Discerned from Klauck, (2006) Ancient Letters and the New Testament: A Guide to Context and Exegesis, pp. 289-96.
In 1952 some texts were found in Wadi Murabbaat, on the western side of the Dead Sea, between Qumran and En Gedi; and in 1960–1961 more were found in Nahal Hever in the so-called "Cave of Letters," further to the south in between En Gedi and Masada.
These texts included about 22 letters: 7 found at Wadi Murabbaat, all written in Hebrew; and 15 found at Nahal Hever: 4 in Hebrew, 8 in Aramaic, 2 written in Greek and 1 of uncertain language. Most were written on papyrus, but one is on a wooden tablet and one on a potsherd.
They include letters attributed to Shimon ben Kosiba/Kokhba. Most were apparently dictated to various scribes, but one of the Wadi Murabbaat letters seems to have been written by Bar Kokhba himself: 'Pap.Mur. 43':
a or "to the men of your company" or "to the men of the fortress"
b thought to be invoking Deuteronomy 4:46
Another letter of Bar Kokhba, Pap.Mur.44, is to the same addressee, i.e., to Yeshua ben Ga[l]gula who is asked to be the middle-man for a shipment of wheat, to offer hospitality to the men he has sent for it, and to let them spend the sabbath with him. It closes with, "Be at peace" [in Hebrew].
One of the letters found at Nahal Hever is an Aramaic letter written on wood, 5/6 HevEp 1. Its prescript runs similarly to a coin legend: “Simeon, son of Kosiba, the ruler (nasi) over Israel, to Jonathan and Masabbala, peace (shalom)!” (Fitzmyer and Harrington 158–59). The content of this letter includes orders for the arrest of a certain person identified by the name of 'Jesus',c son of the Palmyrene. Beyer, Ergänzungsband, 213–14, determined it also included instructions for receiving a certain amount of wheat in lines 3–8.
c I presume the name would be the Aramaic, 'Yeshua'
In 1952 some texts were found in Wadi Murabbaat, on the western side of the Dead Sea, between Qumran and En Gedi; and in 1960–1961 more were found in Nahal Hever in the so-called "Cave of Letters," further to the south in between En Gedi and Masada.
These texts included about 22 letters: 7 found at Wadi Murabbaat, all written in Hebrew; and 15 found at Nahal Hever: 4 in Hebrew, 8 in Aramaic, 2 written in Greek and 1 of uncertain language. Most were written on papyrus, but one is on a wooden tablet and one on a potsherd.
They include letters attributed to Shimon ben Kosiba/Kokhba. Most were apparently dictated to various scribes, but one of the Wadi Murabbaat letters seems to have been written by Bar Kokhba himself: 'Pap.Mur. 43':
.
From Shimon ben Kosiba to Yeshua ben Ga[l]gula & to the men of Ha-Baruk:a
. Greetin[gs] (Shalom). I swear by the heavens:b
. Should harm co[me] to any one of the Galileans
.. who are with you {+/- in the desert}, I’ll put your feet
... in fetters as I di[d]
... to ben Aflul.
. [Sh]imon be[n Kosiba, writer.]
.
From Shimon ben Kosiba to Yeshua ben Ga[l]gula & to the men of Ha-Baruk:a
. Greetin[gs] (Shalom). I swear by the heavens:b
. Should harm co[me] to any one of the Galileans
.. who are with you {+/- in the desert}, I’ll put your feet
... in fetters as I di[d]
... to ben Aflul.
. [Sh]imon be[n Kosiba, writer.]
.
a or "to the men of your company" or "to the men of the fortress"
b thought to be invoking Deuteronomy 4:46
Another letter of Bar Kokhba, Pap.Mur.44, is to the same addressee, i.e., to Yeshua ben Ga[l]gula who is asked to be the middle-man for a shipment of wheat, to offer hospitality to the men he has sent for it, and to let them spend the sabbath with him. It closes with, "Be at peace" [in Hebrew].
