Revelation and Bar Kochba

REVELATION AND BAR KOCHBA:


Revelation fascinates people. The graphic, apocalyptic visions grip one's imagination. New commentaries appear every year. Some capture wide attention. Most disagree with prior commentaries.

Fascinated myself, I read the more popular commentaries. The different interpretations surprised me. I then read many more interpretations and read biblical scholars' theories of Revelation's origin.

Some scholars present a convincing case that John the Baptist composed chapters four through eleven (See Bibliography for D'Aragon, & for Ford, p. 3). These chapters, according to the scholars, were the Baptist's announcement of the Messiah, the Baptist's explanation of whom and what the Messiah is, and what will happen to the Baptist's listeners should they not believe and oppose the Messiah.

Later, a disciple of the Baptist, who had already become Christian, revised John's text and added more visions, particularly the seven signs: the woman giving birth, the sea beast, the land beast, etc. (Ford, p. 3). He made these additions as the unbelieving Judeans persecuted Christians and defied Roman occupation. The unbelieving Judeans then attacked Roman troops in A.D. 66. The resulting four-year war destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.

Twenty-six years later, John the Evangelist, a former disciple of John the Baptist, rearranged the text and added more visions, including chapters one through three (ibid.). The Evangelist's revision is the text we have today. People think the Evangelist composed the entire text in A.D. 96, twenty-six years after Jerusalem's destruction. If true, then no wonder so many commentaries project the visions to future times. However, if the Baptist composed most visions while Christ walked the earth, then, perhaps, these visions apply to first and second-century Judea as the Judeans choose or reject, accept or oppose, Christ's mission as the promised Messiah.

I studied first and second-century historical events to see if any of these events could match the early visions. I believe I found a good match. One thing that struck me is that most commentaries assume Judea fell in A.D. 70 when Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. Josephus (Cornfield & Josephus) described this war in great detail. Abundant historical detail by Josephus and other contemporary historians (Tacitus & Suetonius) makes this war well known.

However, Judea survived this war. The Judeans rebuilt their nation, except Jerusalem and the Temple, and continued as a nation until A.D. 131-5, when Bar Kochba led them, once again, into full-scale war against Roman occupation. No eyewitness accounts accompany Bar Kochba's war, only scattered allusions from folklore and later writers (Esuebius) and, recently, Yiegal Yadin's archaeological discoveries (Yadin).

Most commentaries do not mention this war, so important and so relevant to Judea's demise. My investigation convinced me this war, plus the earlier war, were both prophesied by Revelation. Revelation really did announce the Messiah, describe who and what he is, describe his mission, and describe what the unbelieving Judeans would experience if they reject the Messiah and oppose his mission.

Revelation applies primarily to first and second-century Judea and not to the twentieth-first century. The people who first heard these visions are the people to whom the visions were addressed. After all, Revelation twice stated that these events would happen soon (Rev 1:1 & 22:6). What happened to first and second-century Judeans who opposed Christ probably will happen to the Gentile nations when Christ returns, if the Gentile nations also oppose him. However, this does not diminish Revelation's primary application to first and second-century Judea.

Since so little historical detail survived Bar Kochba's war, and so few commentaries even mention this war, I felt an article describing everything I discovered would make interesting reading. Jerusalem's destruction in A.D. 70, as I previously mentioned, is well known because Josephus, an eyewitness, so graphically described it. Sixty-five years later, Judea suffered a far worse defeat, but, as I mentioned, no eyewitness left a detailed account describing it. This second defeat destroyed Judea, scattered the survivors and brought in foreign peoples, effectively denying Judeans any voice in Palestine. For seventeen centuries, a few thousand Jews, only 10,500 in A.D. 1856, resided in their ancestral homeland (Harel, p. 147).

History first mentions Bar Kochba in A.D. 128 when he consolidated all Judean resistance groups and transformed them into a formidable army. Roman harshness, at that time, embittered the Judeans. Rome's execution of two influential Judeans patriots, Ishmael and Simon, gave Bar Kochba the opportunity to encourage one unified resistance group powerful enough to defeat the Romans.

