Translated from the
original by Costas Balomenos
The relief of Bar – Kokhba adorns Knesset (Jewish Parliement)
For entire centuries the Jews were nurtured in the idea that they are the
chosen one people of God, to whom God will send his divine Messiah, to redeem
him from evil and death and so begin a new era for them, but also for all
humanity.
And indeed, when God decided, he sent his Messiah in
the person of Christ Jesus, which the Jews not only did not recognized and did
not accepted, but they proceeded much more, exterminating him by death on the
cross, a crime for which the Jewish authorities pioneered...
Therefore, since the Jews rejected Jesus Christ as
Messiah, they were looking after him for the true Messiah for them, in which
however they had now provided new characteristics. The true Messiah
will
no longer
has spiritual
mission,
but
cosmic.
His main
concern will
be the defeat
of the Roman
conquerors,
the liberation
of the Holy
Land
of Israel
and
the
eternal
sovereignty
of the
Jewish nation
on
all
peoples on
earth. And in the era
of the Roman
Emperor
Hadrian,
they found
him in
the person of the Jew
revolutionist
Simon Bar
But let's take things in order.
After the fall and destruction
of Jerusalem and the Temple
in 70 AD
the
Roman
general and
afterwards
emperor
Titus
and
the
dispersal
of the Jews,
which
followed, they
ceased to be
the dominant
element
of the
population of Palestine kingdom of Agrippa Palestine , in the period 115 and 117
AD,
the Jews
of the
Diaspora rebelled
on a large
scale, mainly
in Libya , Cyrenaica under
someone
Andrea,
in Egypt , Cyprus and
Mesopotamia .
Features events of this expanded insurrection are the
battles between Greeks and Jews, the revolutions against the Romans in the east
and the horrific cruelties, committed by the rebels. Informations and
elements
which have
emerged from
inscriptions
and
books,
mention
that this
revolt
of the Jews
has not been
only
in the
Diaspora, but
occurred
and
in
the country
of Israel Judea to annihilate the revolution,
which
actually
stifled
in blood. The Talmudic
traditions
speak about
meetings
in the
Temple of Jerusalem
‘s Mount,
for
extension
of the
revolt in
Galilee, for
the
destruction of various cities and the execution of leaders Pappus
and
Loulianos,
whose
activity were
extended and
in the
Diaspora (Sifra
-
Leviticus
8:
9
).
When
suppressed
uprising
were
repeated the
religious persecutions.
Even
with
an
unconcealed
act and
profane
for
Jews,
became the idol
installation
in the Temple
Trajan was succeeded
Hadrian
in the
Roman
throne,
who was one
of the
largest philhellenes
emperors,
who when he
came to
power showed
tendencies
to restore
peace
in the
eastern regions of
the empire and
of reconstruction
of these
areas on
a broad scale. It was now clear that
Hadrian
was giving
great importance
to the
national character
of each
region,
the peculiar
prejudices
and
the needs of
these provinces.
From this trend,
the country
of Israel Jerusalem , that would
return
to them, and
that
will allow
the
rebuilding
of the Temple
As a result of
this, the
Jews began
to flock
to Jerusalem
But after a few years, since Hadrian came to
power, his thoughts changed and showed hostile intentions to the Jews. The determination of
the variation of
the Hadrian
incentives
is
difficult
and confusing,
because the
available
sources (for
the writing of
this article) are
conflicting.
We will
quote
and
we will
leave the
reader to draw
his own conclusion:
"Hadrian by varying thoughts, abandoned the plan
of reconstruction
of Jerusalem Israel
It is difficult
the determination of the Hadrian's incentives for the aforementioned alteration
of his plans. Is possible, that was motivated in this alteration from the
heavy impact that had among Jews his promise and the political fears he felt from the restoration of Jerusalem
This was not
directed specific against Judaism, since the prohibition also was applied to
others in the east, which submitted their sons to circumcision. But, for no
other people the circumcision had so much importance. Nor any other people
insisted with so much meticulousness in the need to submit each male child to
circumcision.
Hadrian, who before
becoming Emperor
was governor
of Syria
and
he had been
in contact with
the Jews,
was
certainly
connoisseur of
the importance that
had been for
them these
measures. But to
his decision to recreate
and
reconstitute
the life
in
the Land of Israel
«Hadrian firstly showed
favor
to
the Jews,
later
appeared
hard
to them
at the
instigation of
the Roman priests.
Forbade
them
the circumcision,
the
reading
of Scripture
and
the
observance
of the Sabbath, in
the ruins of
deserted
Jerusalem
reconstructed
a new city
"The reason given by the
action
of Emperor
Hadrian to
ban the circumcision,
or in
accordance with
another
aspect, from
its intention to
rebuild Jerusalem
and
to
change
in
a city
national." (See, The
historical and cultural
situation in
the
appearance of
Christianity, John
D. Galanis,
collective
Volume
History
of Orthodoxy,
the beginnings
of Christianity).
"The causes are certainly not clear,
but,
from
what we know,
this
uprising
provoked
Emperor
Hadrian's decree
to transform
Jerusalem
into
a pagan
city
and
the space
of the
temple in
the temple of Zeus
Finally, whatever were the causes, it is a fact,
which the Jews began to prepare against Rome
The uprising took
national
character and
mentioned
local heroes
and various
messiahs.
But
the one who
stood out
and brought
the fight
to the end
was
Simon
Bar-Kokhba,
whose the provenance
remains
unknown. His name means "son of
the star," but his real name was Var - Kozeva, i.e. "son of
falsehood". In his successes
against the Romans contributed and the support that provided by the revered in
the Jewish nation, the jurist Akiba.
This rabbi succeeded insurrection throughout
Mesopotamia, preaching the coming of the Messiah in the person of Var - Kocheva,
which he named "star of Jacob", who planned - according to Vachaam -
to resurrect "the scepter of Israel Egypt
The enthusiasm of
the Jews for
their
victories
against the
Romans was
great.
It created
the belief
that he had
now started
the new
messianic
era,
which they
were waiting hundreds
of years. The attitude of
the Simon Bar-Kokhba towards Christians - according to the Christian
philosopher and martyr Ioustinos - were hostile and were undergoing harsh
persecution, if not denied Christ: « And
after this, the books remained near the Egyptians until now and they exist
everywhere in all the Jews, who read them, do not understand the words, but
they consider us enemies and opponents, they kill and punish us alike with you,
when they can, as you can persuaded. Because, at the recent Jewish war,
Bar-Kokhba, the leader of the revolution of the Jews, only for Christians
ordered to are subjected to terrible punishments, if they not refuse Jesus
Christ and blasphemed». (1st Apology 31, 5-7)
For subjugation of the Jews, Hadrian sent Ioulios
Severus who was distinguished in Britain Jerusalem
and
besieged Bar-Kokhba
in the
fortified city
Bethar,
where
it was
his
headquarters and
the other commanders
of
Jewish
fighters
and which
was located on the edge
of the ridge,
southwest of Jerusalem Second Temple
After reconstitution of Israel
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. History of the people of Israel until 1880,
Edition
of Central
Jewish Council,
ATHENS
2. Encyclopedia Eleftheroudaki,
Volume 2.
3. Encyclopedia Papyrus
-
Larousse
-
Britannica,
Volume 18.
4. John D. Galani,
"The
historical and cultural
situation at
the occurrence of
Christianity", Collective Volume "History
of Orthodoxy,
the beginnings
of Christianity".
5. Ioustinos,
Apology
first,
Patristic
Publications
“Gregory
Palamas”.
Writer Christos Pal
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