Zealot

The zealots or zeotas were a political-nationalist movement. They were the most violent faction of Judaism of their time, when they frequently clashed with other factions such as the Pharisees or Sadducees. The word Zeota has become synonymous in several languages with intransigence, fanaticism or militant radicalism.

Some historians consider them to be one of the first terrorist groups in history since they used the murder of civilians who they believed were collaborating with the Roman government to dissuade others from doing the same. Within the Zealot movement, a radicalized faction known as the hitmen, was distinguished by its particular virulence and sectarianism.

Their objective was a Judea independent of the Roman Empire through armed struggle as happened in the first Jewish-Roman war of 66-73 during which they controlled Jerusalem until the city was taken by the Romans, who destroyed the Temple., and three years later they occupied the fortress of Masada, the last Zealot refuge, after the suicide of its defenders.

Etymology

The term "zeota", in Hebrew kanai (קנאי, frequently used in its plural form, קנאים kana'im), means someone who zeals for Yahweh. The term derives from the Greek ζηλωτής (zealots), "emulator, jealous, admirer or follower".

Jesus and the Zealots

Robert Eisler believed he discovered a link between nascent Christianity and the Zealots, fanatical nationalists. This author sees a message in the initial Christian that would correspond to that of a political messianism aimed at establishing the reign of Jesus, if necessary, in an Israel free of Romans and idolaters. This same point of view is held by Brandon.

The only thing we know with greater certainty is that the world in which Jesus lived was strongly imbued with a zealot spirit, but according to Cullmann, Jesus himself must have constantly taken a stand against that advance of Jewish nationalism against the Romans, disavowing it.

The Zealots in the Gospels

Judas the Galilean is mentioned as one of its most relevant leaders and remembered for his actions at the time of the first census in Judea, as contained in the Acts of the Apostles. In the New Testament the chapter in the that the freedom of Barabbas, who could be a imprisoned zealot leader, according to Matthew and Luke had killed a man in a revolt and that is why Barabbas is considered (although it is not known with certainty) that he was a zealot, is preferred by a crowd to that of Jesus of Nazareth, testifying to the popularity of said movement in his time.

One of Jesus' disciples, chosen by him as an apostle, possibly came from this movement, since he is unequivocally designated as John Simon the Zealot in the Gospel of Saint Luke. This translation he makes Luke, ζηλωτην zelotei, contrasts with the Greek transcription καναναιον, kananaion, of Mark and καναναιος kananaios, of Matthew, which obviously refer to the Hebrew qanaim or the Aramaic kanan. However, it has been speculated without any evidence that Judas Iscariot was 'Judas the hitman'. However, in the Galilean Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ, an Ethiopian apocryphal gospel, Judas is mentioned as a Zealot (chapter II, verse 12) and is recognized as the son of Simon the Canaanite or the Canaite. The name Iscariot would be nothing more than an appellation derived from ish-kraioth (man of the sica, the fearsome curved dagger of the assassins).