ZEALOTS The Zealots believe that the Bible is the inerrant and inspired Word of God.

It is the sole basis of our practice and is totally sufficient for every area of our faith. We have chosen to follow the example for our outreach as found in Titus 2:14, "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works."
ZEALOTS REVOLT AGAINST ROMANS

Zealots

Jewish faction traced back to the revolt of the Maccabees. The name was first

recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus as a designation for the Jewish resistance fighters of the war. This term applied to them because of their fervent veneration of the Torah and repulsion of nonJews and Jews lacking in religious fervor. The Zealots were organized as a party during the reign of Herod the Great, whose idolatrous practices they resisted. Later when Cyrenius, the Roman governor of Syria, attempted to take a census under Judas of Galilee and the priest Zadok, arose in revolt against what they considered a plot to conquer the Jews. Thereafter the Zealots expressed their opposition by unusual revolts and by violence against Jews who agreed to Roman ways. The Zealots played a role in the unsuccessful revolt in which the Temple was destroyed by the Romans. The Zealot garrison at Masada, a mountaintop fortress near the Dead Sea, was captured by the Romans only after its 900 defenders had committed mass suicide rather than be captured. Zealous defenders of the Law and of the national life of the Jewish people; name of a party opposing any attempt to bring Judea under the dominion of idolatrous Rome, and especially of the aggressive and fanatical war party from the time of Herod until the fall of Jerusalem and Masada. The members of this party bore also the name Sicarii, from their custom of going about with daggers hidden beneath their cloaks, with which they would stab any one, found committing a sacrilegious act or anything provoking anti-Jewish feeling.

The original Zealots were members of a Jewish sect that at first just refused to pay tribute to the pagan Romans who then occupied the land of Israel declaring that God was their only King. This eventually however escalated to violence and assassination against the Romans, and anyone else, including other Jews, who cooperated with the Romans. The overwhelming power of the Roman military caused their rebellion to fail, after which they became scattered rebels who were also known as Sicarii ("dagger men"), from their deadly use of the sica, a Roman dagger. The Zealots were leading members of the revolt against Rome in 66-70 AD and at Masada they committed suicide rather than surrender to the Roman Tenth Legion.

Passages: "In these days He went out to the mountain to pray; and all night He continued in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom He named apostles; Simon, whom He named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor."

"And when He had said this, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away; and when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers."

HISTORY
Josephus's Jewish Antiquities 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 and Zadok, shortly after the Roman state declared a Roman Province, and that they "agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions; but they have a sacred attachment to liberty, and say that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord." When Rome introduced the imperial cult, the Jews unsuccessfully rebelled in the Great Jewish Revolt. The Zealots continued to oppose the Romans. The Zealots had the leading role in the Jewish Revolt. They succeeded in taking over Jerusalem, and held it, when the son of Roman Emperor Vespasian, Titus, retook the city and destroyed Herod's Temple during the destruction of Jerusalem. The Zealots objected to Roman rule and sought violently to eradicate it; Zealots engaged in violence were called the Sicarii. They raided Jewish habitations and killed Jews they considered collaborators, while also urging Jews to fight Romans and other Jews for the 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. Talmud In the Talmud, the Zealots are also called the Biryonim meaning "boorish" or "wild", and are condemned for their aggression, their unwillingness to compromise to save the survivors of besieged Jerusalem, and their blind-militarism. They are further blamed for having contributed to the demise of Jerusalem and the second Jewish Temple, and of ensuring Rome's recompense and stranglehold on Judea. According to the Babylonian Talmud, the Biryonim destroyed decades worth of food and firewood in besieged Jerusalem to force the Jews to fight the Romans out of desperation.

The Zealots advocated violence against the Romans and their Sadducee Jewish collaborators, raiding for provisions and other activities that aided their cause. Masada After the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple, 960 Zealots took refuge by capturing the Roman fortress of Masada and taking no prisoners. Rome sent the Tenth Legion to retake the stronghold, but it failed for three years. It is estimated that they took over 1,000 casualties in the process. Finally, in the third year of the siege, Rome, gave up on taking the fortress intact and burned down the walls. When the Romans stormed in to capture the Zealots, they found that the fighters and their families had nearly all committed suicide. One of their leaders, Elazar ben Yair escaped to the desert fortress of Masada and fought alongside the Sicarii Zealots until Masada was captured. The Jewish Revolt was suppressed thereafter and the Zealots declined in power and finally faded into history One particularly extreme group of Zealots was also known in Latin as sicarii, meaning "violent men", 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. The term sicarii also referred to a class of gladiators who fought with a long, curved knife. Paul the Apostle Taking the Greek word zelotes in Acts 23:3 and Galatians 1:14 of the New Testament to mean a 'Zealot' with capital Z, an article has been written up to suggest that Paul the Apostle may have been a Zealot, which might have been the driving force behind his persecution of the Christians before his conversion to Christianity. While most of translations render this Greek word as an adjective "zealous", the word is a noun meaning 'adherent, loyalist, enthusiast; patriot, zealot'. A 'Zealot' with capital Z, however, would suggest a member of the particular Zealots, the group emerged in Jerusalem. In the two cited verses Paul simply says himself as one who is loyal to God, or an ardent observer of the Law. This should not lead to suggest Paul revealing himself as a Zealot. A translation (Modern King James Version) renders it as 'a zealous one'.