Zebedee (/ˈzɛbɪdiː/ ZEB-id-ee; Ancient Greek: Ζεβεδαῖος, romanized: Zebedaîos;[1] Hebrew: זְבַדְיָה, romanized: Zəḇaḏyâ), according to all four Canonical Gospels, was the father of James and John, two apostles of Jesus.

The Catholic Encyclopedia concludes that the Salome of Mark 15:40 is probably identical with the mother of the sons of Zebedee in Matthew.

Mark's note that Zebedee was left with the "hired men" implies the family had some wealth.

[3] The name given in the Gospels, Ζεβεδαῖος, is probably a transliteration of the Hebrew name Zəḇaḏyâ according to Spiros Zodhiates (The Complete Wordstudy Dictionary), or the truncated version Zabdî (זַבְדִּי), says BDB Theological Dictionary, and so means "Yahweh (or the Lord) has bestowed".

[6] A possibly more sinister interpretation of Zebedee may be derived from Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon #2061 z'êb, pronounced zeh-abe', meaning wolf, and #1768 dîy, pronounced dee and meaning that, rendering That (or The) Wolf, possibly suggesting Wolf-Leader.