A person who opposed the Roman occupation of Palestine, which began in 63 BCE. The Zealots are typically understood to have been proponents of armed revolt and guerrilla tactics. Luke also uses the term as an epithet for one of Jesus’s disciples, Simon (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13), but this probably reflects an older sense of the word, namely, a person who is devoted to the law or simply “zealous” for God (Num 25:13; 2Kgs 10:16; Acts 22:3).
Luke 6:15
15and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot,
Acts 1:13
13When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew ... View more
Num 25:13
13It shall be for him and for his descendants after him a covenant of perpetual priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the Israe ... View more
2Kgs 10:16
16He said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.” So he had him ride in his chariot.
Acts 22:3
3“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous fo ... View more
