In the revolutionary atmosphere just before the outbreak of the First Jewish-Roman War (a.d. 66-70), one group of Palestinian dissidents opposing oppressive Roman rule gave witness to a pacifist understanding of faith in God. They were pious Jews from the Galilean countryside. Although they opposed Roman domination and the urban Jewish authorities who collaborated with their harsh rulers, their theological and political teaching and lifestyle nevertheless sought an end to the escalation of violence. Their leader was Jesus of Nazarath.