One of the letters found at Nahal Hever is an Aramaic letter written on wood, 5/6 HevEp 1. Its prescript runs similarly to a coin legend: “Simeon, son of Kosiba, the ruler (nasi) over Israel, to Jonathan and Masabbala, peace (shalom)!” (Fitzmyer and Harrington 158–59). The content of this letter includes orders for the arrest of a certain person identified by the name of 'Jesus',c son of the Palmyrene. Beyer, Ergänzungsband, 213–14, determined it also included instructions for receiving a certain amount of wheat in lines 3–8.
c I presume the name would be the Aramaic, 'Yeshua'
Klauck notes, p.297,
Of the other Aramaic letters on papyrus, the well-preserved Bar Kokhba letter 5/6HevEp 15 merits special attention because of its content (trans. M. O. Wise in ABD 1:604; see also Fitzmyer and Harrington 162–63; Beyer, Texte (1984) 352):
Shimon to Yehuda bar Menasseh, at Qiryat Arabaya. I have sent to you two donkeys that you should send with them two men to Yehonatan bar Ba‘yan and Masabala. They are to load them with [palm] branches and citrons and send them to the camp, to you. As for you, send other men to bring to you myrtles and willows. Prepare them (= tithe them?) and send them to the camp (i.e., to Shimon) because the men comprising the forces are numerous. Be well ( ... ... ).
This time Bar Kokhba uses only his forename and dispenses with an introductory greeting (like 3 John). The addressee is his local commander Yehuda (Judah) bar Menasseh, who is to send two of his men to Yehonatan (Jonathan) and Masabala, to whom the wooden letter 5/6 HevEp 1 is also addressed. Yehuda the addressee lives in Qiryat Arabaya, which may mean “city of the willows.” Request is made for the “four kinds,” namely the palm branches, citrons, myrtle branches, and willow boughs needed for the celebration of the festival of booths in Bar Kokhba’s camp, perhaps located in the Herodion or in Bethar.
As Wise suggests in his text above, their “preparation” may involve the setting aside of the tithe (at least for the citrons) so that all the requirements of the law may be fulfilled. The request for the items needed for the celebration is necessary because of the great number of fighters with Bar Kokhba, and the fact that the Greek letter 5/6HevEp 3 (Lifshitz 241) also asks for citrons suggests that this may be a second request.
This letter breathes a concern for details and a traditional piety that desires to celebrate the great pilgrimage festival in the proper manner even in the hardest circumstances. The images of palm branches and citrons on the Bar Kokhba coins reflect the same attitude.
The function of the concluding Greek greeting ἐρρωσθε is accomplished in this Aramaic Bar Kokhba letter with the help of shalom, just as shalom is used in the salutation in other Bar Kokhba letters (see above on Pap.Mur. 43). The two Greek Bar Kokhba letters, 5/6HevEp 3 and 6, follow the expected pattern with χαίριεν in the prescript and ἐρρωσο as the closing greeting.
Two other letters from Nahal Hever show that the rebels apparently addressed each other as “brothers.” In the Greek letter 5/6 HevEp 6 (Lifshitz 248) the addressee Jonathan is twice addressed as “brother,” in the opening greeting and in the closing formula, presumably without being a physical brother of the sender Ananos. This sense is also clear in Bar Kokhba’s sharp denouncement of the men of En Gedi in the Hebrew letter 5/6HevEp 12 (Pardee 142–43): “Well off you are—eating and drinking from the goods of Beth-Israel and not giving a thought to your brothers.”
From an epistolographical standpoint the letters from the Bar Kokhba period are important because they help us trace letter practices and conventions in their historical development and relative constancy ... On the whole the Bar Kokhba letters document that “the convergence of letter-forms was towards Greek practice”.30
30 P. S. Alexander, “Epistolary Literature” (Bib. 3) 592
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