Transcript What We Believe About…

Introduction to the NT World
 The Zealots
 Making sense of the New Testament requires
navigating your way through a maze of different
cultural, religious, political, and economic groups
that existed in first-century Jewish society as well as
in the Roman Empire at large.
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Week 12, 10/26/2011
Gene Wright, [email protected]
Who were the Zealots
Question: How can the people survive?
Answer of the Zealots? By killing everyone who does not follow God.
The zeal of Mattathias for Yahweh and the law led him to resist the
emissaries of Epiphanies and refuse to offer a pagan sacrifice (1
Maccabees 2:24, 26).
Rather than apostasize, Mattathias drew out his sword, killed the King's
Agent, the cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Let every one who is
zealous for the law and supports the Covenant come out with me.”
Mattathias and his sons fled to the mountains, sparking a popular Jewish
revolt. These zealous Jewish freedom fighters achieved considerable
success.
The temple was rededicated to God, and the Jews celebrated their first
Hanukkah. In this way the Maccabean / Hasmonean dynasty had been
purchased in blood.
The Zealots
But the Hasmoneans did not just target the actual pagan
oppressors.
They began killing their fellow Jews who were working with the
occupying forces, calling them renegades.
The attacks on the oppressors were viewed as a religious duty
for God and attacks on Jewish people who were helping them
were viewed in the same light.
There can be little doubt that those who joined Mattathias in
Herem or "Holy War” set the pattern for the eventual
emergence of the Zealots as a distinct party in the First
Century.
The Zealots
The Greek word zelos conveys the notion
of fervent heat. The root word for Zealot
literally means to boil. The English word
zeal comes from the same source.
The image of hot boiling water conveys
fervency and passionate commitment,
whether to God, a person or a cause.
The Zealots
Josephus describes the Zealots as the Fourth Party of the Jews.
The others were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes.
He says that they had a burning passion for “liberty.” They said,
“God was their Ruler, Lord, and King,” and they refused to give
any earthly man the name and title as their King.
They were the most nationalistic of all the Jewish Nation.
Josephus describes the Zealots as men who did not mind dying.
They would slaughter their own loved ones for their country in
their struggle for freedom, if their hopes of victory could be
achieved.
The Zealots and Pharisees believed in the afterlife for the
faithful, especially those who were martyred in the defense of
Yahweh.
The Zealots
The term Zealot in the decades
immediately preceding the destruction of
Jerusalem, applied to the Jewish
revolutionaries who attempted to expel the
Romans and their partisans from the
country.
“Partisans” were those who were friendly
to the Romans.
The Zealots
According to Josephus the Zealots resorted to
violence and assassination in their hatred of the
foreigner. The Zealots were prepared to go the
distance in secret murders and assassinations to
rid their country of all foreign rule.
Josephus indicates the Zealots, were headed by
Judas of Galilee, who “in the days of the
enrollment,” bitterly opposed the threatened
increase of taxation at the census of Quirinius.
(Luke 2:1,2 and Acts 5:37)
The Zealots
Josephus recorded that a different group of bandits
sprang up in Jerusalem, the Sicarii. They appeared a few
years after the middle of the first century, and represented
the extremists of a desperate terrorist movement.
Sicarii comes from the Latin word Sica, which means,
dagger.
Thus, the Sicarii became known as The Dagger Men.
The Sciarii carried out their assassinations with curved
daggers in belts that surrounded their waists, concealed
under their clothing.
The Zealots
During the Jewish assemblies, feasts, festivals, and
especially during the pilgrimage to the Temple mount, the
Sicarii would mingle with the crowd.
When the time was right, they stabbed their victims to death
with military precision in broad daylight.
When the victims fell, the assassins would join in the cries
of indignation. Through this plausible behavior, they easily
avoided discovery. This method of assassinating people in
crowded places before slipping away, caused extreme
anxiety among surrounding onlookers, and struck fear into
their hearts.
The Zealots
During the Jewish assemblies, feasts, festivals, and
especially during the pilgrimage to the Temple mount, the
Sicarii would mingle with the crowd.
