Insights on the Bar Kokhba Revolt from the Coins

David M. Jacobson

Insights on the Bar Kokhba Revolt from the Coins

Publication date: 21.10.2022

ELECTRUM, 2022, Volume 29, pp. 171 - 196

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.22.012.15782

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Titles

Insights on the Bar Kokhba Revolt from the Coins

Abstract

Without having any contemporaneous account of the Bar Kokhba Revolt comparable to the writings of Josephus that describe the First Jewish Revolt, our knowledge about many aspects of the later uprising is rather sketchy. The publication of Roman military diplomas and the remarkable series of documents recovered from caves in the Judaean Desert, along with other major archaeological findings, has filled in just some of missing details. This study is devoted to a reexamination of the rebel coinage. It has highlighted the importance of the numismatic evidence in helping to elucidate the religious ideology that succoured the rebellion and shaped its leadership.

Keywords

Bar Kokhba Revolt, Numismatics, Judaea, Hadrian, corona civica, Cassius Dio, Eusebius, Rabbinic literature, Jewish messianism

Abbreviations

BMCRE 22 –H. Mattingly, R. A. G. Carson, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, vol. 2: Vespasian to Domitian (2nd ed.), London: British Museum, 1976.

GBC5 –D. Hendin, Guide to Biblical Coins (5th ed.), Nyack, NY: Amphora, 2010.

DJD 2 –P. Benoit, O. P., J. T. Milik, R. De Vaux, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert II: Les Grottes de Murabba’at, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961.

DJD 18 –J. M. Baumgarten, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XVIII: Qumran Cave 4. XIII: The Damascus Document (4Q266-273), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

RIC 12 –C. H. V. Sutherland, R. A. G. Carson (eds.), The Roman Imperial Coinage, vol. 1: From 31 BC to AD 69 (2nd ed.), London, 1984.

RIC 2.1 –A. Carradice, T. V. Buttrey, The Roman Imperial Coinage, vol. II, part 1: From AD 69 – 96, Vespasian to Domitian (2nd revised ed.), London: Spink and Son, 2007.

TJC –Y. Meshorer, A Treasury of Jewish Coins, Jerusalem/Nyack, NY: Amphora, 2001.

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