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Communities of Opposition

In every society and every social order, in every recorded epoch, a small but determined number of individuals have been dedicated to effecting social change. Given time and opportunity, these individuals seek out others of like mind, and, in the exchange of oppositional ideas, hopes, and dreams, communities of opposition—defined here as collectivities characterized by a shared ideology or theology, a sense of common destiny, and a commonly held dream for a future historical or posthistorical global order—emerge to challenge the existing temporal powers. The forms in which these communities of opposition emerge depend on historical circumstances. Most communities of resistance peacefully await a change, which they believe will be accomplished by a just God, or they withdraw into enclaves to create an ideal society. This entry, however, focuses on another type of oppositional community: revolutionary communal groups in the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds, with case studies drawn from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic societies.

Early Revolutionary Communal Groups

The most volatile oppositional communities are those characterized by a revolutionary ethos that sees the violent destruction of the existing social or political order, or both, as necessary for the emergence of a new and better world. Historically, these groups were religious in nature, and their goals were ultimately eschatological (concerned with the final events in world history); their dream was millenarian (as when Jesus Christ returns to rule for a thousand years) or messianic; and the new world they envisioned was promised in sacred text. Some of these communities tried, to the greatest degree possible, to withdraw from mainstream society. Others were driven from their societies and forced to form communal groups to survive. Most of these groups were destroyed in unequal battle with the dominant culture; a few evolved into more accommodating forms and survive to this day; even fewer triumphed, only to disband when their eschatological hopes were frustrated.

The Zealots

One of the first recorded revolutionary communal movements was that of the Zealots and the Sicarii (Greek sikarioi, “dagger men”), probably a radical branch of the Zealots, formed in the first century CE. One of Jesus' disciples, Simon, is identified in the Bible as a Zealot (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13).

The active phase of the Sicariri, named for the kind of knives that became their trademark weapon, lasted only twenty-five years, and the acute phase of Zealot activity not much longer. The Zealots arose at a time of intense eschatological excitement among the Jews, who felt for a variety of sociopolitical reasons that an imminent messianic event was about to occur. Messianic pretenders were everywhere in those years, and apocalyptic sects flourished.

For both the Zealots and the Sicarii, the aims of rebellion seem to have been religious, perhaps inspired by the Maccabean revolt (142–63 BCE) and the example of Phinehas (Num. 25). The Sicarii employed assassination as their trademark tactic, beginning with the Jewish High Priest Jonathan, and then settling on random targets of opportunity to spread terror among the populace. Soon enough, massacre was added to assassination, and the Sicarii victimized non-Jewish communities and even Jewish groups who advocated peaceful accommodation with Rome.

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