Choosing the Twelve Apostles

Plain English Version (PEV)

Mat 10:1–4

1 Jesus told his followers, “You know about students and teachers. The teacher is more important than any of the students. The students have to learn to be like their teacher. And I am your teacher, so you have to learn to be like me. And you know about workers and their boss. The boss is more important than any of the workers. The workers have to learn to be like their boss. And I am your boss, so you have to learn to be like me. People will treat you the same way as they treat me. I am your leader, and they call me the biggest devil. You are my followers, so they will say bad things about you too, more than they say about me.
2 But don’t be frightened of them. You see, people might do things secretly now, but later God will let everyone know what they do. People hide things now, but later God will show them to everybody.
3 And think about the message I tell you now. Sometimes I tell you something when nobody else is here. I might even just whisper it in your ear. But later on, I want you to tell my message to everyone in the world. Get up on a high place, if you can, and shout my words out loud, for lots of people to hear.
4 Don’t be frightened of those people that can only kill your body. They can’t kill your soul. Listen, you have to take notice of God. He can kill your body, and then he can also kill your soul too, in that bad place called hell.

Mrk 3:13–19

13 Then Jesus picked out 12 men that he wanted to be his close followers. Jesus told them, “You mob will walk around with me and live with me, and after that I will send you out to tell people God’s good news, and God will give you the power to send bad spirits out of people.” He called them his close followers.
14 These are the names of the 12 men that Jesus picked out, – Simon. Jesus gave him another name. He called him Peter. – James and John. They were Zebedee’s sons, and they were loud men, so Jesus gave them another name. He called them Thunder men. – Andrew, – Philip, – Bartholomew, – Matthew, – Thomas, – James. He was the son of Alphaeus, – Thaddeus, – Simon. He was a man that really loved his nation and was ready to fight for it. – Judas Iscariot. Some time later he changed sides and helped the enemies of Jesus to catch him.
15 Jesus went into a house and a big mob of people gathered there to him. There were so many people that Jesus and his followers couldn’t even get a feed.
16 Somebody went and told his family about him. They said, “He is mad.” So his family came and tried to take him home to look after him.
17 Some teachers of the Jewish law came from Jerusalem and they were watching Jesus too. They said, “The boss of all the bad spirits, called Beelzebul, is living inside Jesus, and he gives Jesus the power to force bad spirits out from people.”
18 Jesus knew the law teachers were rubbishing him like that, so he called out to them, “Come here and listen to me.” Then he told them stories to teach them. He said, “Do you reckon Satan, the boss of the bad spirits, will fight against his own mob of bad spirits? That doesn’t make sense.
19 Listen to me. If a tribe splits into 2 mobs that fight against each other, that tribe will get weak and finish up.