Mark 6:6-13 sits inside this longer paragraph.
4Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own relatives, and in his own house.” 5He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people, and healed them. 6He marveled because of their unbelief. He went around the villages teaching.
7He called to himself the twelve, and began to send them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a staff only: no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse, 9but to wear sandals, and not put on two tunics. 10He said to them, “Wherever you enter into a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11Whoever will not receive you nor hear you, as you depart from there, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony against them. Assuredly, I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”
12They went out and preached that people should repent. 13They cast out many demons, and anointed many with oil who were sick, and healed them. 14King Herod heard this, for his name had become known, and he said, “John the Baptizer has risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” 15But others said, “He is Elijah.” Others said, “He is a prophet, or like one of the prophets.” 16But Herod, when he heard this, said, “This is John, whom I beheaded. He has risen from the dead.” 17For Herod himself had sent out and arrested John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for he had married her. 18For John said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19Herodias set herself against him, and desired to kill him, but she couldn’t, 20for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he did many things, and he heard him gladly.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 The disciples are prepared to that general Apostleship, by…
The disciples are prepared to that general Apostleship, by a peculiar sending forth.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–13 6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And…
6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.
Ver. 6. And he marvelled] Unbelief must needs be a monstrous sin, that puts Christ to the marvel.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 10, 12 Mark had before told us of the election of…
Mark had before told us of the election of the twelve, Mar 3:14, which neither Matthew nor Luke mention: here he gives us an account of their mission, which is mentioned by both them also. The instructions which he gave them are much the same with what we meet with in Mat 10:1-42, and there opened. He would have them, upon their first mission, commit themselves to and find the experience of the Divine providence; and therefore he charges them,
1. To take no money as a reward of their pains.
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2. Not to go provided with any sustenance, or money to buy any; only they might take a walking stick in their hands, for, as Matthew reports it, he forbade them taking any staves to bear burdens, as well as any scrips; or it may be he meant two staves, that if one had any way miscarried, have been broken or lost, they might have another at hand.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v7 We heard before, chap. 3, of our Saviour’s solemn…
We heard before, chap. 3, of our Saviour’s solemn calling his apostles to their work and office; now he sends them forth to execute their office.
Where observe, 1. The person that sends them forth; Christ.
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Learn thence, That none ought to take upon them the office of preaching, or any other ministerial function in the church, till thereunto lawfully called by Christ himself, and received the doctrine which they taught immediately from Christ’s own mouth. His ministers now are called immediately, they receive their authority from Christ by the hands of the governors of his church.
Observe, 2. The manner of their sending, by two and two in a company: partly to make their message of more authority; partly to testify their mutual consent in the doctrine which they taught; and partly to comfort and encourage, to help and strengthen, to assist and support each other: in imitation of this example, the Jesuits send forth their emissaries by pairs.
Learn hence, That the ministers of the word do stand in great need of the mutual help and comfort, of the united assistance and encouragement of each other, in the weighty duties of their calling and function; like labourers in the harvest-field, they should help one another, the strong endeavouring to strengthen the hands of the weak.
But, Lord, what tears are sufficient to bewail the want of love and unity, yea, the prevalency of that fear and malignity which is found too often amongst the ministers of the gospel! So that instead of going forth by two and two, happy is he that is alone in a place. Well might Melancthon bless God, when he lay a-dying, that he was going to a place where he should be freed from the implacable hatred of divines. This is, and ought to be, for a lamentation.
Observe, 3. The power given by Christ to work miracles for confirming the doctrine of the gospel which his apostles preached; he gave them power over unclean spirits, and they cast out devils, and anointed with oil them that were sick, and healed them. This power to work miracles was necessary for the apostles; partly to procure reverence to their persons, being poor and unlearned men, but principally to gain credit and authority to their doctrine; for the doctrine of faith in the Messiah, as now come, and exhibited in the flesh, being a strange and new doctrine to the Jews, the truth and certainty of it was to be extraordinarily ratified by Christ’s and his apostles’ miracles, some of which were casting out of devils; and by anointing with oil, to heal and recover sick persons. This gift of healing remained some time in the church, as appeared by St. James, Is any sick? Anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, Jas 5:14.
Where observe, That the apostles did not use oil as the instrument and means of healing, (for then the cure had not been miraculous,) but only as a symbol of the cure, or as an outward sign and testimony of miraculous healing: which outward sign was for the strengthening of the faith of such as were healed; assuring them, that as certainly as their bodies were anointed, so certainly should their health and strength be restored.
The Papists upon this ground their sacrament of Extreme Unction; but very vainly: for the apostles anointed those that were sick, as a sign of their recovery: but the Papists anoint those that have the pangs of death upon them, that their sins may be blotted out, and the snares of the devil avoided.
Observe, 4. The charge given by Christ to his apostles at the time of their sending out. This is threefold: first, Touching their preparation for their journey, he bids them not take much care, nor spend much time in furnishing themselves with victuals, money, apparel, weapons of defence, and the like; only taking a walking-staff in their hands, because they were to finish their journey speedily, and to return again to Christ.
This command of our Saviour to his apostles, not to incumber themselves when going forth to preach the gospel, teaches his ministers their duty, to free themselves as much as possibly they can from worldly incumbrances, which may hinder them in the performance of their office and function, No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, 2Ti 2:4.
Secondly, Touching their lodging in their journey. Our Saviour advises them not to change it, during their stay in one place; but into whatsoever house they first entered, they should there continue till they departed out of that place; that so they might avoid all show of lightness and inconstancy, and testify all gravity and stayedness in their behaviour, this being a special mean to win authority to their persons and ministry.
Thirdly, Christ gives a charge to his apostles touching their carriage towards such as should refuse to give entertainment to them and their doctrine. They were to denounce the judgments of God against such contemners, by shaking off the dust of their feet for a testimony against them.
Thence learn, That the contempt of God’s ministers, and especially of their ministry and doctrine, is an odious and execrable sin, detested by God, and which ought to be abhorred by man: Shake off the dust of your feet. This action was emblematical, signifying that Almighty God would in like manner shake them off as the vilest dust.
Learn, 2. That wherever the word is preached, it is for a testimony; either for or against a people. For if the dust of a minister’s feet bear witness against the despisers of the gospel, their sermons much more.
Observe, lastly, The dreadful judgment denounced by our Saviour against the contemners of the apostles’ doctrine: Verily it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
Where note, 1. That there shall be a day of judgment.
2. That in the day of judgment some sinners shall fare worse than others.
3. That of all sinners the condition of such will be saddest at the day of judgment who having lived under the gospel, have died after all in impenitency and infidelity: Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v7 Here is, I. The commission given to the twelve…
Here is, I. The commission given to the twelve apostles, to preach and work miracles; it is the same which we had more largely, Mt. 10. Mark doth not name them here, as Matthew doth, because he had named them before, when they were first called into fellowship with him, Mar 3:16-19. Hitherto they had been conversant with Christ, and had set at his feet, had heard his doctrine, and seen his miracles; and now he determines to make some use of them; they had received, that they might give, had learned, that they might teach; and therefore now he began to send them forth. They must not always be studying in the academy, to get knowledge, but they must preach in the country, to do good with the knowledge they have got. Though they were not as yet so well accomplished as they were to be, yet, according to their present ability and capacity, they must be set to work, and make further improvements afterward. Now observe here,
1. That Christ sent them forth by two and two; this Mark takes notice of. They went two and two to a place, that out of the mouth of two witnesses every word might be established; and that they might be company for one another when they were among strangers, and might strengthen the hands, and encourage the hearts, one of another; might help one another if any thing should be amiss, and keep one another in countenance. Every common soldier has his comrade; and it is an approved maxim, Two are better than one. Christ would thus teach his ministers to associate, and both lend and borrow help.
