Kokhba

Kokhba is the Hebrew word for star and is used as a given name. The most notable bearer of the name is Bar Kokhba, the leader of the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in Judea from 132 to 136 CE. Bar Kokhba’s birth name was Simon ben Kosiba, and the epithet Bar Kokhba, meaning “son of the star,” was adopted by his followers, signaling messianic expectations during the revolt.

The revolt began after the Roman emperor Hadrian moved to rebuild Jerusalem as a pagan city named Aelia Capitolina and to suppress Jewish religious practices. Beginning in 132 CE, Jewish rebels under Bar Kokhba established a substantial, though short-lived, independent leadership in parts of Judea and Galilee. They minted coins and controlled several settlements, with Betar serving as a major stronghold. The Roman response, led by generals including Julius Severus, gradually crushed the rebellion. By 136 CE, the revolt was suppressed and Bar Kokhba died in battle; the conflict incurred heavy casualties and widespread devastation among the Jewish population.

In the aftermath, Roman policy significantly altered the region’s demographics and to some extent its political language. Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina, and large-scale expulsions and reprisals followed. The revolt left a lasting mark on Jewish memory and Rabbinic literature, symbolizing both national aspiration and vulnerability under imperial rule. Modern usage of Kokhba persists in Hebrew as a personal name or epithet, with Bar Kokhba remaining the best-known historical reference to the term. The Bar Kokhba revolt is widely studied as a major, though costly, episode in Jewish–Roman history.