Their intellectual and moral qualities being of a comparatively high
order, had already attracted the very favorable attention of Jesus,
during the first journey though Galilee; and they had already, on
at least two occasions, received most distinguishing marks of his
regard,――they alone of all the twelve, sharing in the honor of being
present with Peter at the raising of the daughter of Jairus, and being
still more highly favored by the view of the solemn events of the night
of the transfiguration, amid the thunders of Hermon. On that occasion,
the terrors of the scene overcame even their aspiring souls; and when
the cloud burst over them, they both sunk to the earth, in speechless
dread, along with Peter, too, who had previously manifested so much
greater self-command than they, in daring to address in complaisant
words the awful forms before them; while they remained silent with
terror at a phenomenon for which their views of their Master’s
character had but poorly prepared them. From all these prostrating
terrors they had since, however, fully recovered, and were now
completely restored to their former confidence in themselves, and were
still rooted in their old views of the Messiah’s earthly glories,――in
this particular, however, only sharing the common error of the whole
twelve. In this state of mind, looking upon Jesus Christ only as an
ambitious man, of powerful mind, vast knowledge, divine consecration,
and miraculous gifts, which fitted him for the subversion of the Roman
dominion, and the erection of a kingdom of his own,――their thoughts
were all the while running on the division of the spoils and honors,
which would be the reward of the chief followers of the conqueror;
and in this state of mind, they were prepared to pervert all the
declarations of Jesus, so as to make them harmonize with their own
hopes and notions. While on this journey southward, to Jerusalem, after
they had passed into the eastern sections of Judea, beyond the Jordan,
Jesus was one day, in answer to an inquiry from Peter, promising his
disciples a high reward for the sacrifices they had made in his service;
and assuring them, that in return for houses or lands or relatives or
friends, left for his name’s sake, they should all receive a return,
a hundred-fold greater than the loss. Especially were their fancies
struck by a vivid picture, which he presented to their minds, of the
high rewards accruing to all the twelve, declaring that after the
completion of the change which he was working, and when he had taken
his own imperial throne, they should sit around him on twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Here was a prospect, enough
to satisfy the most aspiring ambition; but along with the hopes now
awakened, arose also some queries about the preference of places in
this throned triumph, which were not easily settled so as to satisfy
all at once. In the proposed arrangement, it was perfectly evident,
that of the whole circle of thrones, by far the most honorable
locations would be those immediately on the right and left of the
Messiah-king; and their low ambition set them at once contriving how
to get these pre-eminent places for themselves. Of all the apostolic
band, none could so fairly claim the right hand throne as Peter;
already pronounced the Rock on which the church should be founded,
and commissioned as the keeper of the keys of the kingdom. But Peter’s
devotion to his Master seems to have been of too pure a character, to
let him give any thought to the mere rewards of the victory, so long
as he could feel sure of the full return of that burning affection
to his Lord, with which his own ardent soul glowed; and he left it
to others to settle points of precedency and the division of rewards.
On no occasion throughout his whole life, is there recorded any
evidence of the slightest disposition to claim the mere honors of a
pre-eminence, though his superior force of character made the whole
band instinctively look to him for guidance, on all times of trouble
and danger, after the ascension. His modest, confiding, disinterested
affection for his Master, indeed, was the main ground of all the
high distinctions conferred on him so unsparingly by Jesus, who would
have been very slow to honor thus, one who was disposed to grow proud
or overbearing under the possession of these favors. But this very
character of modesty and uncalculating affection, gave occasion also
to the other disciples, to push themselves forward for a claim to those
peculiar exaltations, which his indifference to personal advancement
seemed to leave unoccupied, for the more ambitious to assume. In this
instance, particularly, James and John were so far moved with the
desire of the enviable distinction of this primacy, that they made
it a matter of family consultation, and accordingly brought the case
before their fondly ambitious mother, who instantly determined that
the great object should be achieved before any one else could secure
the chance for the place; and resolved to use her influence in favor
of her darling sons. On the first favorable opportunity she therefore
went with them to Jesus; and, as it would appear by the combination
of the accounts of Matthew and Mark, both she and they presented the
request at once and together,――James and John, however, prefacing the
declaration of their exact purpose by a general petition for unlimited
favor,――“Master, we would that thou shouldst do for us whatever we
desire?” To this modest petition, Jesus replied by asking, “What
would ye that I should grant?” They, with their mother, falling
down at his feet in fawning, selfish worship, then urged their grand
request:――“Grant,” said the ambitious SALOME, “that these my two sons
may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, when
thou reignest in thy glory.” Jesus, fully appreciating the miserable
state of selfish ignorance which inspired the hope and the question,
in order to show them their ignorance, and to make them express their
minds more fully, assured them that they knew not the meaning of their
own request, and asked them whether they were able to drink of the
cup that he should drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that he
should be baptized with? With unhesitating self-conceit, they answered,
“We are able.” But Jesus replied in such a tone as to check all further
solicitation of this kind from them, or from any other of his hearers.
