Why is John son of Zebedee down by the Jordan?

Why isn't he home fishing on the lake with pop?

A most peculiar question struck me the first time I read John 1:35-40, and I have not been able to shake it yet. What's John doing down by the Jordan River? Why is he following John the Baptist around? Why in the world would he call himself a disciple of the Baptist? What's going on here?

That question has been with me for since I was ten years old. At ten, I had an insatiable curiosity about the Bible, but no resources to guide me. No teacher. No commentaries. Just the black words on the page, set off by the red words when Jesus was speaking.

Before we can address the above question, we must address the question of identity. The book of John, like the other Gospels, is internally anonymous. The word "John" is used therein only as the name of the Baptist. The word "Apostle" does not appear in this fourth Gospel. The word "Zebedee" appears but once, in the Gospel's closing story of an emotionally charged final meeting between Jesus and his closest, earliest disciples. The writer of the Gospel then introduces himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved."

But back to our passage in John chapter one. Two initially anonymous disciples of the Baptist follow after Jesus, then one of them is identified as Andrew, the brother of the man who becomes known as Simon Peter, while the other remains anonymous. To me at age ten, from its placement in the unfolding story, It was obvious to me that this was John, son of Zebedee and future Apostle. Some well respected scholars today dispute that identification, and one (Richard Bauckham) denies that John son of Zebedee wrote the fourth Gospel. But I have never found a reason to question my initial identity of this anonymous disciple of the Baptist as the writer of our beloved Gospel.

And now back to my question. It is agreed by many scholars that John was the youngest, or one of the youngest, of Jesus' disciples. Instead of meeting John in the company of his elder brother Big James, we meet him in the company of Simon Peter's younger brother Andrew. This leads to the implication (or at least inference) that John son of Zebedee and Andrew son of Jonah are friends, and are likely of similar age.

Age: in ancient Judaism one became a man when he became a son of the Law (bar Mitzvah), usually around the age of thirteen or so. A thirteen-year-old male would not be identified in the bible as a child. He is a man. So it is entirely within the realm of possibility that the Disciple whom Jesus Loved was thirteen when he met Jesus. In my reading of the Gospels, it is possible that up to six of the Apostles were indeed teenagers. In other words, Jesus' first ministry assignment was the youth group. How many of us have started that same way?

But John has a devoted and protective mother, who wants the best for her son. He has a close and productive father, who heads up a commercial fishing consortium on the Sea of Galilee. John has a secure job as a fisherman in this business consortium. He has a secure future, for he and his brother will inherit leadership shares in this consortium. Fishing was big business on the Sea of Galilee. In the fish processing plant at Magdala, fish were dried, smoked, and salted, and packed into large jars for shipping to markets as far away as Rome. So again,

Why is John son of Zebedee following the Baptist around and calling himself a disciple?

We are not entirely clueless as to possible reasons, for we can look to the preaching of John the Baptist to see if there's something there that could draw in our teenage fisherman:

"REPENT! For the Kingdom of God is at hand!"

John and James became known as "Sons of Thunder." Is it possible that they had a loud and demanding father? Is it possible that John ran afoul of his father's expectations, or worse, committed some teenage trespass that got him in trouble? Did the younger son of Zebedee do something from which he needs to repent? Were teenagers in the first century anything like teenagers today?

Again, isn't it exciting that the Kingdom of God is at hand? Change is coming! Big things are on the horizon! The action is going on down by the Jordan, where a new prophet is teaching repentance and change. Wouldn't a teenager like to be close to the action?

The above is speculation, of course. But it helps us understand the impact and drawing power of the man who was the herald for the new Messiah. And it lays the groundwork for why two young men would suddenly leave their teacher and follow this new guy, Jesus of Nazareth, when the Baptist points him out.

Such are the assumptions that lie behind the beginning of my new book series, JOHN!
If you'd like a closer look at my answer to the above questions, you can find a preview on my author page on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B013NVWUT6

Enjoy!