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2. That he gave them power over unclean spirits. He commissioned them to attack the devil's kingdom, and empowered them, as a specimen of their breaking his interest in the souls of men by their doctrine, to cast him out of the bodies of those that were possessed. Dr. Lightfoot suggests, that they cured diseases, and cast out devils, by the Spirit, but preached that only which they had learned from the mouth of Christ.
3. That he commanded them not to take provisions along with them, neither victuals nor money, that they might appear, wherever they came, to be poor men, men not of this world, and therefore might with the better grace call people off from it to another world. When afterward he bid them take purse and scrip (Luk 22:36), that did not intimate (as Dr. Lightfoot observes) that his care of them was abated from what it had been; but that they should meet with worse times and worse entertainment than they met with at their first mission. In Matthew and Luke they are forbidden to take staves with them, that is, fighting staves; but here in Mark they are bid to take nothing save a staff only, that is, a walking staff, such as pilgrims carried. They must not put on shoes, but sandals only, which were only the soles of shoes tied under their feet, or like pumps, or slippers; they must go in the readiest plainest dress they could, and must not so much as have two coats; for their stay abroad would be short, they must return before winter, and what they wanted, those they preached to would cheerfully accommodate them with.
4. He directed them, whatever city they came to, to make that house their head-quarters, which happened to be their first quarters (Mar 6:10); "There abide, till ye depart from that place. And since ye know ye come on an errand sufficient to make you welcome, have such charity for your friends that first invited you, as to believe they do not think you burthensome."
5. He pronounces a very heavy doom upon those that rejected the gospel they preached (Mar 6:11); "Whosoever shall not receive you, or will not so much as hear you, depart thence (if one will not, another will), and shake off the dust under your feet, for a testimony against them. Let them know that they have had a fair offer of life and happiness made them, witness that dust; but that, since they have refused it, they cannot expect ever to have another; let them take up with their own dust, for so shall their doom be." That dust, like the dust of Egypt (Exo 9:9), shall turn into a plague to them; and their condemnation in the great day, will be more intolerable than that of Sodom: for the angels were sent to Sodom, and were abused there; yet that would not bring on so great a guilt and so great a ruin as the contempt and abuse of the apostles of Christ, who bring with them the offers of gospel grace.
II. The apostles' conduct in pursuance of their commission. Though they were conscious to themselves of great weakness, and expected no secular advantage by it, yet, in obedience to their Master's order, and in dependence upon his strength, they went out as Abraham, not knowing whither they went. Observe here,
1. The doctrine they preached; They preached that men should repent (Mar 6:12); that they should change their minds, and reform their lives, in consideration of the near approach of the kingdom of the Messiah. Note, The great design of the gospel preachers, and the great tendency of gospel preaching, should be, to bring people to repentance, to a new heart and a new way. They did not amuse people with curious speculations, but told them that they must repent of their sins, and turn to God.
2. The miracles they wrought. The power Christ gave them over unclean spirits, was not ineffectual, nor did they receive it in vain, but used it, for they cast out many devils (Mar 6:13); and they anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them. Some think this oil was used medicinally, according to the custom of the Jews; but I rather think it was used as a sign of miraculous healing, by the appointment of Christ, though not mentioned; and it was afterward used by those elders of the church, to whom by the Spirit was given the gift of healing, Jam 5:14. It is certain here, and therefore probable there, that anointing the sick with oil, is appropriated to that extraordinary power which has long ceased, and therefore that sign must cease with it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv6–13 And he marvelled because of their unbelief,.... Which was…
And he marvelled because of their unbelief,.... Which was the reason, as Matthew says, Mat 13:58, why he did not many mighty works there, because they continued their prejudices against him, and their unbelief in him, notwithstanding what he did do, which was matter of admiration to him; wherefore he took his leave of them, as an ungrateful and unworthy people; and it is never after observed, that he returned there any more. It was a surprise to Christ, as man, that his country men should not believe in him, but reject him as the Messiah, on account of the above things: since they knew his parentage and education, and mean employ among them, even almost to that time; and yet such were his ministry and miracles, and such were his wisdom and power he was possessed of, that they could not account for; they might at least have concluded, seeing it was clear to them he had not them from men, that he had a mission and commission from God, and was qualified by him for such service and work; though they might have carried their reasonings further, and it was marvellous they should not, and have believed him to be more than a man, to have been a divine person, and the true Messiah; the proofs of Christ's deity and Messiahship are so plain and incontestable, that it is amazing that there should be any, who have read them or heard of them, that should be deists, or continue unbelievers. Such unbelief must be owing to a wretched stupidity, and judicial blindness of mind.
And he went round about the villages teaching: he took a circuit throughout all the little towns and villages round about Nazareth, instructing the ignorant country people, in the things concerning the kingdom of God.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 He marvelled - As man. As he was God,…
He marvelled - As man. As he was God, nothing was strange to him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13 Verse 6. See Clarke on Mr 6:4.
Verse 6. See Clarke on Mr 6:4.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 10, 12 Mar 6:7. He calleth unto him the twelve —…
Mar 6:7. He calleth unto him the twelve — While Jesus preached among the villages in the neighbourhood of Nazareth, he sent his twelve apostles through the several cities of Galilee, to proclaim that God was about to establish the kingdom of the Messiah, wherein he would be worshipped in spirit and in truth; and instead of all external rites and ceremonies, would accept nothing but repentance, faith, and sincere obedience. Moreover, to confirm their doctrine, he gave them power to work miracles of healing, which also would tend to procure them acceptance. See Luk 9:1-2. By two and two — We may suppose that Matthew had an eye to this circumstance in the catalogue which he has given of the apostles; for, chapter Mar 10:2-4, he has joined them together in pairs; very probably just as they were sent out now by their Master. Jesus ordered his disciples to go by two and two, doubtless that they might encourage each other in their work. The history of their election and commission is given, Mat 10:1, &c.; where see the notes. But it seems they were not actually sent till now, when Jesus intended forthwith to enlarge the scene of his ministry. He, therefore, on this occasion renewed their powers, and repeated the principal things contained in the instructions formerly given.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 12, 13 And he called unto him the twelve - See…
And he called unto him the twelve - See the notes at Mat 10:1.
