internal evidence of the revolt: Luke 9:60

Luke 9:60 contains what may be a reference to the devastation of the Roman retaliation to the bar Cochba revolt.  The verse says:

Ειπεν δε αυτω, αφες τους νεκρους θαψαι εαωτων νεκρους  συ δε απελθων διαγγελλε την βασιλειαν θεου

He said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead.  You, having gone forth, bring news of the kingdom of god.

This has been exegeted as a “spiritual” declaration, something like “let the dead in spirit bury their own dead.”  This makes no sense.

It is likely one of the more secure internal evidences we have that the document dates from the bar Cochba revolt. 

A baraita in Masekhet Gittin 57a-b says for seven years after the massacre at Bethar, gentiles fertilized their vinyards with the blood of Israel without using manure.

The baraita should not be taken as history, rather it is a narrative whose aim is to explain the severity of the siege and the extent of the destruction inflicted on the city. 

In light of this, the saying of Luke  9:60 is not just a “spiritual” saying, but a way of incorporating a memorial of that siege into a narrative.