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• But still, Aramaic was heavily used, even amongst those patriotic Zealots. This is perhaps exemplified by the very name of the revolt itself - it is recorded in history as the Bar Kokhba Revolt. This is Aramaic, in the use of the Aramaic bar (for ‘son’) rather than the Hebrew ben, and the Aramaic kokhba (for star), rather than the Hebrew kokhav. In fact, the Talmud records that while at first the Jews had hailed Simon Bar Kokhba as their Messiah at the start of the Revolt, when the revolt decisively failed, his name was changed from Bar Kokhba (“the Son of a Star” in Aramaic) to Bar Koziva (“the Son of a Lie”, also in Aramaic).