And began to send them forth by two and two - In order that they might “support” and “encourage” each other in their work. Amid the trials and opposition with which they would meet, mutual counsel and aid would greatly lighten their burdens and alleviate their calamities. Mutual counsel might also contribute to their success, and lead to “united” plans to advance the kingdom of the Redeemer. Jesus here, as in all the work of religion, consulted at the same time the “happiness” and the “usefulness” of his disciples; nor are they ever separated. Whatever contributes to the “usefulness” of his people produces also their happiness; or, in other words, the secret of being happy is to be “useful.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v13 It was usual for the Jews to prescribe oil…
It was usual for the Jews to prescribe oil as a proper thing to anoint the sick; but its virtue in the present instance, when used by the apostles, was not natural but supernatural, and was derived from him who sent them; because this unction always produced a certain and constant cure in those who were anointed. This miraculous gift of healing the sick with oil, which Christ conferred on his apostles, was a prelude or gradual preparation to the dignity to which he raised this unction, when he established it a perpetual rite in his holy Church. (Rutter) --- With oil, &c. This anointing the sick, was at least a figure of the sacrament, which Christ was pleased to institute for the spiritual relief of persons in danger of death: and which is fully expressed by St. James, in his Catholic Epistle. Chap vi. The Council of Trent says this sacrament was instituted in St. Mark, and published in the Epistle of St. James. (Council of Trent, session xiv. canon 1.) (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v7
SIXTH SECTION
CONFLICT OF JESUS WITH HEROD. THE CALL AND MISSION OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. THE BEHEADING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. THE WITHDRAWAL OF JESUS INTO THE WILDERNESS, AND THE MIRACULOUS FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND
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Mar_6:7-44
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1. The Calling and Mission of the Twelve. Mar_6:7-13
(Parallels: Mat_10:1; Mat_10:7; Mat_10:9-11; Mat_10:13; Luk_9:1-6.)
7And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; 8And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their 9, purse [girdle]: But be shod with sandals; and not put on4 two coats. 10And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. 11And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you,5 when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than 12, for that city. And they went out, and preached that men should repent. 13And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Compare on the parallel passages of Matthew 10 and Luke 9.—It has been already observed, on Mar_3:13-19, that he distinguishes the separation of the Twelve from their first mission: Luke does the same, while Matthew combines their call and mission in one. The two events are indeed one, as Matthew records them, in this respect, that the separation took place with reference to an appointment of duty which then immediately impended. But they are distinguished by this, that the election occurred in the solitude of the mountain-range (hence Mark and Luke place them on a mountain, the latter connecting with the event the Sermon on the Mount; while the mission, on the other hand, occurred at the beginning of the third preaching-journey, on which our Lord passed through the sea-towns of Galilee, as we are told by Matthew. But, since the calling of the Twelve, between the Sermon on the Mount and the passage to Gadara (the second Galilean journey), was only as yet a preparatory vocation, we must make a distinction between a general separation of the narrower circle of disciples and that calling of the Twelve on the mountain which briefly preceded their sending forth in the valley, during the first year of Christ’s ministry. Now it is peculiar to Mark that he gives prominence only to the most essential points of the mission; that he records it as the beginning of the apostolical missions (Mar_6:7), and as a mission in pairs; that he lays emphasis exclusively upon the power given over unclean spirits (not that of healing the sick), in harmony with his fundamental point of view, and that to him this involved at the same time the preaching of the kingdom; that he most precisely gives the Lord’s injunctions touching their staff, their shoes, and their clothing; and that he finally makes allusion to the anointing-the sick with oil, in its relation to the work of the Apostles—here mentioning the sick, who had been previously omitted. Mark’s more limited account of the instructions given to the Apostles in comparison with that given by Matthew, is to be explained by the fact, that he has this first mission exclusively in view; while Matthew combines it with all subsequent missions, and consequently presents it in its ideal meaning.
Mar_6:8. Save a staff only.—Meyer insists that there is here a discrepancy between Mark, on the one hand, and Matthew and Luke, on the other—to be explained, as it regards the two latter, by exaggeration. (Comp., on the contrary, Ebrard, p. 382; Lange, Leben Jesu, ii. 2, p. 712.) They were to go forth with their staff, as they had it at the time; but they were not to seek one carefully, or make it a condition of their travelling. And thus it becomes no more in Mark than a rather more precise statement of the meaning of Matthew and Luke. The same may be said of the permission to take sandals, in opposition to the prohibition of the ὑποδήματα, or travelling shoes proper, in Matthew. So the injunction not to put on two coats (in change), is only another form of the injunction not to have two garments. The fundamental idea is this, that they were to go forth with the slightest provision, and in dependence upon being provided for by the way. Gfrörer and Baur see in Mark’s expressions only intentional qualifications and softenings. We find in them no other than a more express view of their pilgrim-state, burdened with the least possible incumbrance, and as free as might be from all care.
Mar_6:11. For a testimony against them.—As a symbolical, but to an Israelite perfectly intelligible, declaration, that they were excommunicated,—“no better than heathen.”
Mar_6:12. Preached, that men should repent (ἵνα).—They not only preached the doctrine of repentance, amongst other articles of doctrine; but their whole preaching had for its end the producing of penitence, and change of mind.
Mar_6:13. And anointed with oil.—Oil was generally a very important medicament among the Orientals, according to Lightfoot and others. Here it is simply a symbolical medium of the miraculous work; just as the application of the spittle was (Mar_8:23; Joh_9:6), on the part of the Lord Himself. Meyer does well to contend against the supposition that the oil was applied as a natural means of cure (Baur, Weisse), or that it was used as a mere symbol (Theophylact, Beza, etc.),—not to mention other still less tenable notions. He is not right, however, in altogether detaching the symbolical significance from the medium. It is a fact, that the Old Testament anointing with oil preceded, as a symbol, the New Testament bestowment of the Spirit; and that it re-appears in the Catholic church, where the real impartation of the Spirit is wanting. Hence, it may be assumed that for the disciples, who could not like the Lord Himself awaken faith, it was appropriate to appoint such a medium for their miraculous power as would be at the same time a symbolical sign of the impartation of the Spirit, and the energy that awakens faith. Thus the anointing was a symbol of the bestowment of the Spirit as the preliminary condition of healing; consequently, not of the divine mercy (Theophylact), the healing virtue of which was symbolized by balsam, or of the divine regeneration (Euthym. Zigabenus), the symbol of which was water. The anointing with oil, which James prescribed to the elders in their ministry for the sick (Mar_5:14), appears, on the other hand, to have been a blending of the natural means of health with the saving energy of prayer as symbolized by it.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. See on the parallel passages of Matthew and Luke.
2. The sending of the Apostles by two and two.—According to Grotius, with allusion to the Old Testament law concerning witnesses ad plenam testimonii fidem. But also for mutual complement, and encouragement, and strengthening. We have, accordingly, six special embassages: six was the number of labor and toil. The twelve missions of the individual Apostles were as yet only in the prospect.
3. We need only suggest here, that the New Testament anointing with oil—even that later one which James prescribed to the elders in their care of the sick—forms a perfect contrast to the extreme unction of the Romish Church. To us, this ecclesiastical anointing seems no other than an unconscious admission, on the part of the ceremonial church, that it had yet to bestow on its dying member the real communication of the Holy Spirit, whose type the oil was.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The first sending of the Apostles abroad into the world may also be likened to the little seed-corn.—He began to send: the end of His sending is the end of the world.—The mission of the Apostles by two and two, in its significance for the Church: 1. As to ecclesiastical office, 2. as to the people.—The blessing of the mutual help of laborers in the kingdom of God.—The embarrassments, dangers, and disgraces which so often follow a too early isolation in office, and in the religious life generally.—Christianity in life and office is a discipline of unenvying brotherly love.—The messengers and pilgrims of Christ not without needs, but without anxious needs.—The world loses, amidst its external equipments and means of resource, the internal end of life: the servants of the Gospel obtain, while they supremely regard the end, all the other equipments and resources.—The destruction of the kingdom of Satan, and the abolition of his power, is the great task of Christ’s servants, after the example and in the strength of their Lord.—The shaking the dust from their feet is in its kind a Christian martyrdom to the disciples of Jesus (a testimony in suffering).—The anointing with oil; or, how the miracles of the kingdom of Christ have leaned upon the marvellous powers of the kingdom of nature.—The kingdom of the Son attaches itself to the kingdom of the Father in the great whole as well as in individual things.—Those bound by Satan, and the sick, are everlasting tokens of the need of Christ and His messengers.
