What was the Bar Kokhba revolt?

After the siege of Jerusalem under Titus many Jews were deported to other lands. Thirty thousand Jews, for instance, were taken to Rome, and used by him to build the Coliseum, capable of seating 80,000 spectators.

But it was not till A.D.135 that the final dispersion of the Jews took place under the Emperor Hadrian. Bar-cochba, or “Star of the East,” as he was called, headed a rebellion, giving out that he was the long-promised Messiah. The cost of subduing this rebellion was so enormous that the Emperor vowed no Jew should be allowed to remain in Palestine. So the final dispersion took place, which has lasted over eighteen long, weary centuries.

A final example. Our Lord when on earth uttered a most notable prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and its gorgeous Temple, and the scattering of the Jews among the nations. It is a matter of history, as described so graphically by Josephus, an eye witness of the siege of Jerusalem under Titus, the son of the Emperor Vespasion, that it was completely destroyed and the Temple razed to the ground, leaving not one stone upon another. This took place in A.D. 70, about thirty-seven years after our Lord prophesied that it would take place. Nearly a hundred years after the siege of Jerusalem, our Lord’s prophecy of the scattering of the Jews among the nations was fulfilled. About the year A.D. 135 this scattering took place. The occasion was the rebellion of the Jews against the Roman power, headed by a leader, Bar-chobab by name, who gave himself out to be the Messiah, come to deliver the Jews from the Roman yoke. The Romans were so tired of these recurring rebellions, that to end them once and for all they drove the Jews from their ancient land, and dispersed them among the Gentile nations. For over eighteen hundred years this prophecy has been most strikingly fulfilled, and still continues to be fulfilled under our very eyes today. This is an outstanding prophecy that could only, and in no other way, emanate from the Divine mind.

In A.D. 131 a fanatical deceiver, Bar-chobab, arose, giving himself out to be the promised Messiah. Well did our Lord give warning, “Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draws near: go ye not therefore after them” (Luke 21:8).

This deceiver headed an insurrection against the Romans. This time the Romans decided to end for all time the constantly recurring risings of the Jews. A relentless purge took place. More than 580,000 Jews were slain. The remainder were driven out of the land (A.D. 131/132), and scattered among the nations. Thus did the mills of God grind slowly but surely, and our Lord’s prophecy was fulfilled. That the Jews have been scattered among the nations from that day to this is a matter of common knowledge. At this present time we see our Lord’s prophecy being fulfilled under our very eyes. Who can deny that?

The chief priests and the Pharisees took counsel to put Jesus to death because said they, "If we let Him thus alone … the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation." To get rid of Him they pretended loyalty to the Roman Caesar, but their hypocrisy recoiled upon their guilty heads and the very thing that they feared happened to them thirty-six years after they had expressed that fear. Titus reduced the city and its temple to ashes and the foundations of the sacred edifice were ploughed up by the Roman soldiers. Thus, without knowing what they did, literally fulfilling the Lord's own words, that "not one stone should be left upon another that should not be thrown down." The aged and infirm of those left alive in the city were killed, the children under seventeen were sold as slaves, and the rest were sent, some to the mines in Egypt, some to grace the triumph of Titus at Rome, and others scattered to various parts of the Empire. But it was not until the reign of Hadrian A.D. 135 that the people who had regathered in the ruined city were finally dispersed. For two years the insurgent Jews held out against the Romans, fighting with the courage of despair. But worn out by famine and disease they were compelled to yield. Their historians say that the Romans "waded to their horses' bridles in blood, which flowed with the fury of a mountain torrent"; 580,000 are said to have fallen by the sword, while the number of victims from other causes was countless. Hadrian determined to obliterate Jerusalem as a city, the ruins that Titus had left were razed to the ground, and again was the ploughshare passed over "as a sign of perpetual desolation," according to the desolator, but fulfilling the prophecy of Micah uttered nine centuries before, "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be a ploughed field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest (Mic. 3:12).

