Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. Nor scrip for your journey - To carry provisions. This was called תורמיל tormil, by the rabbins; it was a leathern pouch hung about their necks, in which they put their victuals. This was properly, the shepherd's bag.
Neither two coats, etc. - Nothing to encumber you.
Nor yet staves - Ραβδον, a staff, as in the margin, but, instead of ραβδον, staff, which is the common reading, all the following MSS. and versions have ραβδους, staves, and CEFGKLMPS. V. ninety-three others, Coptic, Armenian, latter Syriac, one of the Itala, Chrysostom, and Theophylact. This reading is of great importance, as it reconciles this place with Luke 9:3, and removes the seeming contradiction from Mark 6:8; as if he had said: "Ye shall take nothing to defend yourselves with, because ye are the servants of the Lord, and are to be supported by his bounty, and defended by his power. In a word, be like men in haste, and eager to begin the important work of the ministry. The sheep are lost-ruined: Satan is devouring them: give all diligence to pluck them out of the jaws of the destroyer."
The workman is worthy of his meat - Της τροφης αυτου, of his maintenance. It is a maintenance, and that only, which a minister of God is to expect, and that he has a Divine right to; but not to make a fortune, or lay up wealth: besides, it is the workman, he that labors in the word and doctrine, that is to get even this. How contrary to Christ is it for a man to have vast revenues, as a minister of the Gospel, who ministers no Gospel, and who spends the revenues of the Church to its disgrace and ruin!