The apostles were not to spend time overcoming opposition and winning people by long-term programs, as a project of conversion demands; they were rather to bear their testimonies and be on their way in all possible haste. “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them” (Mark 6:11 [Mark 3:7], italics added). The program outlined in Matthew 10 and Luke 9 is not that of founding solid institutions, but of last-minute emergency: “I send you forth as lambs among wolves. . . .
Salute no man by the way” (Luke 10:3–4 [Luke 8:3]). What is wrong with a purse and scrip, and extra cloak, or overnight visits? Nothing at all, save that there is no time left for the ordinary business and amenities of life, as Paul tells the Corinthians: marriage, mourning, celebrating, business, careers—all that must be forgotten now, for “the time [literally, ‘opportunity’] is short” (1 Corinthians 7:29), “for the fashion [schema: ‘the system’] of this world passeth away” (1 Corinthians 7:31). Only for food and lodging were the missionaries to go to individual houses; otherwise, “Go not from house to house” (Luke 10:7 [Luke 8:3]), but “in that city that does not receive you, go your ways out into the streets of the same and say: Even the very dust . . . we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you” (Luke 10:10–11 [Luke 8:3]). After they have had their chance, the apostles’
Sending the Twelve
Seeing a crowd with no shepherd, he does not pity them and move on: he makes twelve laborers, gives them his own authority, sends them out with nothing, and tells them plainly what it will cost.
Tap a Gospel to show or hide its column. Narrow to any two to read them side by side.
Note. Mark and Luke are unrevised here; all the JST work is in Matthew, and two changes stand out: “wise as serpents” becomes “wise servants,” and “he that findeth his life” becomes “he who seeks to save his life.”
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
Each movement Joseph discusses carries a JS link down to his letter; the letter carries a roman-numeral link back up to the movement.
He goes through every city and village teaching and healing, and what moves him is not the sickness but the shepherdlessness. The problem he names is not that the crowd is unwilling: it is that there are not enough laborers for a harvest already ripe.
35And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36But when he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion on them because they were weary and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
37Then he said unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. 38Pray ye therefore Ask therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.
The answer to the shortage is an ordination. He calls twelve, hands them the authority he has been using himself, and Matthew stops to write down their names, including, at the end of the list, the one who would betray him.
1And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
2Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: the first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, 3Philip, and Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew the publican, James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus, 4Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
7And he called unto him the twelve and began to send them forth by two and two, and gave them power over unclean spirits,
1Then he called his twelve disciples together, and he gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases.
Where to go, what to carry, what to say, and what to do when a door closes. The instructions are almost entirely about traveling light and moving on: the mission has no time to argue anyone into it.
5These twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: enter not into any city of the Samaritans, 6but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand. 8Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely you have received, freely give. 9Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, 10nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves, for the workman is worthy of his food. 11And into whatever town or city you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide until you go from there. 12And when you come into a house, salute it; 13and if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14And whoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet 15for a testimony against them. And truly 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.
8and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey save a staff only — no scrip, nor bread, nor money in their purse — 9but should be shod with sandals and not put on not take two coats. 10And he said unto them, In whatever place you enter into a house, there abide until you depart from that place. 11And whoever shall not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust of your feet for a testimony against them. Truly I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
2And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey — neither staves nor scrip, neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats apiece. 4And into whatever house you enter, there abide until you depart 5from there. And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.
The charge turns. Sheep among wolves, councils and scourgings, governors and kings, and then, worse than any of it, the family. Twice he tells them not to fear, and both times the reason is the same: nothing is hidden, and nothing falls without the Father.
16Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents wise servants and as harmless as doves. 17But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues, 18and you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. 19But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak; 20for it is not you that speaks, but the spirit of your Father which speaks in you.
21And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child. And the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death. 22And you shall be hated of all the world for my name’s sake, but he that endures to the end shall be saved. 23But when they persecute you in one city, flee into another; for truly I say unto you, you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel until the Son of Man has come.
24Remember, the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. 25It is enough for the disciple that he be that the disciple be as his master and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? 26Fear them not, therefore, for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hidden that shall not be known. 27What I tell you in darkness, speak in light. And what you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetops.
