Q: In Matthew 10:10, Jesus instructs His disciples, as they embark on a preaching-tour, to provide neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves. But in Mark 6:8-9, where the same scene is described, Jesus tells them to wear sandals and to carry a staff. Isnt this a rather irreconcilable contradiction?
A: This is a good question -- objectively put and rooted to the text. Proposed solutions tend to involve the Greek text on which English translations are based.
Lets look at the passages side-by-side first. Im going to use the old NASB translation of the phrases in question.
Matthew 10:10 -- [Do not acquire] a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff.
Mark 6:8-9 -- And He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belt; but to wear sandals.
Luke 9:3 -- Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money.
Boiling it down further: in Matthew, Jesus tells the apostles do not acquire sandals or a staff. In Mark, Jesus tells the disciples to take nothing except a mere staff, and wear sandals. In Luke, Jesus tells the disciples Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff.
Since Luke doesnt mention sandals, and since Luke appears to parallel Matthew (Luke uses the word take, but he seems to mean it in the same sense that Matthew means acquire), Im going to boil this down a little more by focusing on the alleged discrepancy between Matthew and Mark. So, again:
In Matthew, Jesus tells the apostles do not acquire sandals or a staff.
In Mark, Jesus tells the disciples to take nothing except a mere staff, and wear sandals.
Heres the resolution: these are two separate accounts, describing two different occasions.
Just kidding.
Heres one resolution: Matthew presents Jesus talking about /acquisitions/ of things -- that is, undertaking transactions to get them. Mark presents Jesus talking about /taking/ things -- that is, bringing along things already in their possession. So, when Jesus says not to acquire sandals, He does not forbid taking the sandals which the apostles were already wearing. And when Jesus says not to acquire a staff, He does not forbid taking the staffs they already had.
A very detailed form of this explanation is presented at www.christian-thinktank.com/nostaff.html where Glenn Miller provides some background of the morphological similarities of the Greek words involved.
One can also approach the question from a different angle, which also involves the differences in the Greek texts: the shoes in Matthew are not necessarily the same as the sandals in Mark; different Greek words are employed (Matthew: hupodhmata, Mark: sandalia). And Matthews sentence in 10:10 may be intended to reflect an Aramaic statement in which the word two was extended not only to tunics and sandals but also to staffs. This is called a distributive use of the Greek word duo. In this case, the Matthean account forbids two staffs (one to be used as a walking-stick, and the other to be used, when necessary, as a weapon), and Marks account allows one staff. (A nice clean harmonization -- if only I knew enough Aramaic to verify that theres an Aramaic word for staff which has identical singular and dual (or plural) forms!)
It has also been proposed that not only do Matthew and Mark have in view different kinds of footwear, but also different kinds of staffs: the staff which is forbidden in Matthew 10:10 being a shepherds sturdy staff, thick enough to be used as an effective club, while the staff which is allowed in Mark 6:8 is a simple walking-stick, a rod -- and this would explain why Mark specifies a *mere* staff. Different Hebrew words were employed for these objects, but in Greek they are both described (in the Septuagint, at least) as staffs.
Also, the majority of Greek manuscripts of Matthew, btw, dont say rhabdon (staff) in Matthew 10:10, but rhabdous (staffs). So some apologists tackle the problem along strictly textual lines, proposing that Matthew originally wrote rhabdous and that some confused copyists, remembering the singular word from Mark and/or Luke, mechanically wrote rhabdon instead. This approach results in the view that in Matthew, more than one staff is forbidden, and in Mark, only one staff is allowed.
Each of these resolutions develops the picture being painted by each Gospel-writer: in their preaching-tour in Galilee, the apostles were to take what they had on hand, and not make other preparations.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
A: This is a good question -- objectively put and rooted to the text. Proposed solutions tend to involve the Greek text on which English translations are based.
Lets look at the passages side-by-side first. Im going to use the old NASB translation of the phrases in question.
Matthew 10:10 -- [Do not acquire] a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff.
Mark 6:8-9 -- And He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belt; but to wear sandals.
Luke 9:3 -- Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money.
Boiling it down further: in Matthew, Jesus tells the apostles do not acquire sandals or a staff. In Mark, Jesus tells the disciples to take nothing except a mere staff, and wear sandals. In Luke, Jesus tells the disciples Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff.
Since Luke doesnt mention sandals, and since Luke appears to parallel Matthew (Luke uses the word take, but he seems to mean it in the same sense that Matthew means acquire), Im going to boil this down a little more by focusing on the alleged discrepancy between Matthew and Mark. So, again:
In Matthew, Jesus tells the apostles do not acquire sandals or a staff.
In Mark, Jesus tells the disciples to take nothing except a mere staff, and wear sandals.
Heres the resolution: these are two separate accounts, describing two different occasions.
Just kidding.
Heres one resolution: Matthew presents Jesus talking about /acquisitions/ of things -- that is, undertaking transactions to get them. Mark presents Jesus talking about /taking/ things -- that is, bringing along things already in their possession. So, when Jesus says not to acquire sandals, He does not forbid taking the sandals which the apostles were already wearing. And when Jesus says not to acquire a staff, He does not forbid taking the staffs they already had.
A very detailed form of this explanation is presented at www.christian-thinktank.com/nostaff.html where Glenn Miller provides some background of the morphological similarities of the Greek words involved.
One can also approach the question from a different angle, which also involves the differences in the Greek texts: the shoes in Matthew are not necessarily the same as the sandals in Mark; different Greek words are employed (Matthew: hupodhmata, Mark: sandalia). And Matthews sentence in 10:10 may be intended to reflect an Aramaic statement in which the word two was extended not only to tunics and sandals but also to staffs. This is called a distributive use of the Greek word duo. In this case, the Matthean account forbids two staffs (one to be used as a walking-stick, and the other to be used, when necessary, as a weapon), and Marks account allows one staff. (A nice clean harmonization -- if only I knew enough Aramaic to verify that theres an Aramaic word for staff which has identical singular and dual (or plural) forms!)
It has also been proposed that not only do Matthew and Mark have in view different kinds of footwear, but also different kinds of staffs: the staff which is forbidden in Matthew 10:10 being a shepherds sturdy staff, thick enough to be used as an effective club, while the staff which is allowed in Mark 6:8 is a simple walking-stick, a rod -- and this would explain why Mark specifies a *mere* staff. Different Hebrew words were employed for these objects, but in Greek they are both described (in the Septuagint, at least) as staffs.
Also, the majority of Greek manuscripts of Matthew, btw, dont say rhabdon (staff) in Matthew 10:10, but rhabdous (staffs). So some apologists tackle the problem along strictly textual lines, proposing that Matthew originally wrote rhabdous and that some confused copyists, remembering the singular word from Mark and/or Luke, mechanically wrote rhabdon instead. This approach results in the view that in Matthew, more than one staff is forbidden, and in Mark, only one staff is allowed.
Each of these resolutions develops the picture being painted by each Gospel-writer: in their preaching-tour in Galilee, the apostles were to take what they had on hand, and not make other preparations.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
