Matthew 10:1-15

Sending Out the Twelve Apostles

10:1 Jesus ¹  called his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits ²  so they could cast them out and heal every kind of disease and sickness. ³  10:2 Now these are the names of the twelve apostles: ⁴  first, Simon ⁵  (called Peter), and Andrew his brother; James son of Zebedee and John his brother; 10:3 Philip and Bartholomew; ⁶  Thomas ⁷  and Matthew the tax collector; ⁸  James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁹  10:4 Simon the Zealot ¹⁰  and Judas Iscariot, ¹¹  who betrayed him. ¹² 

10:5 Jesus sent out these twelve, instructing them as follows: ¹³  “Do not go to Gentile regions ¹⁴  and do not enter any Samaritan town. ¹⁵  10:6 Go ¹⁶  instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 10:7 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’ 10:8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, ¹⁷  cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. 10:9 Do not take gold, silver, or copper in your belts, 10:10 no bag ¹⁸  for the journey, or an extra tunic, ¹⁹  or sandals or staff, ²⁰  for the worker deserves his provisions. 10:11 Whenever ²¹  you enter a town or village, ²²  find out who is worthy there ²³  and stay with them ²⁴  until you leave. 10:12 As you enter the house, give it greetings. ²⁵  10:13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ²⁶  10:14 And if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your message, shake the dust off ²⁷  your feet as you leave that house or that town. 10:15 I tell you the truth, ²⁸  it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom and Gomorrah ²⁹  on the day of judgment than for that town!

[10:1]  ¹ tn Grk “And he.”

[10:1]  ² sn Unclean spirits refers to evil spirits.

[10:1]  ³ tn Grk “and every [kind of] sickness.” Here “every” was not repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[10:2]  ⁴ sn The term apostles is rare in the gospels, found only here, Mark 3:14, and six more times in Luke (6:13; 9:10; 11:49; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10).

[10:2]  ⁵ sn In the various lists of the twelve, Simon (that is, Peter) is always mentioned first (see also Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16; Acts 1:13) and the first four are always the same, though not in the same order after Peter.

[10:3]  ⁶ sn Bartholomew (meaning “son of Tolmai” in Aramaic) could be another name for Nathanael mentioned in John 1:45.

[10:3]  ⁷ sn This is the “doubting Thomas” of John 20:24-29.

[10:3]  ⁸ sn See the note on tax collectors in 5:46.

[10:3]  ⁹ tc Witnesses differ on the identification of the last disciple mentioned in v. 3: He is called Λεββαῖος (Lebbaio", “Lebbaeus”) in D, Judas Zelotes in it, and not present in sy^s. The Byzantine text, along with a few others (C^[*^],2 L W Θ Ë¹ 33 Ï), conflates earlier readings by calling him “Lebbaeus, who was called Thaddaeus,” while codex 13 pc conflate by way of transposition (“Thaddaeus, who was called Lebbaeus”). But excellent witnesses of the earliest texttypes (א B ˹³ 892 pc lat co) call him merely Θαδδαῖος (Qaddaio", “Thaddaeus”), a reading which, because of this support, is most likely correct.

[10:4]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the Cananean,” but according to both BDAG 507 s.v. Καναναῖος and L&N 11.88, this term has no relation at all to the geographical terms for Cana or Canaan, but is derived from the Aramaic term for “enthusiast, zealot” (see Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13), possibly because of an earlier affiliation with the party of the Zealots. He may not have been technically a member of the particular Jewish nationalistic party known as “Zealots” (since according to some scholars this party had not been organized at that time), but simply someone who was zealous for Jewish independence from Rome, in which case the term would refer to his temperament.

[10:4]  ¹¹ sn There is some debate about what the name Iscariot means. It probably alludes to a region in Judea and thus might make Judas the only non-Galilean in the group. Several explanations for the name Iscariot have been proposed, but it is probably transliterated Hebrew with the meaning “man of Kerioth” (there are at least two villages that had that name). For further discussion see D. L. Bock, Luke (BECNT), 1:546; also D. A. Carson, John, 304.

[10:4]  ¹² tn Grk “who even betrayed him.”

[10:5]  ¹³ tn Grk “instructing them, saying.”

[10:5]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “on the road of the Gentiles.” That is, a path that leads to Gentile regions.

[10:5]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “town [or city] of the Samaritans.”

[10:6]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “But go.” The Greek μᾶλλον (mallon, “rather, instead”) conveys the adversative nuance here so that δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:8]  ¹⁷ tc The majority of Byzantine minuscules, along with a few other witnesses (C³ K L Γ Θ 700* al), lack νεκροὺς ἐγείρετε (nekrou" ejgeirete, “raise the dead”), most likely because of oversight due to a string of similar endings (-ετε in the second person imperatives, occurring five times in v. 8). The longer version of this verse is found in several diverse and ancient witnesses such as א B C* (D) N 0281^vid Ë^1,13 33 565 al lat; P W Δ 348 have a word-order variation, but nevertheless include νεκροὺς ἐγείρετε. Although some Byzantine-text proponents charge the Alexandrian witnesses with theologically-motivated alterations toward heterodoxy, it is interesting to find a variant such as this in which the charge could be reversed (do the Byzantine scribes have something against the miracle of resurrection?). In reality, such charges of wholesale theologically-motivated changes toward heterodoxy are immediately suspect due to lack of evidence of intentional changes (here the change is evidently due to accidental omission).

[10:10]  ¹⁸ tn Or “no traveler’s bag”; or possibly “no beggar’s bag” (L&N 6.145; BDAG 811 s.v. πήρα).

[10:10]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “two tunics.” See the note on the word “tunic” in Matt 5:40.

[10:10]  ²⁰ sn Mark 6:8 allows one staff. It might be that Matthew’s summary (cf. Luke 9:3) means not taking an extra staff or that the expression is merely rhetorical for “traveling light” which has been rendered in two slightly different ways.

[10:11]  ²¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:11]  ²² tn Grk “Into whatever town or village you enter.” This acts as a distributive, meaning every town or village they enter; this is expressed more naturally in English as “whenever you enter a town or village.”

[10:11]  ²³ tn Grk “in it” (referring to the city or village).

[10:11]  ²⁴ tn Grk “there.” This was translated as “with them” to avoid redundancy in English and to clarify where the disciples were to stay.

[10:12]  ²⁵ tn This is a metonymy; the “house” is put for those who live in it.

[10:13]  ²⁶ sn The response to these messengers determines how God’s blessing is bestowed – if the messengers are not welcomed, their blessing will return to them. Jesus shows just how important their mission is by this remark.

[10:14]  ²⁷ sn To shake the dust off represented shaking off the uncleanness from one’s feet; see Luke 10:11; Acts 13:51; 18:6. It was a sign of rejection.

[10:15]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[10:15]  ²⁹ sn The allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah, the most wicked of OT cities from Gen 19:1-29, shows that to reject the current message is even more serious than the worst sins of the old era and will result in more severe punishment.