James, Son of Zebedee

We know the least about James but that he was the first of the Apostles of Y’Shua to become a martyr. James was the elder brother of John and with John he was a partner with Andrew and Peter in the fishing trade along with Zebedee, his father. They owned several boats and employed hired servants, and therefore, this fishing company must have been quite affluent. There is also some evidence that James was a first cousin to Y’Shua and had been acquainted with Him since infancy.
James is referred to as being present at the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law at Capernaum. Following this he was ordained as one of the twelve disciples of Y’Shua. James life was cut off while the Messianic Church was young. He was known as Sons of Thunder, was bestowed on them when they were first called to the discipleship. James was murdered by King Herod Agrippa 1, about the year 44 A.D., shortly before Herod’s own death. The account is found in Acts 12:1-2. James fulfills the prophecy of Y’Shua that he too should drink of the cup of his Master.
It was not until 1879 that the bones were found again, behind the High Altar, a sensational discovery causing one of the workmen to faint and become temporarily blind. Elaborate tests were applied to the mingled remains of James and his two disciples, and the skeleton of the apostle was identified with the help of a missing portion preserved in a reliquary in the cathedral of Pistoya.
We can assume with reasonable certainty that James died in the year of 44, since he was executed in Jerusalem during the rule of Herod Agrippa 1 (Acts 12, 2). Thus his original grave must have been situated near Jerusalem. In the year 614 the Persians occupied the Byzantine territories in Syria and Palestine, and some scholars believe that the body of James was brought to Galicia at the time.
The miraculous discovery of the relics of James in Santiago occurred in the first quarter of the ninth century (791-842, and before the year of 842), that is before the first destruction of the shrine of St. Menas, but at a time when there must already have been some concern for its security, the ninth century at the very latest. The best of the Bible encyclopedias (ISBE) indicates James was slain by Herod Agrippa 1 about 44 A.D.
The Encyclopedia Britannica affirms James’ official martyrdom about 14 years after the death of Messiah, (Acts 12:2) under Herod Agrippa 1, the grandson of Herod the Great. It adds, ‘there is a tradition open to serious difficulties and not unanimously admitted, that James preached the gospel in Spain and that after his death his body was transported to Compostela. The resultant death of James, after his preaching career of 14 years due to a mere suspicion of illegal activities was a hallmark of all the Herods. ’
After the ascension of the Messiah, James preach the Gospel in Judea; then he travelled over the whole world, and came at last to Spain, where he made very few converts by reason of the ignorance and darkness of the people. He became the patron saint of the Spaniards, and Compostela, as a place of pilgrimage, was renowned throughout Europe. According to the Spanish legend, James was the son of Zebedee, an illustrious baron of Galilee, who, being the proprietor of ships, was accustomed to fish along the shores of a certain lake called Genesareth, but solely for his good pleasure and recreation. It is entirely possible that a number of Jewish slaves in Spain were indeed converted to Y’Shua by James, and have based on this their miraculous tales concerning the visit of James which might well have been the foundation of a later association of James with Spain. Such visit was entirely in character with what we know of the personality of James. He was a zealous Jew who could have been filled with compassion for the salvation of those doubly unfortunate Jewish slaves in Spain. He would have wanted them for the Messiah and have felt keenly their separation from the main body of Israel.
James is not mentioned in the Gospel of John, a fact of especial interest if we accept John, the brother of James, as its author. The Gospel of John is the only source of information about Philip, Andrew, and Nathanael Bartholomew. John tells nothing of James, his brother, and conceals his own identity under the cloak of the ‘beloved disciple.’ Apocryphal literature states: “Zebedee was if the house of Levi, and his wife of the house of Judah. Now, because the father of James loved him greatly he counted him among the family of his father Levi, and similarly because the mother of John loved him greatly, she counted him among the family of her father Judah. And they were surnamed “Children of Thunder, for they were both the priestly house and of the royal house.