16. These are the 12 men he chose: Simon (Jesus gave him the name Peter);
17. James and John, the sons of Zebedee (Jesus gave them the name Boanerges, which means “Sons of Thunder”);
18. Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot,
19. and Judas Iscariot. Judas is the one who gave Jesus to his enemies.
20. Then Jesus went back home. But again a crowd gathered. There were so many people that Jesus and his followers could not eat.
21. His family heard about all these things. They went to get him because people were saying that Jesus was out of his mind.
22. And the teachers of the law from Jerusalem were saying, “Beelzebul is living inside him! He uses power from the ruler of demons to force demons out.”
23. So Jesus called the people together and used stories to teach them. He said, “Satan will not force his own demons out of people.
24. A kingdom that fights against itself cannot continue.
25. And a family that is divided cannot continue.
26. And if Satan is against himself and fights against his own people, then he cannot continue. And that is the end of Satan.
27. If a person wants to enter a strong man’s house and steal his things, first he must tie up the strong man. Then the thief can steal the things from the strong man’s house.