Zealotry
Zealotry (with an
upper case "Z") was a movement in first century
Judaism, described by Josephus as one of the "four sects" at this time. The term
Zealot, in Hebrew
kanai, means one who is
jealous on behalf of God. The term is Greek in origin. The
lower case form in modern English is used to refer to any form of
zeal, especially in cases where
activism and ambition in relation to
ideology have become excessive, possibly to the point of being harmful to others, oneself, and one's own cause. A zealous person is called a
zealot. In non-political or non-religious terms,
zeal is an ordinary word and simply means extreme enthusiasm and passion for a particular activity.
Zealotism denotes zeal in excess, usually on behalf of Israel's God. The original Zealots were a political movement in the
1st century AD which sought to incite the people of
Iudaea Province to rebel against the
Roman Empire and expel it from the country by force of arms during the
Great Jewish Revolt (AD
66-
70). When the Romans introduced the
imperial cult, the Jews had rebelled and been put down. The Zealots continued to oppose the Romans, on the grounds that
Israel belonged only to a Jewish king descended from
David, see
Jewish Messiah.
Josephus'
Jewish Antiquities book 18 states that there were three main Jewish sects at this time, the
Pharisees, the
Sadducees, and the
Essenes. The Zealots were a "fourth sect", founded by
Judas of Galilee (also called Judas of Gamala) and
Zadok the Pharisee in the year 6 against
Quirinius' tax reform, shortly after the Roman state declared what had most recently been the territory of the tribe of Judah a Roman Province, and that they "agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions; but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord." (18.1.6) According to the
Jewish Encyclopedia article on
Zealots[
1]: "Following Josephus ("B. J." ii. 8, § 1; "Ant." xviii. 1, §§ 1, 6), most writers consider that the Zealots were a so-called fourth party founded by Judas the Galilean (see Grätz, "Gesch." iii. 252, 259; Schürer, "Gesch." 1st ed., i. 3, 486). This view is contradicted, however, by the fact that Hezekiah, the father of Judas the Galilean, had an organized band of so-called "robbers" which made war against the
Idumean Herod ("B. J." i. 10, § 5; "Ant." xiv. 9, § 2), and also by the fact that the system of religious and political murders practised by the Zealots was in existence during the reign of Herod, if not long before (see below)." In either case, it has been argued that the group was not so clearly marked out (before the first war of 66-70/3) as some have thought (see Richard Horsley's "Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs" and Tom Wright's "The New Testament and the People of God").
The Zealots had the leading role in the Jewish Revolt of
66. They succeeded in taking over
Jerusalem, and kept control of it until
70, when the son of Roman emperor
Vespasian,
Titus Flavius, retook the city and destroyed
Herod's Temple during the
destruction of Jerusalem.
The Zealots objected to Roman rulership and sought to violently eradicate it; Zealots engaged in violence were called the
Sicarii. They raided Jewish habitations and killed Jews they considered collaborators, they also urged Jews to fight Romans and other Jews for their religiopolitical cause.
Josephus paints a very bleak picture of their activities as they instituted what he characterized as a murderous "reign of terror" prior to the Jewish Temple's destruction.
According to
Josephus, the Zealots followed
John of Gischala, who had fought the Romans in
Galilee, escaped, came to Jerusalem, and then inspired the locals to a fanatical position that led to the Temple's destruction.
The Talmud
In the Talmud, the Zealots are also called the
biryonim meaning "boorish" or "wild", and are condemned for their aggression, unwillingness to compromise to save the living survivors of Jerusalem besieged by the Romans, blind-militarism and are blamed for having contributed to the demise of
Jerusalem, the second
Jewish Temple and of ensuring Rome's retributions and stranglehold on Judea.
The Jewish zealots of the late New Testament times advocated killing, stealing, and many other crimes. Zealots were known to commit acts of terrorism against Romans and Jews alike. One Sadducee family in favor of the Romans was brutally murdered by the zealots. After torching the Sadducee house, they captured its occupants and threw them in a pit of poisonous snakes. When the children were almost dead, the zealots took them out of the pit and began beating them. Finally, the children's bodies were ripped apart by the savage zealots. Intestines and blood spilled all over the ground.
Masada
The Zealots took the Roman fortress, Masada, and killed everyone inside. Thousands of Roman soldiers died attempting to re-take the stronghold, and even after inventing new types of siege engines, the Zealots retained control of the fortress. The Romans eventually gave up and burned the walls down. When they stormed in, all they found were corpses. The Zealots had committed suicide rather than continue in servitude. One of their leaders,
Elazar ben Yair escaped to the desert fortress of
Masada and fought alongside the
Sicarii Zealots until Masada was captured in
73. The Jewish Revolt was quickly suppressed and the Zealots lost all their influence and finally vanished.
Sicarii
One particularly extreme group of Zealots was also known in
Latin as
sicarii, meaning "daggermen" (sing.
sicarius, possibly a morphological reanalysis), because of their policy of killing Jews opposed to their call for war against Rome. Probably many Zealots were
sicarii simultaneously, and they may be the
biryonim of the Talmud that were feared even by the Jewish sages of the
Mishnah, such as Rabbi
Yochanan ben Zakai who feared assassination for suggesting a truce with the Roman forces besieging ancient Jerusalem, and had to feign death in a casket to escape being stabbed.
New Testament narratives
The
New Testament was written later but its narrative is set during those times. Some have speculated that the name of
Jesus' disciple Yehuda Ish-Kerayot (
Judas Iscariot) means that he was a
sicarius, "daggerman". However, the Latin and Hebrew words for "zealot" sound very different, so it is hard to conclude definitively. Tax collectors, like
Matthew, were often collaborating with the Romans.
Paul of Tarsus was also known as a zealot of sorts, likely a
Shammaite. (Gal 1:13-14)
In addition to Judas, another of Jesus' apostles,
Simon the Canaanite, is referred to by
Luke as "Simon the Zealot". The epithet for Simon is a Greek translation of an
Aramaic word that corresponds to "zealot".
*
Militant *
Partisan*
Fanaticism*
Intolerance*
Jewish Encylopedia: Zealots
