Zealotry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zealotry was a movement in first century Judaism, described by Josephus as one of the "four sects" at this time. The term Zealot, in Hebrew kanai (קנאי, frequently used in plural form, קנאים), means one who is jealous on behalf of God. The term is Greek in origin.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Zealots were a Jewish political movement in the 1st century AD which sought to incite the people of Iudaea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the country by force of arms during the Great Jewish Revolt (AD 66-70). When the Romans introduced the imperial cult, the Jews unsuccessfully rebelled. The Zealots continued to oppose the Romans due to Rome's intolerance of their culture and on the grounds that Israel belonged only to a Jewish king descended from David.
Josephus' Jewish Antiquities book 18 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 (also called Judas of Gamala) and Zadok the Pharisee in the year 6 against Quirinius' tax reform, shortly after the Roman state declared what had most recently been the territory of the tribe of Judah a Roman Province, and that they "agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions; but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord." (18.1.6) According to the Jewish Encyclopedia article on Zealots[1]: "Following Josephus ("B. J." ii. 8, § 1; "Ant." xviii. 1, §§ 1, 6), most writers consider that the Zealots were a so-called fourth party founded by Judas the Galilean (see Grätz, "Gesch." iii. 252, 259; Schürer, "Gesch." 1st ed., i. 3, 486). This view is contradicted, however, by the fact that Hezekiah, the father of Judas the Galilean, had an organized band of so-called "robbers" which made war against the Idumean Herod ("B. J." i. 10, § 5; "Ant." xiv. 9, § 2), and also by the fact that the system of religious and political murders practised by the Zealots was in existence during the reign of Herod, if not long before (see below)."
In either case, it has been argued that the group was not so clearly marked out (before the first war of 66-70/3) as some have thought (see Richard Horsley's "Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs" and Tom Wright's "The New Testament and the People of God").
The Zealots had the leading role in the Jewish Revolt of 66. They succeeded in taking over Jerusalem, and kept control of it until 70, when the son of Roman emperor Vespasian, Titus Flavius, retook the city and destroyed Herod's Temple during the destruction of Jerusalem.
The Zealots objected to Roman rulership and sought to violently eradicate it; Zealots engaged in violence were called the Sicarii. They raided Jewish habitations and killed Jews they considered collaborators, they also urged Jews to fight Romans and other Jews for their religiopolitical 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.
[edit] The Talmud
In the Talmud, the Zealots are also called the Biryonim meaning "boorish" or "wild", and are condemned for their aggression, unwillingness to compromise to save the living survivors of Jerusalem besieged by the Romans, blind-militarism and are blamed for having contributed to the demise of Jerusalem, the second Jewish Temple and of ensuring Rome's retributions and stranglehold on Judea. According to the Talmud, in BT. Gittin 56b, the Biryonim destroy decades worth of food and firewood in besieged Jerusalem to convince the people that they should fight against the Romans out of desperation, an event that directly leads to the escape of Yochanan ben Zakkai and the foundation of the Academy of Yavneh which produced the Mishnah.
The Zealots advocated violence against the Romans and their Sadducee Jewish collaborators, raiding for provisions and other activities that aided their cause.
[edit] Masada
After the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 AD, 960 Zealots took refuge by capturing the Roman fortress of Masada and taking no prisoners. Rome sent the Tenth Legion to attempt to retake the stronghold, but for 3 years they met with no success. It is estimated that they took over 1000 casualties in the process. The Zealots continued to hold the fortress even after the Romans invented new types of siege engines. Finally in the third year of the siege Rome, unable to take the fortress intact, gave up and burned the walls down. When the Romans stormed in to take the Zealots prisoner, they found that the fighters and their families had all committed suicide rather than live a life of slavery.
One of their leaders, Elazar ben Yair escaped to the desert fortress of Masada and fought alongside the Sicarii Zealots until Masada was captured in 73. The Jewish Revolt was suppressed thereafter and the Zealots declined in power and finally faded into history
Today, members of some units of the Israel Defense Forces, climb Masada and declare Masada Shall Not Fall Again, in Hebrew, at their graduation from basic training.
[edit] Sicarii
One particularly extreme group of Zealots was also known in Latin as sicarii, meaning "daggermen" (sing. sicarius, possibly a morphological reanalysis), 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.
[edit] The Zealots In Popular Culture
Zealots feature in Sean Young's novel, Violent Sands, published in 2006. The book portrays Barabbas as a Zealot, fighting for freedom from Roman tyranny.
In the video game Resident Evil 4 the ganadoes that live in the castle are referred to as zealots.
In the popular RTS PC game Starcraft, the first tier melee units for the Protoss race are called Zealots. To further the use of the name, they utter the quote 'My life for Aiur', justifying their name.
In the Lord of The Rings: Battle For Middle Earth II video game, the Dwarves have an elite unit called 'Zealots'
The fourth track of the 1996 album "The Score" by The Fugees is entitled Zealots
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
