Mark 3:17 Commentary and Bible Study

And then James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. This is John the disciple whom Christ had a special regard for. ‘Boanerges, the sons of thunder’: they were fiery those two brothers. They were outspoken vehement men by nature. So they too had their problems. But you think what Christ did for John. John was given to be the author of five books in the New Testament: John, who was given the longest life of any of them; John who was given the privilege of writing the Book of Revelation, the final part of the New Testament. When he was recruited and appointed, he was a son of thunder, an overreactive man, and yet he became a man of such calm and commanding presence. You read the epistles of John, and you imagine that the human author who was used to pen these epistles, must have been a man of enormous lovingkindness and patience. But he didn't start altogether that way. James, John’s brother was the first Christian martyr, and most of the apostles, so far as we know, were martyred for the cause.