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 17:1

The Transfiguration

17:1 Six days later ³  Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, ⁴  and led them privately up a high mountain.

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. ⁵ 

Matthew 26:37

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

Mark 3:17

3:17 to James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee, ⁶  he gave the name Boanerges (that is, “sons of thunder”);

Luke 5:10

5:10 and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s business partners. ⁷  Then ⁸  Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on ⁹  you will be catching people.” ¹⁰ 

John 21:2

21:2 Simon Peter, Thomas ¹¹  (called Didymus), ¹²  Nathanael ¹³  (who was from Cana ¹⁴  in Galilee), the sons ¹⁵  of Zebedee, ¹⁶  and two other disciples ¹⁷  of his were together.

Acts 12:2

12:2 He had James, the brother of John, executed with a sword. ¹⁸ 

Acts 12:1

James is Killed and Peter Imprisoned

12:1 About that time King Herod ¹⁹  laid hands on ²⁰  some from the church to harm them. ²¹ 

Colossians 1:7

1:7 You learned the gospel ²²  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ²³  – a ²⁴  faithful minister of Christ on our ²⁵  behalf –

[4:21]  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.

[4:21]  ² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[17:1]  ³ tn Grk “And after six days.”

[17:1]  ⁴ tn Grk “John his brother” with “his” referring to James.

[20:20]  ⁵ tn Grk “asked something from him.”

[3:17]  ⁶ tn Grk “to James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James.”

[5:10]  ⁷ tn Or “business associates.”

[5:10]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[5:10]  ⁹ sn From now on is a common Lukan expression, see Luke 1:48.

[5:10]  ¹⁰ tn The Greek term ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women, thus “people.”

[21:2]  ¹¹ tn Grk “and Thomas.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements of a series.

[21:2]  ¹² sn Didymus means “the twin” in Greek.

[21:2]  ¹³ tn Grk “and Nathanael.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements of a series.

[21:2]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map1 C3; Map2 D2; Map3 C5.

[21:2]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “and the sons.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements of a series.

[21:2]  ¹⁶ sn The sons of Zebedee were James and John.

[21:2]  ¹⁷ sn The two other disciples who are not named may have been Andrew and Philip, who are mentioned together in John 6:7-8 and 12:22.

[12:2]  ¹⁸ sn The expression executed with a sword probably refers to a beheading. James was the first known apostolic martyr (Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 2.9.1-3). On James, not the Lord’s brother, see Luke 5:10; 6:14. This death ended a short period of peace noted in Acts 9:31 after the persecution mentioned in 8:1-3.

[12:1]  ¹⁹ sn King Herod was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod I (Herod the Great). His mediocre career is summarized in Josephus, Ant. 18-19. This event took place in a.d. 42 or 43.

[12:1]  ²⁰ tn Or “King Herod had some from the church arrested.”

[12:1]  ²¹ tn Or “to cause them injury.”

[1:7]  ²² tn Or “learned it.” The Greek text simply has “you learned” without the reference to “the gospel,” but “the gospel” is supplied to clarify the sense of the clause. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:7]  ²³ tn The Greek word translated “fellow slave” is σύνδουλος (sundoulo"); the σύν- prefix here denotes association. Though δοῦλος is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:7]  ²⁴ tn The Greek text has “who (ὅς, Jos) is a faithful minister.” The above translation conveys the antecedent of the relative pronoun quite well and avoids the redundancy with the following substantival participle of v. 8, namely, “who told” (ὁ δηλώσας, Jo dhlwsa").

[1:7]  ²⁵ tc ‡ Judging by the superior witnesses for the first person pronoun ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א* A B D* F G 326* 1505 al) vs. the second person pronoun ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “you”; found in א² C D¹ Ψ 075 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co), ἡμῶν should be regarded as original. Although it is possible that ἡμῶν was an early alteration of ὑμῶν (either unintentionally, as dittography, since it comes seventeen letters after the previous ἡμῶν; or intentionally, to conform to the surrounding first person pronouns), this supposition is difficult to maintain in light of the varied and valuable witnesses for this reading. Further, the second person is both embedded in the verb ἐμάθετε (emaqete) and is explicit in v. 8 (ὑμῶν). Hence, the motivation to change to the first person pronoun is counterbalanced by such evidence. The second person pronoun may have been introduced unintentionally via homoioarcton with the ὑπέρ (Juper) that immediately precedes it. As well, the second person reading is somewhat harder for it seems to address Epaphras’ role only in relation to Paul and his colleagues, rather than in relation to the Colossians. Nevertheless, the decision must be based ultimately on external evidence (because the internal evidence can be variously interpreted), and this strongly supports ἡμῶν.