Meaning of the Name Zebedee
The name Zebedee is commonly linked to the Hebrew idea of "gift" or "bestowal." This explanation is made by comparison with related name forms from the same root. The precise form analysis is not always certain, but the sense of a "gift given by God" is a common interpretation.
Origin
The name Zebedee is of Hebrew in origin, transmitted in Greek form origin.
Who is Zebedee in the Bible?
In the New Testament Zebedee is best known as the father of James and John. He appears in the fishing setting when his sons join Jesus among the earliest disciples. He is not a major speaker in the narrative, but his family occupies an important place around Jesus.
The story of Zebedee in the Bible
Zebedee appears in the Gospels not as a speaking character but as a father known through his family. A fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, he enters the narrative mending nets in his boat with his sons James and John. As Jesus passes along the shore he calls the two brothers, and in Matthew's account they leave the boat and their father at once to follow him. Mark adds a small but telling detail: Zebedee remains in the boat with the hired workers, a sign that the family ran an established business. Zebedee himself never reappears, yet his name echoes through the Gospels in his sons, who are repeatedly called the sons of Zebedee. In Matthew, the mother of Zebedee's sons approaches Jesus to ask places of honor for them in his kingdom, a scene that again places the family in the circle close to Jesus. Zebedee is remembered as the father who stayed in the background while his children answered the Messiah's call, his name woven into that story for good.
Is Zebedee mentioned in the Quran?
The name Zebedee does not appear in the Quran; he is known from the New Testament as the fisherman father of James and John, two of Jesus' disciples.
Verses where Zebedee appears
- Matthew 4:21 —
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them.
- Mark 1:20 —
Immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him.
- Matthew 20:20 —
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, kneeling and asking a certain thing of him.