Zealot

Zel´uht

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).