Facts about the "Hebrew Primacy" movement

[Dawid]

Hey Akhi Dawid,

Christa, would you mind explaining the Bar Kochba letters to me, and how they came to be written in Hebrew?

How come Rabbi Akiva renamed him from his original name, Shimon ben-Kosba, to "bar-Kochba" (Aramaic for "Son of a Star") ?

I mean, why not the nice Hebrew name "Ben-Kochba?"

Wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that if he had been named "ibn-Kochba" or "bin-Kochba", we might have reason to suspect that someone spoke Arabic primarily? <!-- s:biggrin: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/biggrin.gif" alt=":biggrin:" title="Big Grin" /><!-- s:biggrin: -->

That is true. I do not suggest that Hebrew was the primary or the only language of 1st-2nd century Israel. I simply think that is was more widely spoken than we have been lead to believe. Siloam, the Bar-Kochba (which, unless I'm mistaken, it was not unusual to see "bar" and even "ibn" in Hebrew rabbinic literature after the first exile) letters, and the 2nd century contracts found in wadi Murabba'at, indicate that there was a Hebrew revival, and that both it and Aramaic were spoken among the people of Israel during the Second Temple period.
I also think we should look for a different explanation of ben-kosba and bar-kochba than the traditional one. For instance, Allegro's hypothesis that both kochba and kozeba are merely a kind of nick name based on his actual name of ben-koseba. If his name were really changed, then why was he still signing letters as "Simon ben Koseba" in 134 C.E.? I think the name Bar Kochba must be attributed mainly to tradition.
Allegro also points out, "It will have been noticed that the letters written to the military post at Murabba'at were written in Hebrew, as were some of the contracts. This hardly accords with the oft-expressed view that long before this Hebrew had become a dead language." These letters were too practical to have been written in Hebrew merely for the sake of nationalistic zeal, and too important to have risked the recipient misunderstanding them by writing them in a language with which he is only somewhat familiar.
I also do not find any mention in Allegro of some of them being in Aramaic. Would you mind pointing me to your source, please?