The Apostles - James the Son of Zebedee

 James the Son of Zebedee

James the son of Zebedee was the brother of John who is believed to have written the Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation in the Bible. Both men were called by Jesus to follow Him one day as they cleaned their fishing nets by the Sea of Galilee. James and John immediately dropped their nets and left their father to follow Him.

Though the Bible says very little about James, it's likely that he was aware of Jesus being the Messiah through the preaching of John the Baptist, who had come to prepare the way for Jesus by revealing Him to Israel. John 1:35-42 says that two of John the Baptist's disciples were with him when Jesus walked by and John proclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God!". The passage identifies one of the disciples as Andrew, but not the other one. My assumption is that the other disciple was John the brother of James, simply because John does not name himself when referring to himself in other passages within the Gospel of John. If this is the case, James would have heard about Jesus from his own brother. It's also possible that the other disciple mentioned was James, or that it was neither James or John, but somebody else. We don't know for sure, but whatever the case, James believed that Jesus was the Messiah spoken of by the prophets. This would explain why both he and his brother John immediately left their father and their fishing careers behind to follow Jesus when He extended the invitation almost a year later. The invitation to be a disciple of the Messiah would have been an extremely special privilege.

When Jesus and His disciples were traveling to Jerusalem where Jesus was going to be crucified, He said to them again that He was going to be betrayed, tortured, and killed, but that He was going to rise from death on the third day. Afterwards, the mother of James and John kneeled down and asked Jesus to allow her sons to sit at either side of Him in His kingdom. Jesus responded with a question to the two sons, asking them if they were able to drink the cup that He was about to drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that He is baptized with. They responded that they were able, probably with excitement thinking they were going to have the great honor and privilege of being seated next to Jesus, and therefore ruling God's kingdom with Him.

"So He said to them, 'You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.'" - Matthew 20:23

It is likely that neither James, John, or their mother understood what Jesus meant when He said this, but both men did drink the cup of suffering and death that Jesus promised to them, and in a sense they were seated at either side of Jesus in His kingdom, with James being the first apostle killed and John being the last, forming the "book ends" of the deaths of the apostles, as Foxes Voices of the Martyrs puts it.

An ancient church in Spain claims to have some of the remains of James's body, so it is possible that he went to Spain on an apostolic mission sometime between the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and his death in Jerusalem. There is no evidence of this recorded in the book of Acts, but there is also nothing recorded about what James and many of the other apostles were doing during that period of time, so it could be possible, especially given Jesus's command to His disciples that He gave before He ascended to heaven, to go and make disciples of all nations, . 

We know from Acts 12:1 that "King Herod stretched out his hand to harass some from the church". Herod Agrippa ruled a region that included Judea and Galilee. Agrippa seemed to favor Judaism, and with this new ideology going around that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God sent as Israel's Messiah, he might have thought that persecuting Christians would be pleasing to the Jews, since most Jews rejected these claims made first by Jesus Himself, and then His apostles. 

It was during this time that James was captured and killed by the sword by King Herod in Jerusalem about AD 44. When Herod saw that the death of James pleased the Jews, he imprisoned the apostle Peter with the intention of putting him to death also. However, God intervened on Peter's behalf and miraculously rescued Peter from Herod's clutch (Acts 12:1-19).

Acts 12:20-24 says that God struck Herod Agrippa dead shortly afterwards for not giving God the glory when they praised him by calling him a god after agreeing to a peace settlement offered by the cities of Tyre and Sidon. Verse 23 says that he was "eaten by worms and died".

Following verse 23, verse 24 says, "But the word of God grew and multiplied". Despite the fact that Herod favored the Jews, he did not deny Tyre and Sidon's praises towards him or worship God as the One True God. Along with the Jews, he also rejected Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah, and caused harm to the people whom Jesus placed in authority over His church, therefore God's favor was not with them, but with the apostles and the church.

Even though Luke, the writer of Acts does not record the events of James, we know that he was an active participant in spreading the gospel because he was persecuted and killed for Jesus and His kingdom.