28And fear not them who are able to kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father 30knowing it. And the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Confess him and be confessed; deny him and be denied. Then the hardest saying in the discourse, that he came to divide households, followed immediately by the terms on which anything is kept at all.
32Whoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father who is in Heaven; 33but whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in Heaven.
34Think not that I have come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword; 35for I have come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36And a man’s foes will be they of his own household. 37He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, 38and he who takes not his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. 39He who finds seeks to save his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake shall find it.
The discourse ends by making the smallest possible act count: whoever receives them receives him, and a cup of cold water given to the least of them is not lost. Then the Twelve simply go, and Mark, in one line, says what they did.
40He who receives you, receives me. And he who receives me, receives him who sent me. 41He that receives a prophet, in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he that receives a righteous man, in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42And whoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, truly I say unto you, he shall by no means lose his reward.
11:1And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.
12And they went out and preached that men should repent, 13and they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick and they were healed.
6And they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
The Keys of This Ministry
Matthew 10 was not an object of study for the early Restoration so much as a set of working instructions: the Twelve were being organized and sent under it. What follows is mostly letters and editorials rather than sermons, because that is how the charge was actually administered. The 1835 council minute is the important one: it is the Restoration’s deliberate inversion of “Go not into the way of the Gentiles.”
If They Receive Not Your Testimony in One Place, Flee to Another
A resonance rather than an exposition. In a letter the Kirtland elders, Joseph Smith among them, printed for the missionaries in December 1833, the instructions of verses 14 and 23 (leave the town that will not receive you, flee to the next) come back as working rules, with a caution Matthew does not have: go without bitterness.
Letter from the Elders in Kirtland to their Brethren Abroad, not after 18 December 1833 · The Evening and the Morning Star, December 1833, p. 120 (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 43) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗Let the elders be exceedingly careful about unnecessarily disturbing and harrowing up the feelings of the people. Remember, that your business is, to preach the gospel in all humility and meekness, and warn sinners to repent and come to Christ. Avoid contentions and vain disputes with men of corrupt minds, who do not desire to know the truth. Remember that “it is a day of warning, and not a day of many words.” If they receive not your testimony in one place, flee to another, remembering, to cast no reflections, nor throw out any bitter sayings. If you do your duty, it will be just as well with you, as though all men embraced the gospel.
To Unlock the Door of the Kingdom unto All Nations
At the organization of the Quorum of the Twelve, Joseph Smith defined their office, and reversed the order of Matthew 10:5–6. The ancient Twelve were sent to Israel and not to the Gentiles; the modern Twelve are sent to the Gentiles first, and to the Jews only when commanded.
Minutes and Discourses, 27 February 1835, Kirtland; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 74 (History of the Church 2:200) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗Also recorded in a second record of the same council, kept by William E. McLellin, one of the Twelve then being organized.
They are the Twelve Apostles, who are called to the office of traveling high council, who are to preside over all the churches of the Saints among the Gentiles, where there is no presidency established, and they are to travel and preach among the Gentiles, until the Lord shall command them to go to the Jews. They are to hold the keys of this ministry, to unlock the door of the kingdom of heaven unto all nations, and to preach the Gospel to every creature. This is the power, authority and virtue of their Apostleship.
Shake Off the Dust of Thy Feet
The fullest exposition anywhere in the corpus of what Matthew 10:11–14 asks of a missionary: enter, salute the head of the house, and if refused, leave the responsibility where it belongs and go.
Letter to the Elders of the Church, 16 November 1835, Messenger and Advocate 2:209–212; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 86–89 (History of the Church 2:259–264) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗It is the duty of Elders, when they enter into any house, to let their labors and warning voice be unto the master of that house; and if he receive the Gospel, then he may extend his influence to his wife also, with consent, that peradventure she may receive the Gospel.
But if a man forbid his wife, or his children, before they are of age, to receive the Gospel, then it should be the duty of the Elder to go his way, and use no influence against him, and let the responsibility be upon his head; shake off the dust of thy feet as a testimony against him, and thy skirts shall then be clear of their souls.