These years were turmoil for the Judeans. Their relationship with Rome had been particularly bitter because Rome had already destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem. The Judeans wanted the Temple rebuilt. The Roman emperor Hadrian wanted a temple to Jupiter rather than perpetuate the Judean religion. The Judeans would do anything to prevent such a desecration of the Temple site.

Fifty-eight years after Jerusalem's fall, Judean patriots, in many separate militia groups attacked the Roman tenth legion occupying Judea. Bar Kochba lead one group. Each group inflicted casualties on the tenth legion. No group could defeat the legion. Ishmael's and Simon's execution convinced the separate militia groups that they should unite. Bar Kochba's charisma and past successes made him the most acceptable leader.

Bar Kochba spent A.D. 129 organizing the individual military groups into a well-disciplined, unified army. The following year, his new army attacked and defeated troops from the tenth legion. This earned Bar Kochba considerable fame and popularity. By A.D. 130, many Judeans viewed him as a second Maccabeus, the popular hero who, three centuries earlier, had liberated Judea from the Greek Empire. Rumor had Bar Kochba a descendant of the Maccabeans. His ancestry could be traced to King David. Some even thought he was the promised Messiah (Finklestein, p. 269).

Unlike the earlier war, where rival strife divided the Judeans, almost all Judeans united under Bar Kochba. This brings to mind Christ's words, "I am come in the name of my father, and you receive me not: If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive (John 5:43). By 131, Bar Kochba's fame and influence reached throughout Palestine. Since the tenth legion could no longer control Judea, Rome replaced the tenth legion with the renowned sixth legion "Ironsides" (Klein, Israel: Land of the Jews, p. 101).

Bar Kochba placed his administration headquarters in Ein Gedi, twenty-five miles south of Jerusalem near the Dead Sea's west shore. He ordered coins bearing the words: "Year one of the redemption of Israel" (Yadin, p. 213). By this time, his army had grown to 400,000 fighting men (Klein, Israel: Land of the Jews, p. 101). His men stockpiled all the provisions they could find. They also prepared emergency shelters and food storehouses in remote areas near Ein Gedi. Many were in natural caves high on Wadi Murabba'at's steep cliffs safe from Roman ambush. David hid from Saul in some of these caves (1 Sam. 24:1-7).

Bar Kochba's men also prepared forts and strongholds throughout Palestine and dug underground tunnels affording advantage when the fighting begins. Insuring that they would have sufficient weapons, they asked Judean craftsmen who produced weapons for the Roman army to deliberately make flawed weapons. They hoped the Romans would return the weapons for repair, so that, when Bar Kochba attacks, many Roman weapons will be in Judean hands.

Bar Kochba planned the offensive for fall, 132, after the harvest. October, 132, they attacked the sixth legion near the site of the present large Israeli airport at Lydda, Lod in ancient times (Klein, Israel: Land of the Jews, p. 101). Bar Kochba easily defeated the sixth legion. The twenty-second legion rushed in to crush the revolt. Bar Kochba annihilated it. Within a few months, Bar Kochba's forces liberated, not only Jerusalem and Judea, but almost the entire area King David once ruled.

No one passed down a description of what Bar Kochba looked like. Rumor had him a very powerful man who could induce fear into battle hardened Roman soldiers (Klein, Temple Beyond Time, p. 118). Somehow, he could kick back, using his knees, the Roman stone ballistae flung at him. He killed several Roman soldiers doing this (ibid. & Yadin, p. 255).

Being brave himself, he insisted that his men be brave. They each endured an amputated finger displaying their bravery. As many as 400,000 men lost a finger proving their loyalty (ibid.).



Copyright 1986
Maurice A. Williams


NOTE. This is the first half of a finished article that is available for immediate submission. All subject matter is condensed and rewritten from my book "Revelation and the Fall of Judea," ISBN 1-4010-6804-9, available from Xlibris this December. Endnotes reveal my sources. I can omit the endnotes.

For more information about my book and my other writings, please visit my personal website at www.geocities.com/mauricewms2003.