Starke:—This authorization a demonstration of the divinity of Christ.—The ministers of the Gospel should be one and united.—Quesnel:—Ambition and avarice perilous things to the preacher and his work.—Osiander:—Ministers should be satisfied, though they do not at once have all advantages they could desire, and things at their will.—Gerlach:—On account of their weakness, the Lord does not send His disciples alone. Laborers in the Lord’s harvest should look round for helpers in their work.—Schleiermacher:—The Lord’s direction in regardto the equipments of the Apostles no literal rule [he refers to the cloak of Paul, 2Ti_4:13], but a rule of wisdom.—If the provision of all these external things is so great as to rob us of a portion of our true strength, they are no real advantage, but tend rather to impair our usefulness and peace.—Bauer:—They were not to act as if they thought they might force men to hear.
Footnotes:
[4]Mar_6:9.—The best reading is ἐνδυσήσθε (A., C., D., E., &c.), which Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and others adopt. The change in the construction, or the direct quotation of this command, makes it more emphatic.
[5]Mar_6:11.—Tischendorf, after B., L., Δ., &c.: ὅς ἆν τόπος μὴ δέξηται μηδὲ ἀκούσωσιν ὑμῶν. Preferable in regard to importance of Codd., and is the more difficult reading. “Verily,” &c., wanting in B., C., D., L., Δ. Probably taken from Mat_10:15.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 9, 10, 13 §§ 57, SENDING OUT HIS APOSTLES, Mar_6:7-13.
§§ 57, SENDING OUT HIS APOSTLES, Mar_6:7-13.
(Compare notes on Matthew 10.)
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 6. he marvelled] Our Lord does not marvel at…
6. he marvelled] Our Lord does not marvel at other human things generally, but He does marvel on the one hand, at faith, when, as in the case of the centurion, it overcomes in its grandeur all human hindrances, and, on the other, at unbelief, when it can, in the face of numerous Divine manifestations, harden itself into a wilful rejection of Himself. He now seems to have left Nazareth never to return to it, or preach in its synagogue, or revisit the home, where He had so long toiled as the village Carpenter.
he went round about] On the evening of the day of His rejection at Nazareth, or more probably on the morrow, our Lord appears to have commenced a short circuit in Galilee, in the direction of Capernaum.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13 (6) He marvelled.—The word is to be noted as…
(6) He marvelled.—The word is to be noted as bearing on the reality of our Lord’s human nature, and therefore on the necessary limits within which He, as being truly man, in spirit as well as body, vouchsafed to work. Whatever powers of prevision or insight into the hearts of men might belong to Him, they were not such as to exclude the wonder which men feel at that which comes to them unlooked for.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv6–13 Christ ministering to the villages.
Christ ministering to the villages.
I REJECTED IN ONE DIRECTION, THE SAVIOUR BEGINS AFRESH ELSEWHERE.
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1. Indomitable zeal, and inextinguishable love for souls.
2. Divine wisdom. The sinning city or individual not altogether abandoned even when left alone. When the Redeemer cannot work within a heart, he will work about it. Where faith is not at once forthcoming, evidence is accumulated, and the unbelieving are approached from new directions and points of vantage. Every sinner is besieged by Christ. The country rends up fresh elements to the growing population of the cities; how important that it should send godliness and righteousness with these!
II IT IS THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY TO CARE FOR THOSE WHO ARE AT A DISADVANTAGE.
1. They were out of the way and apt to be overlooked.
2. They were unfavourably situated for the rapid spread of new ideas.
3. They were for the most part humble. To the poor the gospel is preached" was one of the characteristics of Christianity, of which John was to be informed; and it might have been added, "by Christ himself." The moral influence of this example. How ought all ministers of the gospel and Christian labourers to eschew self and the love of fame! The grandest work of the ministry may be performed in the humblest sphere. Men are to be evangelized for their own sakes. M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v7 And He called unto Him the Twelve, and began…
Mar_6:7-18
And He called unto Him the Twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two.
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The first mission of the twelve
Christ sends them forth.
I. Orderly.
1. As to the persons evangelized. To the Jew first. To have disregarded that, would have excited most bitterly the jealousy of His countrymen, as well as committed the apostles to a work for which they were by no means prepared, because their national antipathies were not yet eradicated.
2. As to the persons engaged in the work of evangelization. Two and two: companionships most desirable arrangement. How important then was this pairing off, enabling them to hold sweet converse together, and strengthen and correct one another when necessary.
II. The mission was in a sense self supporting. They were to go forth in simple dependence upon their Master, and He would put it into mens hearts to supply their wants. The work on which they were now sent demanded the total surrender of all their energy and will for Christs cause.
III. It was fraught with serious consequences. Those to whom they addressed the gospel message would reject it at their own peril; and the guilt of impenitence would be proportioned to the force with which the truth was revealed. (H. M. Luckock, D. D.)
The mission of the Twelve
I. Consider by what this mission was preceded.
1. By a return to Nazareth where His life was once threatened. (a) This shows Christs readiness to forgive and to do good to His enemies.
2. By graciously seeking to win back His fellow townsmen.
3. By another scornful rejection of Himself and His message.
II. The occasion and purpose of this mission.
1. The occasion (see Mat_9:36-38).
2. The purpose.
(a) To preach.
(b) To heal the sick.
(c) To cleanse the lepers.
(d) To raise the dead.
III. The conditions under which they were to go forth.
1. They must go forth without taking anything for their journey.
2. If rejected in one city, they must proceed to the next. They might flee from danger, but not from duty (Matthew Henry)
.
3. They must refrain from all resentments and retaliations.
4. The full assurance of their Lords assistance in every trouble. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
Apostolic labours and their reception
I. Christs ministers receive from Him power for their appointed work.
II. When called to high service, they need not care for common wants.
III. The rejection of the greatest good leads to the greatest ill. (J. H. Godwin.)
Preparations for preaching
Mark significantly says, Then Jesus began to send them forth: forever since that day He has been giving similar work, and qualifying similar representatives.
I. To go forth from the presence of Jesus.
II. To be willing to work together.
III. To be content with the use of moral influence. Men are to be urged, not forced.
IV. To exercise self-denial and cheerful trust in God. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
The apostolic commission
The grandest commission ever entrusted to man. Consider-
I. Its imposed conditions.
1. In company: by two and two. Thus for mutual encouragement and help. For the heart of the strongest may fail in presence of danger, difficulty, death.
2. In poverty. Thus was it shown that their power and influence with men was not of earth.
3. In danger. Those whom they went to bless would turn against and persecute them.
4. Yet in safety. God watching over and protecting them. And even if the body is slain, the soul will be safe, and the confessor of Christ will be owned by Him before the Father.
II. Its trust or, the terms of the commission. How grand, how honourable, how precious to the world-the world of ignorant, suffering, sinful men! The great mission has for its object the removal of the evils of human life. Its foulness, its suffering, its error, its subjugation to evil, are all to be combated.