"Thus terminated the war of Jewish nationality. Various causes conspired to make this contest one of the most obstinate ever witnessed. The Roman legions were led by the ablest generals of the empire, and instigated by the recollection of the shameful defeat which they had sustained at the commencement of the war, and by the obstinate resistance now made by a small and unwarlike race whom they had long affected to despise. Nor was the issue of the struggle unimportant to the Roman state. Defeat under any circumstances would have been the first step in the decadence of an empire whose provinces bore so disproportionate a relation to the dominant country. Besides, Roman rule had never been firmly established eastward of Judaea, and on that account the latter country presented an important military position. Finally, the triumph of the Jews would have been fatal to the prestige of Rome in the East, and probably become the signal for a general rising in the neighbouring provinces. On the other hand, the Jews fought for national existence, for political and religious liberty, for their lives, for their hearths and homes. Flushed at first by victory, relying on the zeal and enthusiasm of the whole nation, and defending themselves in their own country and among its fastnesses against the foreign invaders, the Jews fought with the despair of men who knew what awaited them in case of defeat. Besides, they relied on promised succours from their brethren in the East, or at least on a diversion in their favour.

Nor was this contest merely one for national independence; it was essentially also a religious war. Jerusalem was not only a political but also a religious capital. In fighting for their country, the Jews fought also for their religion, which, indeed, was almost inseparable from the soil of Palestine, and hence, as they sought, for the name and cause of their God. Were it requisite, proofs could readily be adduced of this. Even after they had been defeated, it was stated by the theological expositors of popular sentiment, that since the day of the destruction of the temple, God had mourned for the fate of His people, and that joy had become a stranger in the celestial mansions. Hence they constantly reckoned all along on the Divine assistance. The Maccabees had in former times, with a mere handful of men, defied the Syrian hosts, and why should not similar success be vouchsafed to them under more advantageous circumstances? And even if it turned out otherwise, surely it could only happen in judgement, and for a season, that their God had left His covenant people, His special favourites, for whose sakes even heaven and earth had been created, and who alone fulfilled the end of their being by glorifying their Maker. Whatever, then, might be their divinely appointed fate, to conquer or to die, the Zealots were ready to meet it in such a cause. These views were indeed intimately connected with the whole of the carnal tendency in their religion to which we have already, and shall by and by more fully advert. To belong outwardly to the chosen race, constituted a person a member of the kingdom of God. The place and the rites of the temple were identical with acceptable worship; outward observances and a mere logical development, became substitutes for spiritual apprehension of the truth, for love and devotedness. Thus as the form was being more and more cultivated, to the neglect of the spirit, it appeared also more and more precious, and its final destruction, by an overthrow of the Jewish commonwealth, seemed almost impossible. Nor were the expectations entertained about that time of the sudden appearance of a Messiah, who, long hid, would suddenly come forth to deliver his people from the enemies which threatened them, without their effect on the minds of the people. Though the life and death of the blessed Saviour had too lately taken place for the leaders of the people lightly to risk the safety of the Synagogue, by bringing Messianic views prominently forward, as they did at an after period in the war under Bar-Cochba, in order to inflame the zeal of their followers, such considerations must no doubt have had some influence. At times these hopes seemed about to be realised. More than once did the balance tremble in favour of the Jews — the Roman generals were in imminent danger — the Roman engines destroyed — the Jews successful — the legions panic-struck or dispirited. Yet the sceptre passed finally and irrevocably from Judah, by the same hand which had at first placed it there. Calculating merely the probabilities of the case, we would say that the war was begun at a most favourable time; and that notwithstanding the various mistakes and disadvantages of the Jews, had there not been treason in the Jewish camp, or had there not been factions and bloody revenge amongst themselves, or had their eastern allies made a diversion in their favour, they would have obtained the object of their desires, or at least have had a greater measure of success in their defence. But true it is that 'the history of the world is the judgement of the world' —

"About the same time that the Jewish war terminated, Rome attained the climax of her grandeur. Hostile movements had taken place in other provinces, but these had now been suppressed, and Vespasian opened once again the temple of peace. But this prosperity was of short duration. We do not mean to connect the destruction of Jerusalem and the decline of Rome's Empire as cause and effect; but it is certain that the former immediately preceded the latter event. The insurrections in the northern parts of the empire were only quelled for a time, the fire still smouldered under the ashes — it speedily burst forth anew, and destroyed that mighty engine with which the Lord had, in fulfilment of prophecy, punished his people. So it has ever been: the rod of his vengeance, after having served its purpose, has always been speedily broken in pieces." (pp. 42-47.)