“Ye shall drink indeed of 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 shall be given to them for whom it is prepared by
my father.”――“The cup of sorrow, and suffering, and agony,――the baptism
of spirit, fire, and blood,――of these you shall all drink in a solemn
and mournful reality, which you are now far from conceiving; but
the high places of the kingdom which I come to found, are not to be
disposed of to those who think to forestall my personal favor; they
are for the blessed of my father, who, in the time appointed in his
own good pleasure, will give it to them, in the end of days.” The
disappointed family of Zebedee retired, quite confounded with the
rejection of their petition, and with the darkly told prophecy that
accompanied it, dooming them to some mysterious fate of which they
could form no idea whatever. The rest of the twelve, hearing of the
ambitious attempt of the sons of Zebedee to secure the supremacy,
by a secret movement, and by family influence, were moved with great
indignation against the intriguing aspirants, and expressed their
displeasure so decidedly, that Jesus called them around him, to improve
this manifestation of folly and passion, to their advantage; and said,
“You know that the nations are governed by princes and lords, and that
none exercise authority over them but the great ones of the land. Now
it shall not be so among you; but he who will be great among you, must
be your servant; and he who shall be your chief, shall be the slave of
all the rest. For even the Son of Man himself came not to make others
his slaves, but to be himself a slave to many, and even to sacrifice
his life in their service.”
_Salome._――The reason for the supposition that this was really
the name of the mother of James, consists in the comparison of
two corresponding passages of Matthew and Mark. In Matthew xxvii.
56, it is said that among the women present at the crucifixion,
were “Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of Joses, and _the mother
of Zebedee’s children_.” In the parallel passage, Mark xv. 40,
they are mentioned as “Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of
James and Joses, and _Salome_.” In Mark xvi. 1, _Salome_ is also
mentioned among those who went to the sepulcher. This is not
proof positive, but it is reasonable ground for the supposition,
more especially as Matthew never mentions Salome by name, but
repeatedly speaks of “the mother of Zebedee’s children.”
If, as is probable then, Salome and the mother of Zebedee’s
children were identical, it is also reasonable to suppose, as
Lampe does, that Zebedee himself may have died soon after the
time when the call of his sons took place. For Salome could
hardly have left her husband and family, to go, as she did,
with Jesus on his journeys, ministering to his necessities,――but
if her husband was really dead, she would have but few ties
to confine her at home, and would therefore very naturally be
led, by her maternal affection, and anxiety for her sons, to
accompany them in their wandering life. The supposition of
Zebedee’s death is also justified by the circumstance, that John
is spoken of in his own gospel, (John xix. 27,) as possessing
a house of “his _own_,” which seems to imply the death of his
father; since so young a man would hardly have acquired property,
except by inheritance.
Thus he laid out before them all the indispensable qualities of the
man who aspired to the dangerous, painful and unenviable primacy among
them,――humility, meekness and laborious industry. But vain were all the
earnest teachings of his divine spirit. Schemes and hopes of worldly
eminence and imperial dominion, were too deeply rooted in their hearts,
to be displaced by this oft-repeated view of the labors and trials
of his service. Already, on a former occasion too, had he tried to
impress them with the true spirit of the apostleship. When on the way
to Capernaum, at the close of this journey through Galilee, they had
disputed among themselves on the question, which of them should be
the prime minister of their Messiah-king, when he had established
his heavenly reign in all the dominions of his father David. On their
meeting with him in the house at Capernaum, he brought up this point
of difference. Setting a little child before them, (probably one
of Peter’s children, as it was in his house,) and taking the little
innocent into his arms, he assured them that unless they should become
utterly changed in disposition and in hope, and become like that little
child in simplicity of character, they should have no share whatever,
in the glories of that kingdom, which was to them an object of so many
ambitious aspirations. But neither this charge nor the repetition of
it, could yet avail to work that necessary change in their feelings.