III. Its limitation. Only to the Jews, at present. The children must first be filled.
IV. Its success. (R. Green.)
Missionaries
I. Missionaries must not be, as a rule, solitary men. For counsel, defence, cheerfulness, two are better than one.
II. Missionaries must be, as a rule, frugal men. No luxuries; bare necessaries. Like the soldier on the march, or the exploring traveller.
III. Missionaries must not be, as a rule, sedentary men. Sound the trumpet blast, and then on again.
IV. Missionaries must, as a rule, act directly upon the conscience of men. The missionarys work is to break up the fallow ground. (E. Johnson, M. A.)
Companionship
The solitary soul on a new enterprise is apt to lose heart, and not half perform his part. With no counsellor, sympathizer, helper, he goes uncertainly. Jesus would give His ambassadors all advantage of fraternal support, that in this apprenticeship, as one terms it, they might not falter. The confirming word, too, is of might when the message is novel. The apostles afterward went thus in pairs. St. Pauls strongest expression of regret was that, on any part of his journey, he must be left alone. Livingstone, in the depths of the African continent, longed for the society and cheer of her who laid down her life on the way thither; and, as the end drew near, he leaned harder on the Lord, for no hand but Gods could smooth the troubled brow on which the death-damps gathered, as the noble man, kneeling at his bedside in prayer, bade farewell to earth. (De W. S. Clark.)
Incumbrances to be abandoned
Armies most amply furnished with stores and comforts are most inefficient. The Zulu hordes, with but spear and shield, held long at bay the well-provisioned and disciplined troops of England. Baggage is well termed impedimenta. It checks, by just so much, the quickness, and fosters, by hardness. The soul heavily freighted with the luxuries and appliances of this life is at a disadvantage for the sudden movements and missions on which the great Captain would send it. (De W. S. Clark.)
No money:
Literally, no copper, for that is the metal that is got from the bowels of the earth. Brass is an artificial alloy, having in it a mixture of tin with the copper, and was unknown, as is supposed, to the Hebrews. The word is not used by the evangelist to denote any particular copper coin, but simply, though representatively, copper money in general. The underlying idea is money in general. Not even coppers would be needed, not to speak of silver and gold. (J. Morison, D. D.)
Mutual help
Why did Jesus send the apostles forth by two and two? The answer is, in order that they might be helpmeets for each other. A father was walking one day in the fields with his two children. The wind was blowing over a fine field of ripe corn, and making the beautiful golden ears wave like the waves of the sea. Is it not surprising, said one of the children, that the wind does not break the slender stalks of the corn? My child, said the father, see how flexible the stalks are! They bend before the wind and rise again when the wind has passed over them. See, too, how they help to support each other. A single stalk would be soon bent to the ground, but so many growing close together help to keep each other up. If we keep together when the troubles of life come upon us like a stormy wind, we shall keep each other up, when one trying to stand alone would fall.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v7 CHAPTER 6:7-13 (Mar_6:7-13)
CHAPTER 6:7-13 (Mar_6:7-13)
THE MISSION OF THE TWELVE
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"And He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and He gave them authority over the unclean spirits; and He charged them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse; but to go shod with sandals: and, said He, put not on two coats. And He said unto them, Wheresoever ye enter into a house, there abide till ye depart thence. And whatsoever place shall not receive you, and they hear you not, as ye go forth thence, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony unto them. And they went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them." Mar_6:7-13 (R.V.)
REPULSED a second time from the cradle of His youth, even as lately from Decapolis, with what a heavy heart must the Loving One have turned away. Yet we read of no abatement of His labors. He did not, like the fiery prophet, wander into the desert and make request that He might die. And it helps us to realize the elevation of our Lord, when we reflect how utterly the discouragement with which we sympathize in the great Elijah would ruin our conception of Jesus.
It was now that He set on foot new efforts, and advanced in the training of His elect. For Himself, He went about the villages, whither slander and prejudice had not yet penetrated, and was content to break new ground among the most untaught and sequestered of the people. The humblest field of labor was not too lowly for the Lord, although we meet, every day, with men who are "thrown away" and "buried" in obscure fields of usefulness. We have not yet learned to follow without a murmur the Carpenter, and the Teacher in villages, even though we are soothed in grief by thinking, because we endure the inevitable, that we are followers of the Man of Sorrows. At the same moment when democracies and priesthoods are rejecting their Lord, a king had destroyed His forerunner. On every account it was necessary to vary as well as multiply the means for the evangelisation of the country. Thus the movement would be accelerated, and it would no longer present one solitary point of attack to its unscrupulous foes.
Jesus therefore called to Him the Twelve, and began to send them forth. In so doing, His directions revealed at once His wisdom and His fears for them.
Not even for unfallen man was it good to be alone. It was a bitter ingredient in the cup which Christ Himself drank, that His followers should be scattered to their own and leave Him alone. And it was at the last extremity, when he could no longer forbear, that St. Paul thought it good to be at Athens alone. Jesus therefore would not send His inexperienced heralds forth for the first time except by two and two, that each might sustain the courage and wisdom of his comrade. And His example was not forgotten. Peter and John together visited the converts in Samaria. And when Paul and Barnabas, whose first journey was together, could no longer agree, each of them took a new comrade and departed. Perhaps our modern missionaries lose more in energy than is gained in area by neglecting so humane a precedent, and forfeiting the special presence vouchsafed to the common worship of two or three.
St. Mark has not recorded the mission of the seventy evangelists, but this narrative is clearly colored by his knowledge of that event. Thus he does not mention the gift of miraculous power, which was common to both, but he does tell of the authority over unclean spirits, which was explicitly given to the Twelve, and which the Seventy, returning with joy, related that they also had successfully dared to claim. In conferring such power upon His disciples, Jesus took the first step towards that marvelous identification of Himself and His mastery over evil, with all His followers, that giving of His presence to their assemblies, His honor to their keeping, His victory to their experience, and His lifeblood to their veins, which makes Him the second Adam, represented in all the newborn race, and which finds its most vivid and blessed expression in the sacrament where His flesh is meat indeed and His blood is drink indeed. Now first He is seen to commit His powers and His honor into mortal hands.
In doing this, He impressed on them the fact that they were not sent at first upon a toilsome and protracted journey. Their personal connection with Him was not broken but suspended for a little while. Hereafter, they would need to prepare for hardship, and he that had two coats should take them. It was not so now: sandals would suffice their feet; they should carry no wallet; only a staff was needed for their brief excursion through a hospitable land. But hospitality itself would have its dangers for them, and when warmly received they might be tempted to be feted by various hosts, enjoying the first enthusiastic welcome of each, and refusing to share afterwards the homely domestic life which would succeed. Yet it was when they ceased to be strangers that their influence would really be strongest; and so there was good reason, both for the sake of the family they might win, and for themselves who would not become self-indulgent, why they should not go from house to house.
These directions were not meant to become universal rules, and we have seen how Jesus afterwards explicitly varied them. But their spirit is an admonition to all who are tempted to forget their mission in personal advantages which it may offer. Thus commissioned and endowed, they should feel as they went the greatness of the message they conveyed. Wherever they were rejected, no false meekness should forbid their indignant protest, and they should refuse to carry even the dust of that evil and doomed place upon their feet.
