Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 2 Study # 2
October 5, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: The details of Jesus' instructions for His "sent out" disciples indicate that He intended for His disciples to "learn" how to function by faith in His words.
Introduction: In our last study we saw that Mark introduced this next major subsection of his record by telling us that Jesus' "focus of ministry" was "teaching" the meaning of His absolute "Truth". We considered the primacy of the "words of Jesus" in light of the fact that the entire creation of all that has been created was accomplished by Jesus "speaking" words (
Hebrews 11:1). [According to John's "words" in
John 1:3 and
14, Jesus created every single thing that exists as "creation" so that the record of Genesis is a record of Jesus creating the entire universe.]. That Mark introduces this major subsection of his Gospel on the heels of his statement that Jesus "was going around the villages teaching" means that we are to focus upon what He was focused upon -- i.e., His "purpose" for being sent (
1:38).
The record of Mark 6:6b-13, then, is Mark's preliminary foray into this major sub-section. As such we need to understand that the paragraph is significantly placed as a kind of introduction to the transition of the Twelve from "learners" to "actors" so that they can become legitimate representatives of Jesus as the days go by. Thus, we must understand what Mark wrote in light of the beginning of Jesus' sending the Twelve forth as His surrogates. That understanding begins with seeing the "point" of Jesus' instructions. And that "point" is best seen by way of a contrast of Mark's record to Luke's record of the same event.
- I. The Critical Nature of The Contrast.
- A. The backdrop: "faith" as the crucial element in being a legitimate representative of Jesus.
- B. The requirement of this "faith": "understanding" the meaning of His words.
- C. The requirement of "understanding": "precision" in identifying the particular meaning of each word in its specific context so that significance can settle over us.
- II. The Benefit of The Spirit's Inspiration of Both Records (Mark's and Luke's).
- A. He (The Spirit) forces the issue of "precision" in meaning and significance.
- B. He does this by "inspiring" an apparent, direct contradiction, within the words of Mark and Luke.
- 1. Mark's record says that Jesus "instructed" the Twelve "that they should take nothing for their journey except a mere staff...".
- 2. Luke's record says (Luke 9:3) that Jesus said to them, "Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff...".
- III. The Spirit's Inspiration of Both Records is Not An Actual Contradiction.
- A. What are the facts of the two records?
- 1. Any actually established "contradiction" in the Word of God is a HUGE problem for anyone who believes he/she can "trust" anything that the Bible says.
- 2. The word translated "staff" is the same word in both texts (rabdos).
- 3. The word had, in the first century, a wide variety of "specific definitions" that ran from a small stick (what we might call a twig) through a number of variations in length and diameter up to a cudgel, that were defined in terms of their use (a part of a trap to catch a bird, a fishing pole, a "staff" such as a shepherd would carry, or a weapon of either aggression or defense, etc.).
- 4. Anyone wishing to "believe" Jesus' words would have to understand what He meant by the word(s) He used.
- 5. This needed understanding could only come by sifting through the possibilities and settling on the one that fit His instructions.
- B. What is the process of gaining understanding of the two records?
- 1. First, the words of the text must be established: there are no significant variations in the texts of Mark and Luke as they have been transmitted to us.
- 2. Second, the way the words have been put together into a sentence must be observed: the sentence written by Mark is an indirect quote (he is claiming to have put the actual words of Jesus into a legitimate summary); the sentence written by Luke is a direct quote (he is claiming to have put the words into the very form which Jesus spoke).
- 3. Third, the possibilities of meaning have to be taken into account: "possibilities" arise out of a consideration of the word in view of its use in multiple texts (this is what the lexicographers do when they put forth a "lexicon" -- "dictionary" -- and it is what we do when we look into the way the word is used in the text of the Scriptures in terms of a word study).
- a. The word translated "staff" is used in 11 verses of the New Testament.
- b. This word is used in Matthew 10:10; Mark 6:8; and Luke 9:3 which are all records of the same event, but which contain the "contradiction" if the word is taken to mean the same thing in all three texts.
- c. This word is used once by Paul (1 Corinthians 4:21) and his meaning is relatively clear: he meant a form of a "stick" that he could use to punish those who were disobedient to the truth.
- d. The author of Hebrews use this word in three places: in 1:8 he quotes from the Old Testament and the word means "the overt symbol of the Kingdom in terms of its enforcement of the laws of that kingdom" (Psalm 45:6); in 9:4 he used it to refer to Aaron's "rod" which "budded" which is a reference to the test of the leaders of the tribes of Israel who contended that Aaron should not have been recognized as God's "enforcer" (Numbers 17); and in 11:21 he used it to tell us that Jacob, in his failing strength, used his "staff" to hold himself up as he "worshiped" after "blessing" each of his sons (Genesis 49).
- e. These various texts tell us that the word "rabdos" does not have a consistent meaning in the way the Holy Spirit used it.
- 4. Fourth, we have to look carefully at the text in its context to see how the context influences our understanding of the word's meaning.
- a. In Mark's account, we have two "categories" of things included in Jesus' instructions.
- 1) There is a "category" of "things to take".
- a) A rabdos.
- b) Sandals.
- c) And, by way of direct implication, a "coat"; a "kiton", which is the outer "tunic" or final piece of clothing one puts on to wear.
- 2) There is a "category" of "things to not take".
- a) "Nothing for the road"; meaning "nothing" that addresses the potential needs that will arise as the hours pass upon the journey.
- b) No bread.
- c) No "wallet"; actually a "pouch" that would function as a container to hold all the things taken for a journey (similar to our suitcase).
- d) No money in their belt.
- e) No extra pair of sandals.
- f) No extra "tunic" (strongly implying an anticipation of a night outside on the ground).
- 3) When we consider the differences between the "categories" we immediately see that Jesus was insisting that they "go" with those things necessary for "going" and that they take nothing with them that indicated some form of "anticipation of need" along the way.
- a) This strongly implies that a "rabdos" is something that they need to walk over the paths they are following; an "aid" to climbing over the obstacles in the path, or maintaining their balance as they negotiate those obstacles.
- b) This makes "sandals" both necessary and liable to be badly worn by the nature of the terrain (implying the "anticipated" need to take along an extra pair).
- b. In Luke's record, there is only the list of things to "not" take.
- 1) However, Luke has two other references to Jesus' instructions.
- a) 10:4 is a parallel passage where Jesus sends forth seventy others and gives them the same restrictions with an addition: "Greet no one on the way".
- b) 22:35-36 is a direct reference back to 9:3.
- i. This direct reference tells us what Jesus' purpose was: to enable them to see that He would make sure they "lacked nothing".
- ii. This direct reference also contains "new instructions" that counter what He forbade earlier, and it has a significant change: sell your "tunic" (extra one taken along for a covering at night when camping) and buy a "sword".
- iii. This change is a change from a forbidden rabdos to a "sword"; making the strong implication that what He had forbidden was a defensive weapon, i.e., a cudgel of some sort.
- iv. Thus, all things considered, Mark's use of rabdos meant a walking stick and Jesus' use of rabdos in Luke was a weapon that anticipates robbers or some such adversaries: Jesus was including an aid "to walking along the way" and was forbidding a weapon that "anticipates some future difficulty".
