Mark 1:19

1:19 Going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother in their ¹  boat mending nets.

Mark 3:17-18

3:17 to James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee, ²  he gave the name Boanerges (that is, “sons of thunder”); 3:18 and Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, ³  Matthew, Thomas, ⁴  James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, ⁵  Simon the Zealot, ⁶ 

Mark 5:37

5:37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James, ⁷  and John, the brother of James.

[1:19]  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).

[3:17]  ² tn Grk “to James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James.”

[3:18]  ³ sn Bartholomew (meaning “son of Tolmai” in Aramaic) could be another name for Nathanael mentioned in John 1:45.

[3:18]  ⁴ sn This is the “doubting Thomas” of John 20:24-29.

[3:18]  ⁵ tc This disciple is called Λεββαῖον (Lebbaion, “Lebbaeus”) in D it; see the discussion of the parallel text in Matt 10:3 where conflation occurs among other witnesses as well.

[3:18]  ⁶ tn Grk “the Cananean,” but according to both BDAG 507 s.v. Καναναῖος and L&N 11.88, this term has no relation at all to the geographical terms for Cana or Canaan, but is derived from the Aramaic term for “enthusiast, zealot” (see Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13), possibly because of an earlier affiliation with the party of the Zealots. He may not have been technically a member of the particular Jewish nationalistic party known as “Zealots” (since according to some scholars this party had not been organized at that time), but simply someone who was zealous for Jewish independence from Rome, in which case the term would refer to his temperament.

[5:37]  ⁴ tn Grk “and James,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.