Mat 10:1-5 | EE | STEP | 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.

Matthew 10:1-5

Jesus chooses 12 men to be his apostles

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.
There were Thomas and Matthew. (Matthew took taxes on behalf of the government.)
And James who was the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus.

4 There was also Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who later gave Jesus to those people who were against him. ^{▼▼10:4 Jesus 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. In his book, John calls Bartholomew, Nathanael (John 1:45). Matthew is another name for Levi. In Matthew 10:3 and Mark 3:18, Judas, son of James is called Thaddaeus.} ^{▼▼10:4 A Zealot was a man who wanted to fight against the Roman ruler. The Zealots wanted the Jews to rule Israel again.}

Jesus sends out his 12 apostles

5 Jesus sent out these 12 disciples. Before they left, he said to them, ‘Do not go to any place where the people are not Jews. And you must not go to towns where only Samaritans live. ^{▼▼10:5 The Samaritan people and the Jews did not like each other. Some of the Samaritans’ ancestors were Jewish and some of them were not.}