William Barclay says that “James, the brother of John and the Son of Zebedee, is the most tantalizingly vague figure among the twelve.” (THE MASTER’S MEN, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1959, p.100) We know that he occupied a leading place among the twelve apostles.  In every list of the Twelve, his name appears in the first three—even ahead of Andrew, Peter’s brother.  And yet we know very little about him.  (His name is not even mentioned in the Fourth Gospel.) We know little about him, but what we do know is very significant.  We know that James and his brother John were sons of a man named Zebedee, a fisherman on the Galilee who was sufficiently well-to-do that he could hire servants in his business.  (Mark 1:19-20) So they were a part of “Zebedee and Sons Fishing Company, Inc.” We know th…