Matthew 4:21

4:21 Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a boat ¹  with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. Then ²  he called them.

Matthew 26:37

26:37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and became anguished and distressed.

Matthew 20:20

A Request for James and John

20:20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling down she asked him for a favor. ³ 

Matthew 27:56

27:56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

Matthew 10:2

10:2 Now these are the names of the twelve apostles: ⁴  first, Simon ⁵  (called Peter), and Andrew his brother; James son of Zebedee and John his brother;

¹ tn Or “their boat.” The phrase ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ (en tw ploiw) can either refer to a generic boat, some boat (as it seems to do here); 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), while Matthew does not.

² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

³ tn Grk “asked something from him.”

⁵ sn The term apostles is rare in the gospels, found only here, Mark 3:14, and six more times in Luke (6:13; 9:10; 11:49; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10).

⁶ sn In the various lists of the twelve, Simon (that is, Peter) is always mentioned first (see also Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16; Acts 1:13) and the first four are always the same, though not in the same order after Peter.