The Next Revolt

After the Romans set fire to the Temple and razed the city of Jerusalem, Judaism changed indelibly.

After the Romans set fire to the Temple and razed the city of Jerusalem, Judaism changed indelibly. But what happened to the land itself? Did it stay the same as it had for centuries? Did its Jewish population still stay in the area?

Hadrian

For a few decades, things in Judea remained quiet. The Jewish population continued to live under Roman rule and acknowledged that any aspirations for independence had been crushed. As one Roman emperor followed another, many of them simply decided to allow Judea to manage its own affairs, with the thought that if the Romans didn’t provoke the Jews, the Jews wouldn’t rebel.

Nevertheless, Hadrian ascended the throne in AD 117. For about 15 years, he left Judea alone. But, sometime in the 130s, he began to change Jerusalem. Cassius Dio, writing about 70 years after the event, described it thus:

Another source, written in the late 300s, states that Hadrian forbade the Jews from practicing circumcision.² As can be expected, at the same time, the Jews of the area also revolted. The leader called himself Simon Bar Kokhba, or by translation from Aramaic, Simon, the son of the star. (This name wasn’t an accident. It found its basis in a messianic prophecy: Numbers 24:17). Rabbi Akiva, one of the major rabbis of the time (and also still highly respected today), threw his support behind the rebellion, not simply because he wanted freedom from Rome, but because he proclaimed Bar Kokhba as the long-awaited Messiah. While the Jerusalem Talmud transliterates some of the names differently from how we spell them today, the quote below gives an idea of what Akiva taught:

Though some rabbis disagreed with him, Akiva was such a powerful force in Rabbinic Judaism that many believed Bar Kokhba would bring God’s salvation to Israel. And, for a time, it appeared as though he might win. He drove out the Romans from the area, established the last independent Jewish kingdom in history, and even minted his own coins, proclaiming the redemption of Jerusalem.

On the Roman side, this war significantly damaged the Roman army. Cassius Dio states that when Hadrian stood before the Senate, the emperor couldn’t bring himself to address them with the customary greeting, “I and the legions are in health,” simply because after fighting the rebellion, they weren’t.⁴

But, as we know, Bar Kokhba wasn’t the Messiah. And thus, his kingdom would not “stand forever.” By AD 136, the Romans had killed both Bar Kokhba and Rabbi Akiva. Akiva’s death, in which he, while being tortured by the Romans, shouted out the words of the Shema, became a touchstone of Jewish history and an action that gave example to many Jews who would suffer at the hands of others. For centuries, many Jews believed their role was not to fight back, but to suffer as Rabbi Akiva, proclaiming their belief in one God––they referred to this sacrifice as kiddush HaShem, or sanctifying the name [of God].

When working with ancient sources, it’s difficult to know exactly what happened, and sometimes to know what happened first. Some historians believe the Jews in the area chose to revolt first. Then, Hadrian began turning Jerusalem into a Roman city and removing all of its Jewishness as a response to the rebellion. Others see the Jewish revolt as a response to Hadrian’s changes. Either way, Jerusalem became a Roman city, and one can walk along Hadrian’s cardo (a main road that ran through the middle of all Roman Cities) in the old city today. Jerome, the Christian monk responsible for the Latin Vulgate translation, describes the carnage of this transformation:

From that point on, while Jews still lived in the area of the former Israel and Judah, they no longer lived in Jerusalem. Slowly, different Jewish groups made their way back to the city, but for centuries, Jerusalem took on a Roman character.

When the Land Became Palestine

Depending on the sources we read, we may hear different narratives about the name “Palestine.” Some people don’t think at all about where it comes from and use the name as a way to give validity to the Palestinians and their quest for statehood. Others argue that Hadrian purposefully changed the name of Judea, which clearly bears a Jewish heritage, to Palestine to spite the Jews.⁶ As is typical, the actual history of the term is more complicated. Palestine is simply the Greek for Philistia, and thus, the name isn’t a reflection of the Palestinians (who are instead named after it), but a reflection of the Philistines, who have not existed since Nebuchadnezzar wiped out Philistia in the late 500s BC

However, even though the Philistines no longer existed in the area, the Greeks continued to refer to that area, including the adjacent Judea, after the Philistines. Herodotus, writing in the 400s, first used the term in his book Histories.⁷ His uses don’t appear to have any political attachment to them; he simply uses the word “Palestine” to reference the general area and describe its geography. Aristotle also did the same thing.⁸ Perhaps what is most fascinating about this history, though, is that as the Romans began to use the Greek term “Palestine,” they continued to do the same thing. Thus, they sometimes called the area Judea, and other times they called it Palestine. Its inhabitants were thus Palestinians. Ovid, the Roman poet famous for his Metamorphoses, wrote this description of the people. Consider what group of people he was referring to:

You may make a beginning on the day on which tearful Allia was stained with the blood of the Latian wounds; on the day, too, when the festival recurs, observed each seventh day by the Syrian of Palestine, a day not suited for the transaction of business.⁹

This quote states that these Palestinians didn’t work on the seventh day! In this way, the Jews were the first group of people called Palestinians, or inhabitants of Palestine. Josephus wrote similarly, describing the Jews as “the Syrians that live in Palestine.”¹⁰ Ultimately, as time passed, the Romans used “Judea” less and less, and instead used “Palestine” more frequently. Many historians attribute this not to Hadrian’s desire to spite the Jews but to Hadrian’s fascination with all things Greek, thus wanting to refer to the area by its Greek name.

Going through ancient sources allows us to understand what really took place at the time. The name change was not some kind of Roman conspiracy against the Jews. Nor is the name one that necessarily advances Palestinian statehood. Historically, it was the Greek way of referring to the territory, and thus, since many of the inhabitants of the area were Jews, Jews were the first to be called Palestinians.

Conclusion

History is complicated, and yet by going back through it, we can peel away layers and better understand a region’s complexity. We can see how populations shifted, and acknowledge how certain choices, like Akiva’s willingness to die for his beliefs, continued to impact later generations. Ultimately, this article focused on the second century and the changes that took place in Judea/Palestine at the time. Those changes laid the foundation for what we see in the region today. As we progress through this series and look more at the nexus between this history and prophecy, we will see the miraculous. At this point, however, the prophecies would have sounded impossible. How could it be that “Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD” (Jeremiah 3:17 ESV) and “Out of Zion shall go forth the law.” (Micah 4:2 ESV)? No Jews even lived in the city at that time. But when has impossible ever stopped God?

Jason Hensley,
Associate Editor