Theopedia

James, son of Zebedee

Overview

James, son of Zebedee and the elder brother of John, was one of the twelve apostles. With Peter and John, he formed the inner circle Jesus took to his most private moments of ministry.1 Herod Agrippa I had him put to death by the sword in Jerusalem, most likely in AD 42 or 43 (Acts 12:1-2).2

Life and Ministry

James and John were sons of Zebedee, a Galilean fisherman of Bethsaida with enough property to employ hired servants; their mother, Salome, was among the women who followed Jesus and ministered to him (Matt. 4:21; 27:56; Mark 1:19-20; 15:40-41; Luke 5:10-11).1 The Gospels consistently name the brothers “James and John” rather than the reverse, except at Luke 9:28, which Elijah Porter Barrows takes as evidence James was the older of the two.1 Along with Peter, James and John formed an inner circle within the Twelve, the only disciples Jesus permitted to witness the raising of Jairus’s daughter, the Transfiguration, and his agony in Gethsemane (Matt. 17:1; 26:37; Mark 5:37; 9:2; 14:33; Luke 8:51; 9:28).1

That standing did not keep James and John from ambition. On the road to Jerusalem, the brothers, with their mother, asked Jesus to grant them the seats at his right and left hand “in your glory” (Mark 10:37). Alexander Strauch quotes John Stott’s judgment on the request:

James and John want to sit on thrones in power and glory; Jesus knows that he must hang on a cross in weakness and shame. The antithesis is total.3

The other ten apostles were indignant when they heard of it, and Jesus answered with the teaching that greatness in his kingdom belongs to the one who serves rather than the one who rules.3 He told the brothers they did not know what they were asking; rather than promise them the highest thrones, he promised them his own cup of suffering and baptism.3

James was killed during Herod Agrippa I’s brief rule over Judea (AD 41-44). Luke dates the execution only vaguely, “about that time” (Acts 12:1), but F. F. Bruce narrows the window using Agrippa’s own movements: Agrippa was in Rome when Gaius was assassinated on 24 January AD 41 and stayed there until Claudius’s position was secure, then took some five weeks to travel to his new capital, arriving too late in the year for an attack on the church before the following Passover.2 Agrippa died in AD 44, five days after falling ill at games in Caesarea, placing his death before that year’s Passover and his attack on the apostles at Passovertide in either AD 42 or 43.2

Historical Significance

James’s execution was the first time the Twelve lost one of their own to persecution: the earlier persecution that followed Stephen’s death had left the apostles unmolested (Acts 8:1).2 Bruce traces Agrippa’s turn against the church instead to its growing fraternization with Gentiles, most visibly in Peter’s visit to the Roman officer Cornelius at Caesarea.2

Related Doctrines

References

  1. Elijah Porter Barrows, Companion to the Bible (New York: American Tract Society, 1867), chap. 29, “The Four Gospels,” 436-437. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. F. F. Bruce, “Chronological Questions in the Acts of the Apostles,” Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 68, no. 2 (1986): 276-277. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Alexander Strauch, Biblical Eldership: Restoring the Eldership to Its Rightful Place in the Local Church, 4th ed. (Littleton, CO: Lewis and Roth Publishers, 2017), chap. 1, “New Principles for Leadership,” 21-30. ↩ ↩2 ↩3