Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews

Now because in the business of this Barchosba they met with a sore disappointment § 6 ⟨p. 126⟩that turned the stream of their imaginations and expectations for a long season, it may not be amiss, to give in our passage, a brief account concerning him, and the things which befell them in those days. Some of the Jews affirm that there were two of that name, both Heads of Sedition amongst them. One of these they place under Domitian, and the other who was his Grandchild under the Reign of Trajan and Hadrian. So do the Authors of Schalschelet Hakabala, and of Tzemach David. But the Stories of those times with the condition of the Jews under Domitian will allow no other place unto the former, but in their own imaginations. The latter was well known in the world, and hath left himself a Name, such as it is, in the Writings of Christians, and the Histories of the Romans. For Hadrian the Emperor provoked by seditious Tumult and Rebellion of the Jews in the second year of his Reign, which he suppressed •y M•rtius Turbo, as Dio, Eusebius, and Orosius declare, drove them from Jerusalem, and built a Temple to Jupiter in the place where the Old Temple stood. This proved a great provocation to the Jews all the world over; yea, turned them into rage and madness. And they were in those days exceedingly prone unto Tumults and Uproars, as being poor and needy, not having as yet given themselves to scrape wealth together, the love whereof, hath been the great means of keeping them in quietness in succeeding, Ages. In this condition Barcosba shows himself amongst them, pretending that he was their Messiah, as they confess in the Talm. Tract. Saned. Dist. Cheleck. He reigned, th•y say, three years and an half, a fatal period of time; and [Greek or Hebrew]; he said to the Rabbins I am the Messiah. Immediately one of their famous Masters, whose memory they yet much Reverence, Rabbi Akiba became his Armour-bearer; and so far his Trumpeter also, as to proclaim him to be their King Messiah. For this is their way; when they get a false Messiah, they have also a false Prophet to usher him in, or to set him off unto the People. And this Akriba, as Maimonides informs us, [Greek or Hebrew], was a great Wise Man, and one of the Wise Men of the Mishnae, as his sayings in it manifest;

Now because in the business of this Barchosba they met with a sore disappointment § 6