FYI, I also tried looking for Listai on Wikipedia, but it hasn't been written.
If you search to find the word "Listai" in the article, you'll find a quote from the writings of Josephus, a man who was sympathetic to the Roman cause around the time of Christ and who wrote about the events surrounding the crucifixion.
The Josephus quote uses "Listai" according to the accepted definition, "Robbers," rather than as "seditionists." However, it's difficult to determine from the essay if this usage is correct - I doubt the author of the essay is a scholar of ancient languages, and is probably just going with what he's been taught. I thought maybe an Ancient Greek dictionary would be the next place to look, but none of the online translators recognize that word (that really doesn't mean anything since most of them are not very extensive). It could be Latin or Hebrew, though it doesn't sound like either one.
I looked up Flavius Josephus (the origin of the quoted passage about Listai), and it seems he was either a diplomat or a traitor, depending upon who you talk to. He may have had motivation for describing the Zealots in a bad light to please his Roman overlords, who had spared his life after capturing him during the destruction of Jerusalem. Therefore, the term Listai was probably some sort of derogatory term like "robbers" or "thugs", which may have also been used in some cases to mean "seditionists". Language nuances are often used for spin purposes. Or maybe the term for Zealot came to mean Robber later, after their cause was squashed. Hard to tell.
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To begin following up on Baigent's claims, I did a Google search on Listai in combination with various words such as "Seditionists," "Dissidents," Revolutionaries," etc., and found only one hit that matched any of the criteria -- a Mormon website that contains a rather long essay which attempts to define terrorism and distinguish it from other forms of political violence.
FYI, I also tried looking for Listai on Wikipedia, but it hasn't been written.
If you search to find the word "Listai" in the article, you'll find a quote from the writings of Josephus, a man who was sympathetic to the Roman cause around the time of Christ and who wrote about the events surrounding the crucifixion.
The Josephus quote uses "Listai" according to the accepted definition, "Robbers," rather than as "seditionists." However, it's difficult to determine from the essay if this usage is correct - I doubt the author of the essay is a scholar of ancient languages, and is probably just going with what he's been taught. I thought maybe an Ancient Greek dictionary would be the next place to look, but none of the online translators recognize that word (that really doesn't mean anything since most of them are not very extensive). It could be Latin or Hebrew, though it doesn't sound like either one.
I looked up Flavius Josephus (the origin of the quoted passage about Listai), and it seems he was either a diplomat or a traitor, depending upon who you talk to. He may have had motivation for describing the Zealots in a bad light to please his Roman overlords, who had spared his life after capturing him during the destruction of Jerusalem. Therefore, the term Listai was probably some sort of derogatory term like "robbers" or "thugs", which may have also been used in some cases to mean "seditionists". Language nuances are often used for spin purposes. Or maybe the term for Zealot came to mean Robber later, after their cause was squashed. Hard to tell.