Zelotes

Zelotes is the Greek word meaning zealot or one who is zealous, used as a surname for Simon the apostle to distinguish him from Simon Peter (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). The surname indicates Simon's affiliation with or sympathy for the Zealot movement — the party of Jewish nationalists who refused submission to Rome and advocated violent resistance. Whether Simon remained a Zealot in the political sense after joining Jesus, or whether the surname was merely a pre-conversion designation preserved as a distinguishing title, is not made explicit in the text. Jesus's call of both a Zealot and a tax-collector (Matthew/Levi) into the same apostolic band is considered theologically significant — the kingdom transcending the era's sharpest social and political divisions.