Still they all lived on in vain and selfish hope, scheming for personal
aggrandizement, till the progress of events bringing calamity and trial
upon them, had purified their hearts, and fully fitted them for the
duties of the great office to which they had so unthinkingly devoted
themselves. Then indeed, did the aspiring James receive, in a deeper
sense than he had ever dreamed of, the reward for which he now longed
and begged;――drinking first of the cup of agony, and baptized first in
blood, he ascended first to the place on the right hand of the Messiah
in his eternal kingdom. But years of toil and sorrow, seen and felt,
were his preparation for this glorious crown.
James has also been made the subject of a long series of fables,
though the early termination of his apostolic career would
seem to leave no room whatever, for the insertion of any very
great journeys and labors upon the authentic history. But the
Spaniards, in the general rage for claiming some apostle as a
national patron saint, long ago got up the most absurd fiction,
that James, the son of Zebedee, during the period intervening
between Christ’s ascension and his own execution at Jerusalem,
actually performed a voyage over the whole length of the
Mediterranean, into Spain, where he remained several years,
preaching, founding churches, and performing miracles, and
returned to Jerusalem in time for the occurrence of the
concluding event, as recorded in the twelfth chapter of Acts.
This story probably originated in the same manner as that
suggested to account for the fables about Andrew; that is,――that
some preacher of Christianity, of this name, in a later age,
actually did travel into Spain, there preaching the gospel, and
founding churches; and that his name being deservedly remembered,
was, in the progress of the corruptions of the truth, confounded
with that of the apostle James, son of Zebedee,――this James
being selected rather than the son of Alpheus, because the
latter had already been established by tradition, as the hero of
a story quite inconsistent with any Spanish journey, and being
also less dignified by the Savior’s notice. Be that as it may,
Saint James (Santo Jago) is to this day esteemed the patron
saint of Spain, and his tomb is shown in Compostella, in that
kingdom; for they will have it, that, after his decapitation by
Herod Agrippa, his body was brought all the way over the sea, to
Spain, and there buried in the scene of his toils and miracles.
A Spanish order of knighthood, that of St. Jago de Compostella,
takes its name from this notion.
The old romancer, Abdias Babylonius, who is so rich in stories
about Andrew, has much to tell about James, and enters at great
length into the details of his crucifixion; crowning the whole
with the idle story, that when he was led to death, his accuser,
Josiah, a Pharisee, suddenly repenting, begged his forgiveness
and professed his faith in Christ,――for which he also was
beheaded along with him, after being baptized by James in some
water that was handed to him by the executioner, in a calabash.
(Abdias Babylonius, History of the Apostolical Contest, IV. § 9.)
From the time of this event, there occurs no mention whatever of any
act of James, until the commemoration of the occasion of his exit; and
even this tragic circumstance is mentioned so briefly, that nothing can
be learned but the mere fact and manner of his death. On the occasion
fully described above, in the life of Peter, Herod Agrippa I. seized
this apostle, and at once put him to death by the executioner’s
sword. The particular grounds, on which this act of bloody cruelty was
justified by the tyrant and his friends, are wholly unknown. Probably
there was a pretence at a set accusation of some crime, which would
make the act appear less atrocious at the time, than appears from
Luke’s silence as to the grounds of the proceeding. The remarkable
prominence of James, however, was enough to offer a motive to the
popularity-seeking Agrippa, whose main object, being to “please the
Jews,” led him to seize those who had most displeased them, by laboring
for the advancement of the Nazarene heresy. And that this actually
was his governing principle in selecting his victims, is made further
apparent by the circumstance that Peter, the great chief of the band,
was next marked for destruction. Though no particular acts of James
are recorded as having made him prominently obnoxious to the Jews,
yet there is every reason to believe, that the exalted ardor and now
chastened ambition of this Son of Thunder, had made him often the bold
assaulter of sophistry and hypocrisy,――a heroism which at once sealed
his doom, and crowned him with the glory of THE APOSTOLIC PROTO-MARTYR.
JOHN;
THE SON OF ZEBEDEE.