One of the four fishermen called at the lake, and with his brother JOHN and with Peter one of the three taken apart at the transfiguration, at the raising of Jairus' daughter, and in Gethsemane. Their father ZEBEDEE had a boat and (Mark 1:20) hired men, so the family was in business rather than subsistence; Jesus nicknamed the pair 'Boanerges', sons of thunder, which the Gospels then illustrate — they want to call fire down on a Samaritan village, and they ask for the two best seats in the kingdom. ⚠ He is the first of the Twelve to be killed: Herod Agrippa I had him beheaded (Acts 12:2), which makes him the only apostle whose death the New Testament actually records. Not to be confused with James the brother of Jesus, who led the Jerusalem church and wrote the letter, nor with James son of Alphaeus, also one of the Twelve.