Zealots

The Zealots were a political movement in 1st-century Second Temple Judaism that sought to incite the people of Judaea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms, most notably during the First Jewish–Roman War (66–70).

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.

They are called the Biryonim (בריונים) meaning "boorish", "wild", or "ruffians", and are condemned for their aggression, their unwillingness to compromise to save the survivors of besieged Jerusalem, and their blind militarism in opposition to the rabbis' desire to seek a peace treaty with Rome.

However, according to one body of tradition, the rabbis initially supported the revolt until the Zealots instigated a civil war, at which point all hope of resisting the Romans was deemed impossible.

This event precipitated the escape of Johanan ben Zakai and his meeting with Vespasian, which led to the foundation of the Academy of Jamnia and the composition of the Mishnah, ensuring the survival of rabbinical Judaism.

[10][11] The Sicarii were a splinter group of the Jewish Zealots who, in the decades preceding Jerusalem's destruction in 70 CE, strongly opposed the Roman occupation of Judea and attempted to expel them and their sympathizers from the area.

While Paul was not formally part of the Zealot movement—focused on violent resistance to Roman rule, his pre-conversion actions reflect a similar fervor for preserving Jewish purity and traditions.