Roman garrisons stationed throughout Judea have exploited Jews with punitive taxation since 63 BCE, exceeding the quota set by the Roman Empire and keeping the surplus revenues for themselves.

The Roman procurators have also subjugated the Jewish High Priesthood, appointing pro-Roman Jews to positions of authority, and desecrated sacred Jewish practices with sacrilegious pagan rituals.

The Roman Emperor Caligula in 39 had declared himself divine and ordered his troops in Jerusalem to place his name on the Temple.

When the Jews refused, he threatened to destroy the temple but his sudden timely demise saved Jerusalem from a premature siege, yet Caligula's threat had caused many of the moderate Jews to shift towards radical anti-Roman political views.

As the Roman burden becomes more onerous, Jewish priests alienated by the pro-Roman high priesthood join in the effort to attain political and religious liberty by any means possible, thus forming the Zealots, who kindle anti-Roman sentiment throughout Galilee and Judea.

Josephus' Jewish Antiquities states that there were three main Jewish sects at this time, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes.

The Zealots are a "fourth sect", founded by Judas of Galilee (also called Judas of Gamala) and Zadok the Pharisee in the year 6 against Quirinius' tax reform, shortly after the Roman Empire declares what had most recently been the tetrarchy of Herod Archelaus to be a Roman province, and that they "agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions; but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord." (18.1.6).

Some scholars argue that the group was not so clearly marked out before the first war of 66-70 as others have supposed.

The Zealots, as strict interpreters of the Law are extremists who are willing to lay their own lives down for independence from Roman domination.

They have begun to form a growing nationalist resistance movement.

Two of Judas' sons, Jacob and Simon, are from 46 to 48 involved in a revolt and are executed by Tiberius Alexander, the procurator of Iudaea province.