Matthew 10:1-4

Jesus chooses 12 men to be his apostles

10:1Jesus had many disciples. He chose 12 of them to be with him so that he could teach them. He also called these 12 men apostles. The word apostle means ‘someone whom his master sends out to do a job’. Their job was to tell other people about Jesus.

1 One day, Jesus asked his 12 disciples to come to him. He gave them authority over bad spirits so that they could send the spirits out of people. They could also make sick people well again from every kind of illness.

2 These are the names of the 12 apostles:

The first apostle is Simon, who was also called Peter.

Then Simon's brother, who was called Andrew.

Also James and his brother John, who were Zebedee's sons.

3 There were Philip and Bartholomew.

10:3In his book John calls Bartholomew, Nathanael. See John 1:45.

There were Thomas and Matthew. (Matthew's job was to take taxes from people.)

10:3Matthew is another name for Levi.

And James who was the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus.

10:3In this verse and in Mark 3:18, Judas, son of James is called Thaddaeus.

4 There was also Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who later gave Jesus to his enemies.

10:4A Zealot was a man who wanted to fight against the Roman ruler. The Zealots wanted the Jews to rule Israel again.