Matthew 10:10 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Nor scrip for your journey— The scrip, Πηρα, was a sort of large bag, in which shepherds, and those who journeyed, carried their provisions. See on Luke 10:34. Thus the bag into which David put the smooth stones, wherewith he smote Goliah, is called both a scrip and a shepherd's bag, In the account in which St. Mark gives the repetition of these instructions, immediatelybefore the disciples took their journey, he says, they were permitted to be shod with sandals, ch. Matthew 6:9. The sandal was a piece of strong leather, or wood, fastened to the sole of the foot with strings, which they tied round the foot and ancle; but the shoe was a kind of short boot, that covered the foot and a part of the leg, and was a more delicate piece of dress than the sandals. See Calmet on the word sandals, and Lightfoot. St. Mark says, Mark 6:8 that they were allowed to take a staff; which Calmet observes may be reconciled with St. Matthew, by attending to the ambiguity of the Hebrew word שׁבח shabet, answering to the Greek word ραβδος : for, as the Hebrew signifies any sort of rod, whether club, staff, sceptre, or pole, he thinks the staff, which, according to St. Matthew, the disciples were prohibited to use, may have been a pole for carrying a burden on; an accoutrement which was useless, as they were not allowed to carry any provisions with them, nor any spare clothes; whereas the staff, which by St. Mark's account he permitted them to take, was a walking-staff, very proper for those who were to perform a journey with expedition. Heinsius labours to prove, that ει μη, the exceptive particle in Mark, may signify no not; and so would have the clause ει μη ραβδον μονον, translated no, not a single staff. But the more probable solution of the difficulty seems to be, that such of the apostles as had staffs in their hands might take them: as for those who were walking without them, they were not to provide them; for as the providence of God was to supply them with all necessaries, to have made the least preparation for their journey would have implied a disbelief of their Master's promise.