Zebedee Zebedee Zebedee (, "Zebedaios", ; , "Zvad'yah", ), according to all four Canonical gospels, was the father of James and John, two disciples of Jesus. The gospels also suggest that he was the husband of Salome: whereas Mark 15:40 names the women present at the crucifixion as "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome", the parallel passage in has "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children." The "Catholic Encyclopedia" concludes that the Salome of Mark 15:40 is probably identical with the mother of
Salome (Gospel of James) also other versions of the story in various texts. Greek paintings, as in the illustration here, often labelled the midwife as "Emea" (ΗΜΕΑ, ἡ μαῖα, "the midwife"), and in the West this was sometimes taken to be her name, rather than her job. That Salome is the first, after the midwife, to bear witness to the birth and to recognize Jesus as the Christ, are circumstances that tend to connect her with Salome the disciple. By the High Middle Ages this Salome was often identified with Mary Salome in the West, and therefore regarded as the believing midwife. Salome (Gospel