The Greek proper name Zebedaios (Ζεβεδαῖος) is the NT form of the Hebrew Zabdiel or Zebadiah, meaning 'gift of God' or 'the LORD has bestowed.' It appears 12 times in the NT, always identifying James and John as 'the sons of Zebedee.' Zebedee was a Galilean fisherman, apparently prosperous enough to employ hired servants (Mark 1:20).
Though Zebedaios never speaks in the NT, his presence frames some of the most important moments of the Gospels. He was mending nets with his sons when Jesus called them to follow (Matt 4:21–22; Mark 1:19–20). The immediacy of their response — leaving their father in the boat with the hired servants — dramatizes the radical demand of discipleship. Zebedee's wife (likely Salome; cf. Matt 27:56 with Mark 15:40) was among the women who followed Jesus to the cross and came to the tomb on Easter morning.