The Zealots were the most militant Jewish faction of the first century. They refused to pay tribute to Caesar, rejected any foreign rule over Israel, and were willing to use assassination and armed revolt to restore Jewish independence. Their extreme wing, the sicarii ("dagger-men"), would hide short curved daggers in their cloaks and stab collaborators in public crowds. The movement originated with Judas of Galilee around AD 6 and culminated in the great Jewish revolt of AD 66-70, which ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Rome. One of Jesus' disciples, Simon the Zealot (Luke 6:15), came from this background. Judas Iscariot may also have had Zealot leanings — many scholars think his betrayal was motivated by disappointment that Jesus did not launch a political revolution. The Zealots represent a permanent temptation for religious men: to believe that the kingdom of God comes by the sword rather than by the cross. Jesus explicitly rejected this: "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight" (John 18:36). The irony is that the Zealots' revolution ended in the destruction of everything they were trying to save, while Jesus' bloodless cross founded a kingdom that outlasted Rome itself. The Zealots are a warning against revolutionary shortcuts to righteousness, and a reminder that the kingdom of God advances by suffering, not by violence.