Who was Zebedee in the Bible? The father of James and John, and whether his sons were Jesus’ cousins
A fisherman with hired men and two sons who left him in the boat. Zebedee is in one scene, but his wife followed Jesus to the cross, and three Gospels, read together, may make her Mary’s sister.
Zebedee was a Galilean fisherman, the father of the apostles James and John, who stayed in his boat when Jesus called his two sons away to follow him (Matthew 4:21–22).
That is all the Gospels tell about the man himself. He is never called a disciple, and no verse makes him Jesus’ relative. But his wife followed Jesus all the way to the cross, and if an old reading of three Gospels holds, she was Mary’s sister, which would make James and John Jesus’ cousins.
Who was Zebedee in the Bible?
Zebedee was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee and the father of James and John, two of the twelve apostles. Matthew gives the one scene he is in:
“And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James [the son] of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.”Matthew 4:21, KJV
“And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.”Matthew 4:22, KJV
Mark tells the same moment and adds who else was in the boat:
“And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.”Mark 1:20, KJV
Hired servants means Zebedee employed men, and Luke says his sons “were partners with Simon” (Luke 5:10), so Simon Peter and his brother Andrew fished alongside the family. Two pairs of brothers who worked the same nets became four of the twelve.
Three men called James matter here. This one is the son of Zebedee. Another apostle is “James [the son] of Alphaeus” (Matthew 10:3), and Paul names a third, “James the Lord’s brother” (Galatians 1:19). The “Mary the mother of James and Joses” who appears below at the cross is the mother of yet another James, not Zebedee’s wife.
Was Zebedee a disciple?
No verse says so. The Gospels show him once, in the boat, and the sons are the ones who leave. After that he is a name attached to his family: “the sons of Zebedee” (Mark 10:35; John 21:2), “the two sons of Zebedee” whom Jesus took with him into Gethsemane (Matthew 26:37), and “the mother of Zebedee’s children.” He is never shown following Jesus, and never shown objecting either.
Mark records the name Jesus gave the two brothers:
“And James the [son] of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:”Mark 3:17, KJV
Luke tells a story that shows why it fit. When a Samaritan village turned Jesus away, James and John asked whether they should call down fire from heaven to consume it (Luke 9:54).
The mother who asked for two thrones
Their mother is the one member of the family who speaks to Jesus. Matthew tells it:
“Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping [him], and desiring a certain thing of him.”Matthew 20:20, KJV
“And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.”Matthew 20:21, KJV
Mark tells the same request with the brothers asking for themselves (Mark 10:35–37). In both Gospels Jesus answers the brothers, in nearly the same words:
“And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them] for whom it is prepared of my Father.”Matthew 20:23, KJV
The first half of that answer came true for James:
“And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.”Acts 12:2, KJV
The king is Herod, and that is the only death of one of the twelve as a martyr that the New Testament records.
Was Zebedee related to Jesus?
Possibly, by marriage, but no verse says so. The case rests on three lists of the women at the crucifixion. Matthew’s ends with Zebedee’s wife:
“Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children.”Matthew 27:56, KJV
Mark’s list of the same scene has a name in the third place:
“There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;”Mark 15:40, KJV
And John’s list includes a sister of Mary:
“Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the [wife] of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.”John 19:25, KJV
Read together, the mother of Zebedee’s children is Salome, and Salome is “his mother’s sister.” If both steps hold, Zebedee was Jesus’ uncle by marriage, and James and John were his first cousins on his mother’s side. Each step is an identification across Gospels that tell the scene differently, and the chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
John 19:25 can be counted as three women or four. The KJV’s commas, like the Reina-Valera’s, let “Mary the wife of Cleophas” be the sister’s name, which makes three. The Chinese Union Version has an “and” before her and reads four. Only the four-woman reading leaves room for Salome as the sister.
The part that almost never gets told: the right hand and the left
Matthew puts Zebedee’s wife in two scenes, and they answer each other. In the first she asks for her sons to sit on Jesus’ right hand and his left. In the second she stands watching the crucifixion, and Matthew has just said who is there:
“Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.”Matthew 27:38, KJV
Matthew does not draw the line between the two scenes. Readers have. The mother who asked for the places at his right and left saw who was given them that day, and Jesus had already told her those places were “not mine to give.”
John adds what happened next at the cross:
“When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!”John 19:26, KJV
“Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own [home.]”John 19:27, KJV
John never names that disciple. Tradition says he was John, the son of Zebedee. If that holds, and the cousin reading holds too, Jesus gave his mother into the care of her own sister’s son.
Salome’s part does not end at the cross. When the Sabbath was over, she was one of the three women who bought spices to anoint the body that Joseph of Arimathea had laid in his tomb (Mark 16:1).
Trace it yourself
“The father of James and John” answers the question in six words. What it cannot show is the rest of the family: the boat left behind, the sons of thunder, a mother’s request and the day she saw it answered.
Open the map on Zebedee and follow the line to his sons James and John, then on to Jesus, Mary and Mary Magdalene, with the verse behind every link as you go. The map draws Zebedee to Jesus as father, son and teacher. It draws no cousin line, because no verse states one.
Zebedee, James, John, Jesus, Mary and Mary Magdalene are all among the 104 figures on the free map; no account is needed to open any of them.