Exegesis:

The syntactic pattern of vv. 13-16 is broken, since kai eklexamenos ‘and after selecting’ is not followed by a main verb. Hence several editors include v. 17a in the sentence of vv. 13-16 and this makes estē ‘he stood’ the main verb (cf. GOOD NEWS BIBLE Punctuation apparatus and Nestle). This, however, is not preferable and vv. 13-16 are best understood as an anacoluthon. The translational problem is best solved by rendering the participle eklexamenos as a main verb.

kai hote egeneto hēmera ‘and when day came,’ rather than ‘when it was day,’ because of the inceptive aspect of egeneto.

prosephōnēsen tous mathētas autou ‘he called to him his disciples.’ mathētas refers here to a larger group of followers from which the twelve are to be chosen.

prosphōneō ‘to call out,’ ‘to address,’ here ‘to call to oneself,’ ‘to summon.’

kai eklexamenos ap’ autōn dōdeka ‘and he selected from among them twelve.’

eklegomai ‘to choose,’ ‘to select,’ usually with implication of selecting for a certain purpose.

hous kai apostolous ōnomasen ‘whom he also named apostles.’ Whether this happened at the same time, or later is not stated. The latter is more probable, cf. TWNT I, 429. In either case kai marks the naming as a separate act. onomazō.

apostolos ‘apostle,’ i.e. one who is especially commissioned for a certain task. In 11.49 this task is undefined but here it refers to the preaching of the kingdom of God and the performing of the accompanying signs such as healing (cf. 9.1f); in this meaning also in 9.10. In 17.5; 22.14; 24.10 the noun serves to denote a group without reference to the task.

(V. 14) Simōna, hon kai ōnomasen Petron ‘Simon whom he also named Peter,’ at that same time or at some later occasion, probably the former. The use of kai here serves to mark the naming as separate act.

(V. 15) Iakōbon Halphaiou ‘James the son of Alphaeus.’

Simōna ton kaloumenon zēlōtēn ‘Simon who was called the Zealot.’

zēlōtēs here and in Acts 1.13 used as a cognomen, probably referring to membership of a group which practised zeal for the law (cf. IDB IV, 936-939, esp. 938).

(V. 16) Ioudan Iskariōth, hos egeneto prodotēs ‘Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.’ Iskariōth, probably a transliteration of ʾishkeriot ‘man from Kerioth.’ It is better to transliterate it, rather than to translate it.

prodotēs ‘traitor.’ egeneto in this clause means ‘became,’ not ‘was’ as e.g. 1.5.

It may be safely assumed that the names in the list are grouped two by two, but the reasons for this are only once (in the case of Peter and Andrew) indicated.

Translation:

And when it was day, see on 4.42.

He called his disciples, preferably, ‘he called his disciples to(wards) him’ (cf. e.g. New English Bible, Javanese, Batak Toba). The verb does not have the meaning of ‘calling for a certain vocation.’

Chose from them twelve. Some languages prefer to omit ‘from them,’ cf. e.g. ‘those chosen, only twelve persons’ (Balinese). For to choose, i.e. to prefer (and take) one or some out of a bigger number, Sranan Tongo uses ‘to take … pull’; in some cases expressions with ‘to separate’ do also duty for “to choose”.

Whom he named apostles, preferably, ‘whom (or, these people/persons) he also named/called apostles.’ To bring out the interpretation advocated in Exegesis one may say something like, ‘whom he was to name also apostles,’ or, more (perhaps even too) explicitly, ‘who at a similar/later occasion he named apostles.’ In Ekari the descriptive term for “apostle”, i.e. ‘one-who-goes-and-tells-for-someone.’ Some languages spoken in regions with a Muslim majority use the Arabic word rasul ‘messenger/envoy,’ a title of Mohammed expressing his function as apostle to the Arabs.

(V. 14) The enumeration that now follows is often better introduced by some such expression as ‘namely,’ cf. also “they were” (Phillips). If the names in the list are taken two by two (see Exegesis), this may require the use of one kind of connectives between the names of each pair and another kind, or no connectives, between the pairs.

Whom he named Peter. Where a relative clause is impossible or undesirable, one may have to shift to something like, .’.. in the first place Simon: Jesus gave him the name Peter. Next Andrew, his brother, ….’

Andrew his brother, or, ‘A., brother of Simon,’ ‘A., who was Simon’s brother.’ — Since the reference probably is to a younger brother of the same parents a term specifying one or both of these components is to be used where only such specific terms are available. In languages where specific and generic terms exist side by side translators tend to prefer the latter in order to avoid an uncertain choice. This is quite acceptable in some languages but not in all. In Balinese, for instance, which has distinctive terms for ‘older’ and ‘younger brother,’ as well as a term for ‘brother/sibling’ indifferent to age, the latter term would be misleading in that it suggests a lack of intimate knowledge of the family relationship, and stylistically wrong because it has a somewhat solemn connotation.

(V. 15) The son of Alphaeus, a patronymic specification, in close apposition to “James”, and forming part of his full appellation. In some languages, e.g. Malay, the lexical and syntactic features of the phrase in this context are different from those it would have in other contexts, such as, ‘J. here is a/the son of A..’

The Zealot, or, ‘the zealous One,’ indicating a person with intense religious devotion.

(V. 16) Who became a traitor, or, ‘who later turned out to be a traitor’ (Marathi), ‘who at the end betrayed Jesus.’ The concept ‘to betray,’ i.e. to deliver to (or, cause to be arrested by) an enemy, violating allegiance and confidence, is idiomatically expressed in some languages by, ‘to inform against’ (East and Toraja-Sa’dan, lit. ‘to point out’), ‘to turn traitor (lit. story-man)’ (Sranan Tongo, using a neutral term, which in this context has the pejorative sense of ‘gossiper,’ ‘slanderer,’ ‘denouncer’), ‘to eat-sell’ (Pa-O, cf. also ‘to sell,’ Tae’ 1933).

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.