Biblical Profile: James, Son of Zebedee

James, Son of Zebedee

James, son of Zebedee and brother of John, was one of the twelve apostles, and he was among the first to be killed as a follower of Jesus. His mother was possibly the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, which would make him Jesus’ cousin (cp. Matt 27:56; Mark 15:40; 16:1; John 19:25). His name usually occurs before that of John, which may suggest that James was the older of the two. He should not be confused with James, son of Alphaeus (see Luke 6:15) or James, brother of Jesus.

James and John were fishermen like their father (Matt 4:21; Mark 1:19); they fished with Peter and Andrew, another pair of brothers who became disciples (Luke 5:10). They were among the first that Jesus called to be his disciples, and they left everything, including their father, to follow him (Matt 4:22; Mark 1:20; Luke 5:11). Jesus called them “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17), which might imply that they had vehement personalities (see Luke 9:54), though the exact connotation is unclear.

James and his brother John were among those closest to Jesus. With Peter, they formed an inner circle of trusted disciples who accompanied Jesus on special occasions, as when he healed Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5:37; Luke 8:51), conversed with Elijah and Moses on a mountain (Matt 17:1-3; Mark 9:2-4; Luke 9:28-30), and agonized in prayer in the garden (Matt 26:37; Mark 14:33). At one point, the two brothers provoked the indignation of the other disciples by asking for special positions of privilege in the coming Kingdom (Matt 20:20-28; Mark 10:35-45; cp. Luke 22:24-27).

Perhaps because of James’s prominence among the disciples, Herod Agrippa had him killed soon after Jesus’ death, which pleased the Jewish leaders (Acts 12:1-3) and fulfilled Jesus’ prediction about his drinking the bitter cup that Jesus drank (Matt 20:23; Mark 10:38-39).

James was an ordinary working person whom Jesus called to be his disciple. His willingness to leave everything he knew—work, family, and home—to follow Jesus in simple trust, and eventually to die for him, makes him a model of committed discipleship.

Passages for Further Study

Matt 4:21-22; 10:2; 17:1; 20:20-24; 26:37-46; Mark 1:19-20, 29; 3:17; 5:37; 9:2; 10:35-41; 13:3-4; 14:33-42; Luke 5:10; 6:14; 8:51; 9:28, 54-55; John 21:2; Acts 1:13; 12:2