Jews and non-Christian Jews. According to Patristic sources, Christians were persecuted by Simon ben Kosiba, who evidently had been dubbed ‘bar kokhba’ (Aramaic for ‘son of the star’). Justin Martyr, a contemporary of Simon, relates that the Jews ‘count us foes and enemies; and, like yourselves, they kill and punish us whenever they have the power, as you can well believe. For in the Jewish war which lately raged, Bar Kokhba, the leader of the revolt of the Jews, gave orders that Christians alone