This Simon appears in all the lists of the twelve. He is

called "kananaios" (Matt. 10:4, Mark 3:18), and "Zelotes"

(Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). Kananaios is from the Hebrew word

qana (the zealous), and has no connection with the village

of Cana or the land of Canaan. The Greek "Zelotes" is a

translation. It is widely agree that Simon's second name

was give to him in adult life and signifies his zeal.

In the ancient world names and epithets were decided by

whoever had authority and others would follow suit. In the

Jesus movement it was Jesus himself who had naming

authority, as is clear from the case of Peter. Naming

conventions would have cascaded from Jesus to the

leading apostles to the wider and later movement. Now,

Simon was a very very common name and there were other

Simons in the movement, so Jesus must have used a

second name or epithet of some kind to distinguish our

Simon from the others. It is hard to believe that the Jesus

community abandoned the name/epithet that Jesus used

and replaced it with one of their own. The name that Jesus

used for this Simon was therefore almost certainly

"zealous" (qana/kananaios/zelotes).

It is therefore reasonable to suppose that either:

1. Jesus gave the name "zealous" to Simon, or

2. Simon had this name before joining the Jesus movement and Jesus found it to

be appropriate to Simon's new identity within the movement.

There is no agreement on what he was zealous for.

Many assume that he was a member of a political group of anti-Roman bandits

known as the Zealots. However, we have no evidence for this group prior to the war

between the Jews and the Romans in the late 60s C.E.. Furthermore, it seems

rather unlikely that the early Christians would have defined one of their number by

his allegiance to a different organization, rather than his role within their own

organization. Lastly, it is impossible to believe that Jesus and the eleven gave him

a name that identified him as a member of a terrorist group. To do so would have

put him in great danger of arrest and execution.

Many others assume that Simon was zealous for the Jewish law. This is possible,

but we do not know. Nor can we be specific about what aspect of the Law he was

zealous for, or whether he became zealous before or after joining the Jesus

movement, or when he was given his name. He was probably zealous for the Law

as it was interpreted by Jesus. Perhaps he was zealous for the observance of the

Sabbatical year requirements, for example.

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