An "independent magazine of culture" is promoting a Bar Kochba revisionism. In AD 131, Jews in the Legions mutinied. They then attracted support in Judaea. Haggai Olshanetsky argues that Bar Kosiba, later calling himself Bar Kochba, manoevred his way as the movement's messiah.
That smells to me like modern revolutions: the rebellion suffers disorder, and when it's not quelled in time a strongman steps forward. Iran teaches us that the strongman might not agree with the ideals of the initial rebellion; he might even arguably be a heretic.
I suspect that Rabbi ʿAqiba (pronounced "Okeeva") was the hand behind Bar Kosiba's messianism. Mishnaic caliphate let's goooo!
I think fair that, when the rebellion finally failed, Jew and Christian agreed that someone should take the blame, and he may as well be the putz who lost the thing. The pagan Romans meanwhile kept better records, Cassius Dio being decent as their historians go. You will search in vain for a "Barcochbas" or "Cochbaïdes" or whatever in a saecular history.
BACKDATE 12/17
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