When the time was right, they stabbed their victims to death
with military precision in broad daylight.
When the victims fell, the assassins would join in the cries
of indignation. Through this plausible behavior, they easily
avoided discovery. This method of assassinating people in
crowded places before slipping away, caused extreme
anxiety among surrounding onlookers, and struck fear into
their hearts.
The Zealots
The Sicarii were distinguished from the Zealots by primarily
targeting other Jews considered to be collaborators with
Rome.
Ananias the High Priest in was the son of Nebedaeus. He was
nominated to the office by Herod in A.D. 48.
“And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by
him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God is
going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to
judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you
order me to be struck?” (Acts 23:2-4)
He was deposed shortly before Felix left the province and was
assassinated by the Sicarii in a viaduct at the beginning of the
last Jewish war.
The Zealots
“When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound
themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they
had killed Paul. There were more than forty who made
this conspiracy. They went to the chief priests and elders
and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to
taste no food till we have killed Paul. Now therefore you,
along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring
him down to you, as though you were going to determine
his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before
he comes near.” (Acts 23:12-15)
The Sicarii or Zealots? Probably one or the other.
The Zealots
Masada was an ancient mountaintop fortress in Southeast Israel on
the shore of the Dead Sea. It is 1,400 ft high and has an area of
about 18 acres. In A.D. 70, Zealots revolted against Rome.
Survivors fled to this fortress built by Herod. The uprising was
brutally stamped out by the Romans, and ended with Jerusalem’s
destruction.
At Masada it took the Roman army of 15,000 fighting men, two
years to break through and subdue the fortress of a Jewish force of
less than 1,000, including women and children. On the inevitable
day of defeat, 15,000 Roman troops breached Masada’s walls. It
was late in the day, so the Romans delayed the final attack until
dawn. That night the remaining Jewish survivors met and voted for
suicide, rather than enslavement.
The Zealots
Masada was an ancient mountaintop fortress in
Southeast Israel on the shore of the Dead Sea. It is 1,400
feet high and has an area of about 18 acres. In A.D. 70,
Zealots revolted against Rome. Survivors fled to this
fortress built by Herod. The uprising was brutally
stamped out by the Romans, and ended with Jerusalem’s
destruction.
At Masada it took the Roman army of 15,000 fighting men,
two years build a ramp and subdue the fortress of a
Jewish force of less than 1,000, including women and
children. On the inevitable day of defeat, 15,000 Roman
troops breached Masada’s walls. It was late in the day, so
the Romans delayed the final attack until dawn.
Roman siege ramp
Siege camp
“Snake Path”
Masada aerial from south
The Zealots
That night the remaining Jewish survivors met and voted for suicide,
rather than enslavement.
The survivors drew lots and chose 10 men to slay all the rest. Each
man lay down on the ground with his wife and children and embraced
them. Together, they awaited the blow from the men chosen to deliver
it. When the 10 executioners had unflinchingly, completed their task,
they drew lots again to see who would kill the other 9, then, take his
own life.
At dawn, the Romans poured through the breached walls. Fires
burned quietly everywhere. A ghostly stillness hung over the air.
Finally, two women and five small children emerged from a water
conduit to tell the story. “When the Romans saw the mass of slain,
they were unable to take pleasure in the sight, even though the people
were their enemies.” - Josephus
The Zealots
Luke 6:15: “Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alpheus, and
Simon who was called Zelotes.” or, Simon the Zealot.
In the same group, you have Matthew the tax collector. Matthew, collector
of money for the Romans and government who were oppressing the
Jewish people.
One of the miracles of the power of Christ is that Matthew the tax
collector and Simon the Zealot, could live at peace in the close company
of the group of Jesus’ followers.
If Simon had met Matthew anywhere else, other than a follower of Jesus,
it is highly probable that Simon would have killed Matthew.
Whenever you hear the name of Matthew or Simon the Zealot, remember
Romans 1:16 – the power of God unto salvation.