Mark 1:19-20

1:19 Going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother in their ¹  boat mending nets. 1:20 Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Mark 4:36

4:36 So ²  after leaving the crowd, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat, ³  and other boats were with him.

Mark 5:21

Restoration and Healing

5:21 When Jesus had crossed again in a boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he was by the sea.

¹ tn Or “a boat.” The phrase ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ (en tw ploiw) can either refer to a generic boat, some boat (as it seems to do in Matt 4:21); or it can refer to “their” boat, implying possession. Mark assumes a certain preunderstanding on the part of his readers about the first four disciples and hence the translation “their boat” is justified (cf. also v. 20 in which the “hired men” indicates that Zebedee’s family owned the boats).

² tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the response to Jesus’ request.

³ tn It is possible that this prepositional phrase modifies “as he was,” not “they took him along.” The meaning would then be “they took him along in the boat in which he was already sitting” (see 4:1).