Bar Kokhba’s War

When the revolt of the Jews again grew great and widespread, Rufus, the governor of Judea, was sent military reinforcements by the emperor. He went out against them, exploiting their mad folly without mercy. He destroyed tens of thousands of men, women and children together, and by the law of war he enslaved the people of their lands. [a] The Jews’ commander at that time was a man named Bar Kokhba, a name that means “star.” In other respects he was a murderous man and a robber, but on the strength of his name he played the wonder-worker to them, as to slaves, claiming to be a light come down to them from heaven to shine upon them in their misery. [b]

The war reached its height in the eighteenth year of the reign, at Betar, a small and very strongly fortified town not far from Jerusalem. The siege from outside lasted a long time, until hunger and thirst had driven the rebels to the last extremity of ruin, and the man responsible for their madness had paid the penalty he deserved. From that time the whole nation was barred from setting foot at all even in the country around Jerusalem, by the decree of a law and by the orders of Hadrian, who commanded that they should not see their ancestral soil even from a distance. So Aristo of Pella relates. [c] So the city was emptied of the Jewish nation, and its ancient inhabitants were utterly destroyed. It was resettled by a foreign people, and the Roman city that arose afterward changed its name and is called Aelia, in honor of the reigning emperor, Aelius Hadrian. And since the church there was now made up of Gentiles, the first to be entrusted with the ministry there after the bishops of the circumcision was Marcus. [e]