6. The Pharisees left, and with Herod’s followers they immediately plotted to kill Jesus.
7. Jesus left with his disciples for the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd from Galilee, Judea,
8. Jerusalem, Idumea, and from across the Jordan River, and from around Tyre and Sidon followed him. They came to him because they had heard about everything he was doing.
9. Jesus told his disciples to have a boat ready so that the crowd would not crush him.
10. He had cured so many that everyone with a disease rushed up to him in order to touch him.
11. Whenever people with evil spirits saw him, they would fall down in front of him and shout, “You are the Son of God!”
12. He gave them orders not to tell people who he was.
13. Jesus went up a mountain, called those whom he wanted, and they came to him.
14. He appointed twelve whom he called apostles. They were to accompany him and to be sent out by him to spread ⌊the Good News⌋.
15. They also had the authority to force demons out of people.
16. He appointed these twelve: Simon (whom Jesus named Peter),
17. James and his brother John (Zebedee’s sons whom Jesus named Boanerges, which means “Thunderbolts”),
18. Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot,
19. and Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed Jesus).
20. Then Jesus went home. Another crowd gathered so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat.
21. When his family heard about it, they went to get him. They said, “He’s out of his mind!”
22. The experts in Moses’ Teachings who had come from Jerusalem said, “Beelzebul is in him,” and “He forces demons out of people with the help of the ruler of demons.”
23. Jesus called them together and used this illustration: “How can Satan force out Satan?
24. If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last.
25. And if a household is divided against itself, that household will not last.