James and John, the Sons of Zebedee

James and John, the Sons of Zebedee Commentary by Martin Warner Cite Share Show Bible Passage This painting is about family life. The artist is Quinten Massys. He developed his style in Antwerp, where the school of Rogier van der Weyden introduced an air of ‘southern sophistication’, drawn from the latter’s time working in Rome and evident in the painting’s architectural composition. There is no interest here in historical reconstruction. Well-established custom permitted the artist to dress the first-century Palestinian family of Jesus Christ in the contemporary fashion of prosperous Antwerp. The Lutheran New Testament scholar and ecumenist Oscar Cullmann once noted that ‘whenever biographical literature shows gaps, legend generally springs up’ (Elliott 2005: 46). This ‘holy kinship’ painting is a good example. It takes its lead from the second-century Gospel of James, also known as the Protoevangelium. This document fills in more details of the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus; her parents (Joachim and Anna); her schooling (in the Temple in Jerusalem); and how Joseph came to be betrothed to her. This material is further amplified by chapter 131 of the thirteenth-century Golden Legend, the inspiration of so much holy kinship iconography. Seated centrally on a raised bench are Anne, Mary, and the Christ child. The husbands look on, segregated from the holy nursery. Joachim and Joseph stand behind their wives. Next to Joseph is Alphaeus who is married to Mary’s sister, Mary Clopas. And Zebedee, standing next to Joachim, is married to Mary’s other sister, Mary Salome. Mary Clopas’s children are James the Less, Simon, Thaddeus, and Joseph Barsabbas who was not elected when the Apostles’ vote went to Matthias (Acts 1:23–26). Mary Salome’s two sons are, of course, James and John (Matthew 27:56). It is assumed that it is she who approaches Jesus in Matthew’s version of this encounter (Matthew 20:20–28). This legend, in which many of the Apostles are Jesus’s cousins, is a strong statement about an authentically human dimension of the incarnation and life in the Church. We belong to a family, with all the rivalry and politics that might entail—like the question, ‘Who is the greatest?’. References Elliott, J. K. (ed.). 2005. The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation Based on M. R. James (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 48–67 Murray, Peter, and Linda Murry (eds). 1996. The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 265–66