rome. To a much greater extent than Maimonides or the Talmud, Abravanel focused on historical detail, even citing non-Jewish historians. Marks suggests that Abravanel's emphasis on revenge was part of his own personal reaction to the expulusion of Jews (including Abravanel himself) from Spain in 1492.

Later in the 16th century, numerous other Jewish historians wrote about bar Koziba, using non-Jewish sources more carefully than did Abravanel. Those living in more bigoted parts of Europe emphasized the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the bar Koziba revolt; those living in less troubled areas emphasized bar Koziba's early victories.

Finally, Marks discusses 17th-century cabbalists - including supporters of the false Messiah Sabbatai Zevi, who used numerology to show that Zevi fulfilled the messianic promise that bar Koziba (allegedly) came close to meeting.