James, Son of Zebedee

Biography

James was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, called alongside his brother John and their father Zebedee, immediately leaving the family business to follow Jesus. Along with Peter and John, James formed the innermost circle of the twelve, present at moments others were excluded from: the raising of Jairus' daughter, the transfiguration on the mountain, and Jesus' agony in Gethsemane. James and John's fiery temperament earned them the nickname 'Boanerges,' sons of thunder, evident when they wished to call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village that had refused to welcome Jesus. Their ambition also surfaced when, with their mother, they asked Jesus for the places of highest honor in His coming kingdom, drawing Jesus' question of whether they could drink the cup He was about to drink, to which they confidently answered yes, not fully grasping what that would cost. That cost proved literal for James. After Christ's ascension and the birth of the church, Herod Agrippa I, seeking favor with the Jewish leadership, had James put to death by the sword, making him the first of the twelve apostles to be martyred, an event recorded plainly and briefly in Acts, underscoring the real cost of following Christ that Jesus had warned him and his brother to expect.