Page 123 - Satan in the Sanctuary

/ Will Fill This House with Glory 125

Akiba's painstaking organization " and exposition of
Jewish theology and law, still considered valuable, con-
tinued completely through the rebellion against Hadrian,
and even after the emperor's proclamations against the
teaching of the Jewish law. Akiba proclaimed Bar Kochba
as the Messiah and was allied with him in the revolt.
Several rabbis who continued to teach in spite of the
prohibition were executed, but the honored Akiba, now
ninety-five years old, was jailed.
In jail he continued to teach. His fellow prisoners, and
visitors, if they were allowed, must have heard rare wis-
dom from the aged scholar, whose life span reached al-
most back to Christ.
After three years of this he was tried and convicted.
The ninety-eight-year-old patriarch was executed for
teaching the Jewish law.
The Romans destroyed 985 towns in Palestine and slew
580,000 men, according to the Roman chronicler, Dio
Cassius. Starvation again began to take its toll as agricul-
ture ceased in the face of the advancing legions. The
"Messiah" was killed defending Bethar.
When the Jews gave up the fight, so many were sold as
slaves that their price fell to that of a horse. Civilians lived
the lives of fugitives, hiding in caves and underground
channels. The Romans did a complete mop-up through-
out the little country. Every citizen was regarded as a
combatant.
Archaeologists have recently uncovered evidences in
caves by the Dead Sea that some sought refuge even in
that inhospitable place.
Now Hadrian pounced on the vanquished enemy with
another of those solutions to the "Jewish problem." A
learned student of history, he well knew the recuperative