What is the significance of "Zealot" in Acts 1:13?

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According to Strong's Concordance, the definition of the greek used here is "one who is eagerly devoted to a person or a thing, a zealot."

The Helps Word-studies says a zealot is one "who (literally) 'boils over with passion'". (Here "boils over" is the literal translation of zeó, which figuratively means "to be earnest, to set one's heart on, to be completely intent upon".)

I would say in addition to distinguish him from Simon Peter (as Richard said), it signifies that he was extremely passionate about following Jesus.

(aside: I'd like to be called a zealot for Jesus)

Upvote:0

in the original Greek language, Simon is called the 'Kananaios' in Mark 3:18 and Matthew 10:4 and, being similar to the Greek word Kananaia (Canaanite), this is generally assumed to mean the 'Canaanite', as we read in most English translations. However, in copying from Mark, the author of Luke and Acts noticed the similarity of this Greek word to the Aramaic word for Zealot, qan’ana. The Zealots were a fanatical political movement that took part in the First Roman-Jewish War of 66-70 CE. Since this seems to make more sense in the context of Jesus' mission, he substituted the Greek word 'Zēlōtēn' (Zealot) in the parallel passage at Luke 6:15 and again in Acts 1:13.

The significance of Luke calling Simon 'the Zealot' is simply that the author realised that Kananaios was not at that time a known Greek word, and that 'Zealot' seemed better suited to the context than 'Canaanite'.

Upvote:2

He was another one of the apostles:

Luke 6:14-16 (NIV)
Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

There were two apostles named "Simon", one is "Simon Peter" and the other is "Simon the Zealot". The name was a way to distinguish him from the "other" Simon and possibly referred to a character trait.

There's not much else known about him other than his name.

(source)

Upvote:8

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealotry I'll quote an interesting part here.

The Zealots objected to Roman rule and violently sought to eradicate it by generally targeting Romans and Greeks. Zealots engaged in violence against other Jews were called the Sicarii.[9] They raided Jewish habitations and killed Jews they considered apostate and collaborators, while also urging Jews to fight Romans and other Jews for the 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.

This says A LOT about what Jesus was able to accomplish in assembling his 12. Considering he had a tax collector, and a Zealot, who under other circumstances would target such a tax collector as a "collaborator". Consider the teachings of Jesus, and imagine how much of a life change that this Simon had undergone. Things like "Love your enemy", and "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's". It doesn't say that Simon was a Sicarii, but there were probably some shared core beliefs.

I am not a Bible scholar, but I think Zealot means more then just being zealous for Jesus. It is capitalized in the passage you shared.

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