II. THE MOTHER OF ZEBEDEE’S CHILDREN

Matth. 4:21.—“And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their Father.”

Ch. 8:21.—“And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.”

Ch. 20:20.—“Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.”

Ch. 27:55, 56.—“And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him. Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children.”

When the coincidence which I shall found upon these passages first occurred to me, I felt some doubt whether, by producing it, I might not subject myself to a charge of over-refinement. On further consideration, however, I am satisfied that the conjecture I hazard (for it is nothing more) is far from improbable; and I am the less disposed to withhold it from having observed, when I have chanced to discuss any of these paragraphs with my friends, how differently the importance of an argument is estimated by different minds; a point of evidence often inducing conviction in one, which another would find almost nugatory.

Whoever reads the four verses which I have given at the head of this Number in juxtaposition, will probably anticipate what I have to say. The coincidence here is not between several writers, but between several detached passages of the same writer. From the first of these verses it appears that, at the period when James and John received the call to follow Christ, Zebedee their father was alive. They obeyed the call, and left him. From the last two verses it appears, in my opinion, that, at a subsequent period of which they treat, Zebedee was dead. Zebedee does not make the application to Christ on behalf of his sons, but the mother of Zebedee’s children makes it. Zebedee is not at the crucifixion, but the mother of Zebedee’s children. It is not from his absence on these occasions that I so much infer his death, as from the expression applied to Salome; she is not called the wife of Zebedee, she is not called the mother of James and John, but the mother of Zebedee’s children. The term, I think, implies that she was a widow.

Now from the second verse, which relates to a period between these two, we learn that one of Jesus’ disciples asked him permission “to go and bury his father.” The interval was a short one; the number of persons to whom the name of disciple was given, was very small (see Matthew 9:37); a single boat seems to have contained them all (8:23). In that number we know that the sons of Zebedee were included. My inference therefore is, that the death of Zebedee is here alluded to, and that St. Matthew, without a wish, perhaps, or thought, either to conceal or express the individual (for there seems no assignable motive for his studying to do either), betrays an event familiar to his own mind, in that inadvertent and unobtrusive manner in which the truth so often comes out.

The data, it must be confessed, are not enough to determine the matter with certainty either way; it is a conjectural coincidence. They who are not satisfied with it may pass it over: I am persuaded, however, that nothing is wanted but more copious information to multiply such proofs of veracity as these I am collecting to a great extent. It is impossible to examine the historical parts of the New Testament or Old in detail, without suspicions constantly arising of facts, which, nevertheless, cannot be substantiated for want of documents. We have very often a glimpse, and no more. A hint is dropped relating to something well known at the time, and which is not without its value even now, in evidence, by giving us to understand that it is a fragment of some real story, of which we are not in full possession. Of this nature is the circumstance recorded by St. Mark (14:51), that when the disciples forsook Jesus, “there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth east about his naked body, and the young men laid hold on him; and he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.” This is evidently an imperfect history. It is an incident altogether detached, and alone: another narrative might give us the supplement, and together with that supplement indications of its truth. As another example of the same kind, may be mentioned an expression in the beginning of the second chapter of the Gospel of St. John, “and the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee” (v. i); the Apostle clearly having some other event in his mind which does not transpire, from which this third day dates. Meanwhile let us but apply ourselves diligently to comparing together the four witnesses which we have, instead of indulging a fruitless desire for more, and if consistency without design be a proof that they are “true men,” I cannot but consider that it is abundantly supplied.