Bible Synapse

Did James and John ask for the places at Jesus’ right and left, or did their mother?

Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate

Different details of one event
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The passages

Matthew 20:20–24

The mother of Zebedee’s children comes “with her sons” and asks that they may sit at Jesus’ right and left; Jesus answers the brothers, and the ten are angry with them.

Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren.

Mark 10:35–37

James and John come to Jesus and ask to sit, one on his right hand and one on his left, in his glory.

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory.

The objection

In Mark the request for the places of honour at Jesus’ right and left comes from James and John themselves. Matthew says that it was their mother who came and made the request. Critics ask who asked.

The answer

Both Gospels describe one request, made by the brothers through their mother. Matthew says that the mother of Zebedee’s children came “with her sons”, knelt and made the request (Matthew 20:20–21). But Matthew himself shows that the request was really the sons’. Jesus answers them, not her, in the plural: “Ye know not what ye ask” (Greek ouk oidate ti aiteisthe, ‘you do not know what you are asking’). It is they who reply, “We are able” (20:22). And the ten are indignant “against the two brethren”, not against their mother (20:24). Mark, telling it more briefly, goes straight to the brothers, whose wish it was (Mark 10:35–37).

What someone asks through another, he can rightly be said to ask himself. Perhaps the brothers asked their mother, who followed Jesus and is probably the Salome of Mark 15:40 (compare Matthew 27:56), to speak first and add weight to their plea, and then joined in; the texts do not say how it was arranged. Matthew and Mark agree on who wanted the places, on Jesus’ question about drinking his cup, and on his answer that the places are given by the Father.

Other answers Christians give

Two requests

Some suggest that the brothers asked first, and that when Jesus did not grant it their mother tried again on their behalf, so that Mark and Matthew record two moments. The accounts are so close in wording that most take them as one conversation.

From the classic commentators

Mark says they came and made the request. That is, they made it, as appears from Matthew, through the medium of their mother; they requested her to ask it for them.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on Matthew 20:20 (1832)

Sources

Further reading

Raised by: The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible. Only the verse references come from these lists.

Checked 2026-10-22. All hard questions