And they went forth and preached repentance, casting out many devils, and healing many that were sick. In doing this, they anointed them with oil as St. James afterwards directed, but as Jesus never did. He used no means, or when faith needed to be helped by a visible application, it was always the touch of His own hand or the moisture of His own lip. The distinction is significant. And also it must be remembered that oil was never used by disciples for the edification of the dying, but for the recovery of the sick.
By this new agency the name of Jesus was more than ever spread abroad, until it reached the ears of a murderous tyrant, and stirred in his bosom not the repentance which they preached, but the horrors of ineffectual remorse
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 9, 13 6. He marvelled because of their unbelief. See note…
6. He marvelled because of their unbelief. See note on Matt. 8:10. Went round about the villages. See note on Matt. 9:35.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 12 Mat 9:35-36; Mar 6:6. Matthew “And Jesus was a…
THIRD EVANGELISTIC TOUR
Mat 9:35-36; Mar 6:6. Matthew “And Jesus was a going round all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every ailment among the people.” Our Savior, now the third time, accompanied by the twelve apostles whom He had chosen, and the holy women who cooperated with their ministry, and not a few voluntary disciples, radiates out from Capernaum, traversing the whole country of Galilee, which included the tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Zebulun, and Issachar, preaching the gospel of the kingdom in all their villages and cities. Hence we see that Jesus was an evangelist of the most aggressive character, not only peregrinating the whole country, and preaching the gospel of spiritual salvation full and free, but indiscriminately healing the sick. “And seeing the multitudes, He was moved with compassion in their behalf, because they were fleeced and abandoned, as sheep having no shepherd.” N.B. These people were all members of the Jewish Church, gathering Sabbatically in their synagogues, which everywhere abounded, and enjoying the ministry of the scribes, their pastors, and the expositions of their cultured theologians (called “lawyers,” because they expounded the laws of Moses and the prophets). Now why does Jesus thus speak of those people, describing them as poor sheep having been sheared closely, and turned out of the fold to weather the storm and take chances with the wild beasts and robbers? The case is very plain. The word here, which I translate “fleeced,” is eskulmenoi, which also means “harassed, vexed, abused,” signifying the treatment which those people received at the hands of the ministry who had charge of them. And the other, errimmenoi, means “forsaken, abandoned, cast away.” Now, of course, these strong affirmations of our Lord have a spiritual signification, revealing the sad fact that these people were utterly destitute of competent spiritual guides.
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Now do not forget that these were Jews, holding regular membership in the Church which God established, and enjoying all the privileges of the synagogue worship, with the living ministry faithfully serving them. What was the matter? Those preachers, with all their learning, were spiritually dead, — ”the blind leading the blind,” laying heavy financial burdens on the people, and neglecting their souls, thus practically abandoning them for the devil. O how history repeats itself! We do not have to go back to the Judaic ages in order to find the Lord’s sheep “fleeced” and abandoned for the wolves to devour.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v7 Mar 6:1 - Mar 6:13.
Mark
THE MASTER REJECTED: THE SERVANTS SENT FORTH
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Mar 6:1 - Mar 6:13.
An easy day’s journey would carry Jesus and His followers from Capernaum, on the lake-side, to Nazareth, among the hills. What took our Lord back there? When last He taught in the synagogue of Nazareth, His life had been in danger; and now He thrusts Himself into the wolf’s den. Why? Mark seems to wish us to observe the connection between this visit and the great group of miracles which he has just recorded; and possibly the link may be our Lord’s hope that the report of these might have preceded Him and prepared His way. In His patient long-suffering He will give His fellow-villagers another chance; and His heart yearns for ‘His own country,’ and ‘His own kin,’ and ‘His own house,’ of which He speaks so pathetically in the context.
I. We have here unbelief born of familiarity, and its effects on Christ {Mar 6:1 - Mar 6:6}.
Observe the characteristic avoidance of display, and the regard for existing means of worship, shown in His waiting till the Sabbath, and then resorting to the synagogue. He and His hearers would both remember His last appearance in it; and He and they would both remember many a time before that, when, as a youth, He had sat there. The rage which had exploded on His first sermon has given place to calmer, but not less bitter, opposition. Mark paints the scene, and represents the hearers as discussing Jesus while He spoke. The decorous silence of the synagogue was broken by a hubbub of mutual questions. ‘Many’ spoke at once, and all had the same thing to say. The state of mind revealed is curious. They own Christ’s wisdom in His teaching, and the reality of His miracles, of which they had evidently heard; but the fact that He was one of themselves made them angry that He should have such gifts, and suspicious of where He had got them. They seem to have had the same opinion as Nathanael-that no ‘good thing’ could ‘come out of Nazareth.’ Their old companion could not be a prophet; that was certain. But He had wisdom and miraculous power; that was as certain. Where had they come from? There was only one other source; and so, with many headshakings, they were preparing to believe that the Jesus whom they had all known, living His quiet life of labour among them, was in league with the devil, rather than believe that He was a messenger from God.
We note in their questions, first, the glimpse of our Lord’s early life. They bring before us the quiet, undistinguished home and the long years of monotonous labour. We owe to Mark alone the notice that Jesus actually wrought at Joseph’s handicraft. Apparently the latter was dead, and, if so, Jesus would be the head of the house, and probably the ‘breadwinner.’ One of the fathers preserves the tradition that He ‘made plows and yokes, by which He taught the symbols of righteousness and an active life.’ That good father seems to think it needful to find symbolical meanings, in order to save Christ’s dignity; but the prose fact that He toiled at the carpenter’s bench, and handled hammer and saw, needs nothing to heighten its value as a sign of His true participation in man’s lot, and as the hallowing of manual toil. How many weary arms have grasped their tools with new vigour and contentment when they thought of Him as their Pattern in their narrow toils! The Nazarenes’ difficulty was but one case of a universal tendency. Nobody finds it easy to believe that some village child, who has grown up beside him, and whose undistinguished outside life he knows, has turned out a genius or a great man. The last people to recognise a prophet are always his kindred and his countrymen. ‘Far-away birds have fine feathers.’ Men resent it as a kind of slight on themselves that the other, who was one of them but yesterday, should be so far above them to-day. They are mostly too blind to look below the surface, and they conclude that, because they saw so much of the external life, they knew the man that lived it. The elders of Nazareth had seen Jesus grow up, and to them He would be ‘the carpenter’s son’ still. The more important people had known the humbleness of His home, and could not adjust themselves to look up to Him, instead of down. His equals in age would find their boyish remembrances too strong for accepting Him as a prophet. All of them did just what the most of us would have done, when they took it for certain that the Man whom they had known so well, as they fancied, could not be a prophet, to say nothing of the Messiah so long looked for. It is easy to blame them; but it is better to learn the warning in their words, and to take care that we are not blind to some true messenger of God just because we have been blessed with close companionship with him. Many a household has had to wait for death to take away the prophet before they discern him. Some of us entertain ‘angels unawares,’ and have bitterly to feel, when too late, that our eyes were holden that we should not know them.
