James, son of Zebedee (Aramaic Yaʕqov, Greek Ιάκωβος, died 44 AD) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

. He was a son of Zebedee

Zebedee

Zebedee is a name which may refer to:-People:* Zebedee , father of James and John* Zebedee Armstrong , an American outsider artist...

 and Salome

Salome (disciple)

Salome , sometimes venerated as Mary Salome, was a follower of Jesus who appears briefly in the canonical gospels and in more detail in apocryphal writings...

, and brother of John the Apostle

John the Apostle

John the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...

. He is also called James the Greater to distinguish him from James, son of Alphaeus

James, son of Alphaeus

Saint James, son of Alphaeus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. He is often identified with James the Less and commonly known by that name in church tradition....

, who is also known as James the Lesser.
James is described as one of the first disciples to join Jesus. The Synoptic Gospels

Synoptic Gospels

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes exactly the same wording. This degree of parallelism in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence structures can only be...

 state that James and John were with their father by the seashore when Jesus called them to follow him.