The Zealots (“zealous ones”) were a party of terrorists or freedom-fighters, perhaps founded by Judas the Galilean, who wanted to liberate Judaea from Roman rule by the use of violence. They thought it was sinful to pay taxes to the Roman emperor, because God alone was the true King of Israel. Zealots often acted as assassins, killing those whom they regarded as national enemies. One of Jesus’s twelve apostles, Simon the Canaanite, was (or had been) a Zealot (Luke 6:15).