These questions bring out strongly what we too often forget in estimating Christ’s contemporaries-namely, that His presence among them, in the simplicity of His human life, was a positive hindrance to their seeing His true character. We sometimes wish that we had seen Him, and heard His voice. We should have found it more difficult to believe in Him if we had. ‘His flesh’ was a ‘veil’ in other sense than the Epistle to the Hebrews means; for, by reason of men’s difficulty in piercing beneath it, it hid from many what it was meant and fitted to reveal. Only eyes purged beheld the glory of ‘the Word’ become flesh when it ‘dwelt among us’-and even they saw Him more clearly when they saw Him no more. Let us not be too hard on these simple Nazarenes, but recognise our kith and kin.
The facts on which the Nazarenes grounded their unbelief are really irrefragable proof of Christ’s divinity. Whence had this man His wisdom and mighty works? Born in that humble home, reared in that secluded village, shut out from the world’s culture, buried, as it were, among an exclusive and abhorred people, how came He to tower above all teachers, and to sway the world? ‘With whom took He counsel? and who instructed Him, and taught Him?’ The character and work of Christ, compared with the circumstances of His origin and environment, are an insoluble riddle, except on one supposition-that He was the word and power of God.
The effects of this unbelief on our Lord were twofold. It limited His power. Matthew says that ‘He did not many mighty works.’ Mark goes deeper, and boldly days ‘He could not.’ It is mistaken jealousy for Christ’s honour to seek to pare down the strong words. The atmosphere of chill unbelief froze the stream. The power was there, but it required for its exercise some measure of moral susceptibility. His miraculous energy followed, in general, the same law as His higher exercise of saving grace does; that is to say, it could not force itself upon unwilling men. Christ ‘cannot’ save a man who does not trust Him. He was hampered in the outflow of His healing power by unsympathetic disparagement and unbelief. Man can thwart God. Faith opens the door, and unbelief shuts it in His face. He ‘would have gathered,’ but they ‘would not,’ and therefore He ‘could not.’
The second effect of unbelief on Him was that He ‘marvelled.’ He is twice recorded to have wondered-once at a Gentile’s faith, once at His townsmen’s unbelief. He wondered at the first because it showed so unusual a susceptibility; at the second, because it showed so unreasonable a blindness. All sin is a wonder to eyes that see into the realities of things and read the end; for it is all utterly unreasonable {though it is, alas! not unaccountable} and suicidal. ‘Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this.’ Unbelief in Christ is, by Himself, declared to be the very climax of sin, and its most flagrant evidence {Joh 16:9}; and of all the instances of unbelief which saddened His heart, none struck more chill than that of these Nazarenes. They had known His pure youth; He might have reckoned on some touch of sympathy and predisposition to welcome Him. His wonder is the measure of His pain as well as of their sin.
Nor need we wonder that He wondered; for He was true man, and all human emotions were His. To one who lives ever in the Father’s bosom, what can seem so strange as that men should prefer homeless exposedness and dreary loneliness? To one whose eyes ever behold unseen realities, what so marvellous as men’s blindness? To one who knew so assuredly His own mission and rich freightage of blessing, how strange it must have been that He found so few to accept His gifts! Jesus knew that bitter wonder which all men who have a truth to proclaim which the world has not learned, have to experience-the amazement at finding it so hard to get any others to see what they see. In His manhood, He shared the fate of all teachers, who have, in their turn, to marvel at men’s unbelief.
II. The new instrument which Christ fashions to cope with unbelief.
What does Jesus do when thus ‘wounded in the house of His friends’? Give way to despondency? No; but meekly betake Himself to yet obscurer fields of service, and send out the Twelve to prepare His way, as if He thought that they might have success where He would fail. What a lesson for people who are always hankering after conspicuous ‘spheres,’ and lamenting that their gifts are wasted in some obscure corner, is that picture of Jesus, repulsed from Nazareth, patiently turning to the villages! The very summary account of the trial mission of the Twelve here given presents only the salient points of the charge to them, and in its condensation makes these the more emphatic. Note the interesting statement that they were sent out two-and-two. The other Evangelists do not tell us this, but their lists of the Apostles are arranged in pairs. Mark’s list is not so arranged, but he supplies the reason for the arrangement, which he does not follow; and the other Gospels, by their arrangement, confirm his statement, which they do not give. Two-and-two is a wise rule for all Christian workers. It checks individual peculiarities of self-will, helps to keep off faults, wholesomely stimulates, strengthens faith by giving another to hear it and to speak it, brings companionship, and admits of division of labour. One-and-one are more than twice one.
The first point is the gift of power. Unclean spirits are specified, but the subsequent verses show that miracle-working power in its other forms was included. We may call that Christ’s greatest miracle. That He could, by His mere will, endow a dozen men with such power, is more, if degree come into view at all, than that He Himself should exercise it. But there is a lesson in the fact for all ages-even those in which miracles have ceased. Christ gives before He commands, and sends no man into the field without filling his basket with seed-corn. His gifts assimilate the receiver to Himself, and only in the measure in which His servants possess power which is like His own, and drawn from Him, can they proclaim His coming, or prepare hearts for it. The second step is their equipment. The special commands here given were repealed by Jesus when He gave His last commands. In their letter they apply only to that one journey, but in their spirit they are of universal and permanent obligation. The Twelve were to travel light. They might carry a staff to help them along, and wear sandals to save their feet on rough roads; but that was to be all. Food, luggage, and money, the three requisites of a traveller, were to be ‘conspicuous by their absence.’ That was repealed afterwards, and instructions given of an opposite character, because, after His ascension, the Church was to live more and more by ordinary means; but in this journey they were to learn to trust Him without means, that afterwards they might trust Him in the means. He showed them the purpose of these restrictions in the act of abrogating them. ‘When I sent you forth without purse . . . lacked ye anything?’ But the spirit remains unabrogated, and the minimum of outward provision is likeliest to call out the maximum of faith. We are more in danger from having too much baggage than from having too little. And the one indispensable requirement is that, whatever the quantity, it should hinder neither our march nor our trust in Him who alone is wealth and food.
Next comes the disposition of the messengers. It is not to be self-indulgent. They are not to change quarters for the sake of greater comfort. They have not gone out to make a pleasure tour, but to preach, and so are to stay where they are welcomed, and to make the best of it. Delicate regard for kindly hospitality, if offered by ever so poor a house, and scrupulous abstinence from whatever might suggest interested motives, must mark the true servant. That rule is not out of date. If ever a herald of Christ falls under suspicion of caring more about life’s comforts than about his work, good-bye to his usefulness! If ever he does so care, whether he be suspected of it or no, spiritual power will ebb from him.
The next step is the messengers’ demeanour to the rejecters of their message. Shaking the dust off the sandals is an emblem of solemn renunciation of participation, and perhaps of disclaimer of responsibility. It meant certainly, ‘We have no more to do with you,’ and possibly, ‘Your blood be on your own heads.’ This journey of the Twelve was meant to be of short duration, and to cover much ground, and therefore no time was to be spent unnecessarily. Their message was brief, and as well told quickly as slowly. The whole conditions of work now are different. Sometimes, perhaps, a Christian is warranted in solemnly declaring to those who receive not his message, that he will have no more to say to them. That may do more than all his other words. But such cases are rare; and the rule that it is safest to follow is rather that of love which despairs of none, and, though often repelled, returns with pleading, and, if it have told often in vain, now tells with tears, the story of the love that never abandons the most obstinate.
Such were the prominent points of this first Christian mission. They who carry Christ’s banner in the world must be possessed of power, His gift, must be lightly weighted, must care less for comfort than for service, must solemnly warn of the consequences of rejecting the message; and so they will not fail to cast out devils, and to heal many that are sick.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On v6 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LXI. Third Circuit…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LXI. Third Circuit of Galilee].
