<Zebedee (post-classical LatinZebedaeus (Vulgate), Hellenistic GreekΖεβεδαῖος (New Testament)), the name of the father of the apostles James and John + ‑istsuffix…
<Zebedee (post-classical LatinZebedaeus (Vulgate), Hellenistic GreekΖεβεδαῖος (New Testament)), the name of the father of the apostles James and John + ‑istsuffix.
Notes
It is unclear which Hebrew or Aramaic name underlies Zebedee's name; perhaps HebrewZĕḇadyāh, which occurs in the Old Testament and Hebrew Scriptures as the name of nine different individuals.
Meaning & use
Obsolete.
1574
A person who seeks advancement or high office.
Apparently an isolated use.
With allusion to Matthew 20:20–2, in which the mother of the sons of Zebedee (the apostles James and John), asks Jesus to grant them the favour of sitting at his right and left hand in God's kingdom, a request which meets with a rebuke from Jesus and indignation on the part of the other apostles.
1574
Like a pore blinde zebediste to aske he knoweth not what with such a sturre to make suite for the retaining off his place, to sitt on the righthande, or lefte hand off Iesus Christe in this worlde.
translation of Life 70. Archbishopp Canterbury To Reader sig. Eiij