Jesus Appoints Twelve Apostles^(A)

¹³ Then Jesus^[a] went up on a hillside and called to himself those whom he had decided on, and they approached him. ¹⁴ He appointed the Twelve,^[b] whom he called apostles, to accompany him, to be sent out to preach, ¹⁵ and to have the authority to drive out demons. ¹⁶ He appointed the Twelve:^[c] Simon (whom he named Peter), ¹⁷ Zebedee’s sons James and his brother John (whom he named Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder), ¹⁸ Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus,^[d] Simon the Cananaean,^{[e] 19} and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Jesus is Accused of Working with Beelzebul^(B)

²⁰ Then he went home. Such a large crowd gathered again that Jesus and his disciples^[f] couldn’t even eat. ²¹ When his family heard about it, they went to restrain him, because they kept saying, “He’s out of his mind!”

²² The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem kept repeating, “He has Beelzebul,” and, “He drives out demons by the ruler of demons.”

²³ So Jesus^[g] called them together and began to speak to them in parables. “How can Satan drive out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ And if a household is divided against itself, that household won’t stand. ²⁶ So if Satan rebels against himself and is divided, he cannot stand. Indeed, his end has come. ²⁷ No one can go into a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions without first tying up the strong man. Then he can ransack his house. ²⁸ I tell all of you^[h] with certainty, people will be forgiven their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter.^{[i] 29} But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never be forgiven, but is guilty of eternal sin.” ³⁰ …because they had been saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

The True Family of Jesus^(C)

³¹ Then his mother and his brothers arrived. Milling around outside, they sent for him, continuously summoning him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him. They told him, “Look! Your mother and your brothers^[j] are outside asking for you.”

³³ He answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴ Then looking at the people sitting around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”