Zealot

A member of a Jewish sect noted for its uncompromising opposition to pagan Rome and the polytheism it professed. The Zealots were an aggressive political party whose concern for the national and religious life of the Jewish people led them to despise even Jews who sought peace and conciliation with the Roman authorities. A census of Galilee ordered by Rome in AD 6 spurred the Zealots to rally the populace to noncompliance on the grounds that agreement was an implicit acknowledgment by Jews of the right of pagans to rule their nation.

Extremists among the Zealots turned to terrorism and assassination and became known as Sicarii (Greek sikarioi, "dagger men"). They frequented public places with hidden daggers to strike down persons friendly to Rome. In the first revolt against Rome (ad 66-70) the Zealots played a leading role, and at Masada in 73 they committed suicide rather than surrender the fortress, but they were still a force to be reckoned with in the first part of the following century. A few scholars see a possible relationship between the Zealots and the Jewish religious community mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls. See also Masada.

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Jesus Christ

The Zealots

The involvement of the religiopolitical movement of the Zealots, a revolutionary group, in the historical development of Palestine was disastrous to the nation. No longer contented with the passive resistance of the Pharisees, out of whose ranks they certainly gained many adherents, the Zealots took the ideal of a theocracy and zeal for the Law extremely seriously. The first outbreak of their activities occurred in AD 6, when the Syrian legate Quirinius ordered the population in Judaea to register. This aroused indignation and was the signal for an insurrectionist movement, which confined itself initially to scattered individual acts of revolt but soon expanded, took military form, and finally instigated the First Jewish Revolt (AD 66-70). Biblical and nonbiblical sources name Judas, a Galilean scribe from Gamala, as founder of the Zealots. Like him, other fanatical messianic prophets also found significant followings. In Jesus' time, the conflict had not yet reached its zenith. The Zealots carried out sudden raids on the Roman occupation forces and conducted a guerrilla war from their hiding places in the wilderness. The Romans correspondingly held the land under strict control, reinforced their troops in Jerusalem at the times of the Jewish festivals, when great crowds of pilgrims gathered in the city, and took drastic and ruthless action if they anticipated sedition. This situation illuminates the events leading to Jesus' death. The Zealots' goals were political and, primarily, religious: the realization of a Jewish theocracy, the rule of the promised Messiah, and the destruction of the heathen regime.

The thesis that Jesus belonged to the Zealots or founded a related movement was first advanced in the 18th century and has repeatedly been supported in recent times. The most important point in its favour is Jesus' execution on the cross, a punishment that only the Roman authorities could inflict and did frequently against rebels. There were two others executed in the same manner with Jesus, and they, like Barabbas, who was granted amnesty in Jesus' place (Mark 15:15), are referred to as "robbers" (Mark 15:27), a customary term for rebels at this time. This could indicate that, at that Passover time, when many Jews were in the city, a Zealot revolt had been planned and was bloodily suppressed but also that Jesus had actually been willing to play a leading part in it.

Jesus' messianic entry into Jerusalem and the cleansing of the Temple (Mark 11) are also interpreted along these lines, the latter being understood as an attack on the dominant priestly class that sympathized with the Romans. Some also see a connection with the fact that one of the disciples was carrying a weapon when Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane (Mark 14:47). The later Christian tradition has, it is claimed, for apologetic and theological reasons, altered the true historical state of affairs until it has become unrecognizable. But isolated hints have nonetheless been preserved in it; e.g., Jesus' critical sayings about that "fox" Herod (Luke 13:32) and the violent earthly rulers (Luke 22:25); similarly, the way he attracted Zealots, documented by the fact that among his disciples at least one, called Simon (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13), was a Zealot.

There are, however, no sufficient reasons to support the hypothesis of Jesus belonging to the Zealots. The undeniable fact that he was crucified by the Romans as a political messianic pretender only proves that he was held to be a Zealot and was probably denounced as an enemy of the state, but not that he really was. The most important and decisive argument against the Zealotism assumption is found in Jesus' message of the dawning of the Kingdom of God, which belongs to the best established items in the tradition. It lacks any politico-nationalistic features and expressly says that God alone, and not any human activity, establishes his Kingdom (Mark 4:26-29) and offers his salvation to all without exception. If Jesus were directly or indirectly to be counted among the Zealots, this would mean at the same time that he must have fought to have the Law rigorously carried into effect and must have strictly avoided associating with sinners, especially with the tax collectors, who stood in the service of Rome. In the dialogue on paying tribute to Caesar (Mark 12:13-17), Jesus even expressly rejected rebellion against the Roman emperor, without thereby glorifying his regime.

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[Accessed 12 July 1999].

Judaism

The Roman period (63 BCE-135 CE)

New parties and sects

Under Roman rule a number of new groups, largely political, emerged in Palestine. Their common aim was to seek an independent Jewish state. All were zealous for, and strict in their observance of, the Torah.

The Zealots' party, founded c. 6-9 CE, refused to pay tribute to the Romans and advocated overthrowing them on the ground that they should acknowledge God alone as their master. A priestly, eschatologically oriented resistance movement, the Zealots were particularly dedicated to keeping the Temple and its cult pure and used guerrilla tactics toward that end. The Sicarii (Assassins), so-called because of the dagger (sica) they carried, arose c. 54, according to Josephus, as a group of bandits who kidnapped or murdered those who had found a modus vivendi with the Romans. It was they who made a stand at the fortress of Masada near the Dead Sea, committing suicide rather than be captured by the Romans (73).

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To cite this page:

"Judaism" Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

[Accessed 12 July 1999].