James and John were the sons of Zebedee and Salome. Their family possessed sufficient means to employ servants and maintain houses in both Galilee and Jerusalem, and it ranked among the chief financial supporters of Jesus' ministry. Through their fishing partnership with Simon Peter the brothers maintained long-standing family ties that predated their call to discipleship. Salome's relation to Mary established that John and Jesus were physical cousins who had known one another from boyhood. Jesus therefore understood their temperament when He named them the Sons of Thunder, a designation that pointed to their zeal, capacity for decisive action, and ability to move others by the power of their message rather than to any merely carnal assertiveness. Their ambition surfaced when they requested the places of highest honor in the Kingdom, yet Jesus looked beyond such impulses and drew them, together with Peter, into His most intimate circle of instruction. After the resurrection John consistently accompanied Peter in the early preaching recorded in Acts, supplying a steadying insight that balanced Peter's boldness. Because John had lived through the collapse of Jewish national life in A.D. 70 and had become familiar with Hellenistic patterns of thought while retaining his Israelite roots, he alone among the eyewitnesses was prepared to present Jesus as the logos and the reality that Gentiles could recognize. His Gospel therefore records extended discourses, repeated use of the term for what is real or true, and repeated emphasis on signs that reveal God's active intervention, all arranged to lead readers to believe that Jesus is the Christ and thereby to receive life in His name.

Jesus gave James and John the surname Boanerges, Sons of Thunder, which reflects their zeal to do God's work. That zeal was sometimes misdirected and destructive, as when they took offense on their Lord's behalf in Luke 9:53-56. Their request to sit at Christ's right and left hand in the Kingdom (Matthew 20:20-21; Mark 10:35-37) can be read three ways: their mother Salome pushed for their recognition while they hid behind her; they selfishly climbed the ladder over their fellow disciples; or, most plausibly, they were zealously dedicated to serving Christ and willing to do whatever it took. James was resolute, vigorous, active and forceful, ready for any task, as his martyrdom shows, and he seems not to have minded taking a back seat to his younger brother John, who was contemplative, intuitive and reflective. Both were men of action who met challenges eagerly. Because thunder in Scripture is chiefly the voice of God, the name may be a prophecy of what Christ was making them: not men thundering off in the wrong direction but voices of God. Their calling, like every Christian calling, was a miracle in which Jesus said, "I will make you," and their witness has proclaimed God's way for two thousand years.

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were given the name Boanerges, "Sons of Thunder," by Jesus, who names things what they are. James, the English form of Jacob, followed his father in the fishing business, as did John, and a business arrangement seems to have linked their family with that of Peter and Andrew. Their mother, Salome, was a disciple and was probably Mary's sister, which may explain her request that her sons sit at Christ's right hand. James is never mentioned apart from John or Peter. These three alone witnessed the raising of Jairus' daughter, the transfiguration, and Christ's prayer in Gethsemane, a closeness that fits the principle that to whom much is given, much is required, as Jesus prepared them for later work. James was an apostle for about seventeen years before Herod Agrippa I killed him, making him the first of the Twelve to be martyred. His title "the Great" says nothing about his character. Commentators trace the name Sons of Thunder to the Samaritan village that rejected Jesus, when James and John wanted to call lightning from heaven to destroy it. Their zeal for their Savior was real but misdirected, and Jesus rebuked them: "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of." God's Spirit was not influencing their vengeful power, and wisdom had not yet come to them.