LXI. THIRD CIRCUIT OF GALILEE. THE TWELVE INSTRUCTED AND SENT FORTH. aMATT. IX. 35-38; X. 1, 5-42; XI. 1; bMARK VI. 6-13; cLUKE IX. 1-6.
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b6 And he aJesus bwent about aall the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner sickness and all manner of sickness. [In the first circuit of Galilee some of the twelve accompanied Jesus as disciples (see Mar_16:15). As Jesus himself was sent only to the Jews, so during his days on earth he sent his disciples only to them.] 7 As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. [It was set up about a year later, on the day of Pentecost, under the direction of the Holy Spirit-- Act_2:1-4.] 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely ye received, freely give. [Here is the true rule of giving. Paul repeats it at 1Co_16:2. If we would obey this rule, we would make this a happy world.] c3 And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, a9 Get you no gold, nor silver, cnor money; anor brass in your purses; cneither staff, nor wallet, afor your journey, cnor bread, neither have two coats. anor shoes, nor staff: for the workman is worthy of his food. [The prohibition is against securing these things before starting, and at their own expense. It is not that they would have no need for the articles mentioned, but that "the laborer is worthy of his food," and they were to depend on the people for whose benefit they labored, to furnish what they might need. This passage is alluded to by Paul ( 1Co_9:14). To rightly understand this prohibition we must remember that the apostles were to make but a brief tour of a few weeks, and that it was among their own countrymen, among a people habitually given to hospitality; moreover, that the apostles were imbued with powers which would win for them the respect of the religious and the gratitude of the well-to-do. The special and temporary commission was, therefore, never intended as a rule under which we are to act in preaching the gospel in other ages and in other lands.] b10 And he said unto them a11 And into whatsoever city or village ye shall enter, search out who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go forth. [The customs of the East gave rise to this rule. The ceremonies and forms with which a guest was received were tedious and time-consuming vanities, while the mission of the apostles required haste.] 12 And as ye enter [364] come into an house, salute it. 13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. [The form of salutation on entering a house was, "Peace to this house." The apostles are told to salute each house, and are assured that the peace prayed for shall return to them if the house is not worthy; that is, they shall receive, in this case, the blessing pronounced on the house.] bWheresoever ye enter into a house, there abide till ye depart thence. c4 And into whatsoever house ye enter, there abide, and thence depart. b11 And whatsoever place shall not receive you, and they hear you not [Jesus here warns them that their experiences would not always be pleasant], a14 And whosoever cas many as ashall creceive you not, anor hear your words, bas ye go forth thence, aout of that house or that city [The word "house" indicates a partial and the word "city" a complete rejection], { cwhen you depart from that city, bshake off the dust that is under your feet aof your feet. cfrom your feet bfor a testimony unto them. cagainst them. [The dust of heathen lands as compared with the land of Israel was regarded as polluted and unholy ( Amo_2:7, Eze_27:30). The Jew, therefore, considered himself defiled by such dust. For the apostles, therefore, to shake off the dust of any city of Israel from their clothes or feet was to place that city on a level with the cities of the heathen, and to renounce all further intercourse with it.] a15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city. [For comment on similar remarks, see 2Sa_12:20, Mat_6:16, Mat_6:17). When an apostle stood over a sick man to heal him by a touch or a word, he was about to send him out of his sick chamber, and just before the word was spoken, the oil was applied. It was, therefore, no more than a token or symbol that the man was restored to his liberty, and was from that moment to be confined to his chamber no longer. Comp. Jam_5:14. This practice bears about the same relation to the Romish practice of extreme unction as the Lord's Supper does to the mass, or as a true baptism does to the sprinkling of an infant.]
[FFG 362-369]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v8 take nothing (See Scofield "Mat 10:9")
take nothing (See Scofield "Mat 10:9")
scrip provision-bag.
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purse belt.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv7, 10 The Mission of the Twelve.
The Mission of the Twelve.
Preparations for their journey:
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v. 6. And He went round about the villages, teaching.
v. 7. And He called unto Him the Twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;
v. 8. and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse,
v. 9. but be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats.
Note: The people of Nazareth rejected the Lord, they wanted nothing of Him; but that did not discourage Him nor cause Him to abandon His work for others—a significant hint for us in the work for Christ. And while He was making His journey through the villages of Lower Galilee, continuing His labors in the Word, He taught His disciples. The Twelve were now to become His associates; they were, in a measure, to work in an independent capacity. And for the beginning of this work He gives them special instructions. To make their ministry somewhat easier, to give the individual a sort of moral backing, He sent them forth two by two. As a necessary part of their equipment, that they might substantiate their mission, He gave them power over unclean spirits, over demons that were wont to torment people. The authority and the ability to command these evil spirits argued for a power beyond human endeavor, and would thus give their preaching the necessary prestige. Their luggage, dunnage, or duffel for their journey was to be kept at the minimum. They should take nothing on the trip, for the way, not even a staff, no bread, no hand-bag, no money in their girdle; literally: He gave them instructions not to take anything for their trip, not only not a staff, no bread, not a sack, no money in the girdle, but be provided with sandals, also not to put on two tunics. What the Lord said in these words is plain: It is not at all necessary that you be fully equipped for your preaching-trip; you are not going out for a vacation journey, but to labor in the ministry of the Word. The sack of which the Lord here speaks throws an interesting side-light upon customs in those days. "The wallet mentioned is now seen not to have been a mere traveling-bag, as was formerly supposed, but almost certainly a beggar’s ’collecting bag,’ such as peripatetic religious teachers were accustomed to carry at that time, for it is called by this same name. Our Lord means to teach that His disciples are to go out as laymen, not in any special ministerial garb or making any special claim of mendicant piety, but nevertheless dependent for their living upon those who receive the Word. " Those that serve the Gospel should not be weighted down by a great deal of earthly baggage, should not be involved in the business of this world, lest their ministry be harmed and the effect of their preaching be spoiled. "They should speak or do nothing for the sake of money, favor, honor, not set their hearts upon money, honor, goods. The ministry of the Word seeks something different, has a different object, namely, eternal salvation and the honor of God."
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 10, 12 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus sends his disciples out in sets of two to preach and to heal.
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General Information:
Jesus' instructions in verses 8 and 9 can be reordered to separate what he told the disciples to do from what he told them not to do, as in the UDB. (See: Verse Bridges)
he called the twelve
Here the word "called" means that he summoned the twelve to come to him.
two by two
"2 by 2" or "in pairs" (See: Numbers)
no bread
Here "bread" is a synecdoche for food in general. AT: "no food" (See: Synecdoche)
no money in their belts
In that culture, men carried their money tucked into their belt. AT: "no money in their moneybags" or "no money"
translationWords
call
the twelve
send
authority
demon
staff
bread
sandal
tunic
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 6:6–8:21 Jesus’ mission and the disciples’ misunderstanding are prominent…
6:6–8:21 Jesus’ mission and the disciples’ misunderstanding are prominent themes in this section.
6:6 This summary of Jesus’ healing and preaching ministry introduces an account concerning the disciples. Jesus’ teaching from village to village probably took place around the Sea of Galilee and perhaps in Capernaum (see 2:1).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.