Why Zebedee had to be left with hired servants

[Giuseppe]

To secure the readers that no harm was done to the father.

Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

(1:10)

Hence it is an apology against the accusation that the apostles were a disturbing factor for the society around.

[Martin Klatt]

- - -

[DCHindley]

Hmm, now why did the old man not forbid them to go off with a complete stranger and that in dereliction of their duty to the father they had to honour? Because they were lousy fishermen(they were repairing the nets)and he was glad to be rid of them and already had the hired hands to make up for their incompetence.

Are you being a bit "tongue in cheek" there?

I think that the factoid about leaving their father Zebedee with hired workers to assist him with the fishing business, in order to follow Jesus, was not intended to be taken as an abandonment of their father. Dad may have well said "Go follow God's calling for you" just as easily as he, as you suggest, might say "Go away you lazy good for nuttin' no-goodniks."

Since I deal with small businesses every blessed day I can vouch for the idea of a business owning daddy having hired workers (not servants = slaves, I do not believe) enough that the presence of his sons (or daughters) was not required to make a reasonable living for the rest of the family. Family businesses are funny that way. Kids either follow their father in the family business or seek to strike out on their own. Even the ones who stay often have light duties for big paychecks. The hired help may have been happy to see them go, as then there is more for the father to pay them.

Nothing has been established here, other than to question the prevailing model that all common people were ground down to subsistence living. Fabian Udoh's book on Taxes & Tribute in Herod's Judea had the opposite conclusion, that material culture had improved under Herod and continued afterward.

DCH (yes boss, back to work)