Who was Simon the Zealot in the Bible?
"The last were Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot. Judas was the one who was later going to hand Jesus over to his enemies" (Matthew 10:4).
"There were also Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, and James, son of Alphaeus. And there were Thaddaeus and Simon the Zealot" (Mark 3:18).
"When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Here is a list of those who were there. Peter, John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas son of James" (Acts 1:13).
Simon the Zealot was one of Jesus' twelve disciples.A zealot is someone who is passionate about a specific cause. Nowadays, many people use the term zealot with a negative meaning. During the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, the Zealots were a party zealous for Jewish independence and they endorsed throwing off Roman rule. They hoped to do this by causing problems for Rome and running them out of Israel. The Zealots wanted to start a Mosaic government.
There is not much information given about Simon the Zealot. He is only mentioned four times in the entire Bible (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). Simon is referred to as Zealot, which means he would have followed their political teachings. Despite being part of the Zealots, it is likely that his priorities changed after following Jesus and serving Him.
Simon was a Zealot against the Roman government, yet Matthew was another disciple who was a previous tax collector, who worked for the Roman government. Even though they had this difference about them, we never see them fighting about it. This is most likely because of their allegiance to Christ. Rather than seeing each other as enemies, they saw each other as brothers in Christ.
