ZEALOTS (SICARII). - A Greek term (ζηλωτῆς, "zelotai"), which originally had only a moral meaning, as it designated the faithful observers of the Law: a program which Mattathias, on his deathbed, bequeathed to his sons and followers (1 Macc. 2:50).
The Zealots organized themselves into a political party under Judas the Galilean (Acts 5:37) at the time of the Roman procurators. They were rigid Pharisees in whom the nationalistic idea predominated over all others.
In their extremist nationalism, the Zealots often degenerated into common assassins, being responsible for numerous crimes (Flavius Josephus, *The Jewish War*, VII, 268). From the small dagger (Lat. *sica*) used for this purpose, they were also called Sicarii. They played a leading role during the revolt against the Romans (A.D. 66–70). Led by Eleazar, they penetrated into Jerusalem (Flavius Josephus, *loc. cit.*, IV, 136 ff.), where they committed every kind of outrage. After seizing the Temple (ibid., V, 5–7), they first fought against the more moderate party led by John of Gischala (ibid., V, 101–103), and then continued the war with extreme fanaticism against the Romans. The last survivors with Eleazar took Masada (v.), where, after a long siege, they committed collective suicide rather than fall into enemy hands.
Since "Zealot" in Aramaic is *qan'āndā*, according to many exegetes the apostle Simon called the Cananaean (Matt. 10:4; Mark 3:18) would have been a Zealot in the original sense of the word (cf. Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13).