The Mother Shall Be Against the Daughter
A resonance. In the summer of 1839, at Commerce, Illinois, Joseph Smith described violence he had seen in vision and quoted the division saying of verse 35 as a prophecy already at the Saints’ doors; the Joseph Smith Papers editors annotate the sentence to Matthew 10:35. He is applying the saying to his own day, not explaining it. Willard Richards’s notebook is the only record. The same passage is given under the parables of watchfulness, for Luke 12:53.
Discourse, between circa 26 June and circa 4 August 1839 (A), Commerce, Illinois · Willard Richards, Pocket Companion, p. 71 (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 161) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗I saw men hunting the lives of their own sons, & brother murdering brother, women killing their own daughters & daughters seeking the lives of their mothers. I saw armies arrayed against armies I saw blood. desolations, fires &c,— The Son of Man has said that the mother Shall be against the daughter, & the daughter against the mother &c,— These things are at our doors. They will follow the Saints of God from City To City— Satan will rage & The Spirit of the Devil is now enraged. I know not how soon these things will take place, and with a view of them shall I cry peace? NO! I will lift up my voice & testify of them.
Sheep without Shepherds
Writing to the Twelve during their mission to Great Britain, Joseph Smith reached for the phrase that set the whole discourse going.
Letter to the Quorum of the Twelve, 15 December 1840; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 174–175 (History of the Church 4:226–232, there misdated 19 October 1840) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗I would therefore say in the mean time be diligent, organize the churches and let every one stand in his proper place, so that those who cannot come with you in the spring may not be left as sheep without shepherds.
A Cup of Cold Water
Joseph Smith wrote this editorial while in hiding from the Missouri extradition attempt, which is who “one of the saints in prison, or secluded from friends by reason of vexatious law suits” is. He is claiming the promise of Matthew 10:42 for the people then sheltering him.
Editorial, “Persecution the Heritage of the Righteous,” Times and Seasons, 1 September 1842 (3:902–905), p. 903; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 260–262 · Joseph Smith Papers ↗It is a sh[a]me to the saints to talk of chastisements, and transgressions, when all the Saints before them, prophets and apostles, have had to come up through great tribulation; whether a Herod, a Nero, or a [Lilburn W.] Boggs, causes the affliction, or the blood to be shed, is all the same,—these murderers will have their reward! and the saints theirs.
Remember that he that gives a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, to one of the saints in prison, or secluded from friends by reason of vexatious law suits, intended for persecution, shall in no wise lose his reward.
These are mostly letters, a council minute and a signed editorial rather than sermons, so they have no reporters’ records to compare. The one sermon, of 1839, survives in a single record, Willard Richards’s. The 1835 council was minuted twice, by Oliver Cowdery and by William E. McLellin; McLellin’s record is linked beside it, and Cowdery’s wording is the one reproduced. The 1835 wording follows the printed Teachings text (“the office of the Traveling High Council,” “the churches of the Saints”) rather than the smoothed paraphrases that circulate.
Not Founding Institutions: Last-Minute Emergency
Nibley reads the strangeness of the charge as its point. No purse, no bread, no second coat, no lingering, no arguing, no overnight social calls: not because poverty is holy, but because there is no time. Everything odd about the instructions follows from the clock.
At the present time Roman Catholic scholars are laying considerable emphasis on the phrase “from the housetops,” which signifies, according to them, that there was to be nothing whatever kept secret or held back from the public in the teachings of Jesus.89 In the face of innumerable indications to the contrary, it is hard to see how such an interpretation can be put on a passage which is a mysterious one to begin with: The Lord had just told the apostles that their teaching would receive no better reception than his had (Matthew 10:25 [Matt. 5:5]). Then he adds that they should not be afraid, “for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known” (Matthew 10:26 [Matt. 5:5]). Isn’t he talking about the machinations of the enemy here? Jesus continues: “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops” (Matthew 10:27 [Matt. 5:5]). The peculiar phrase “in the ear” is explained by a newly discovered Logion of Jesus: “What you hear in the other ear preach from the housetops.” This is akin to another Logion: “These teachings are only for the tried and worthy: preach other words to the churches.” There is thus no contradiction between a command to preach from the housetops and the injunction to keep holy things from unworthy ears: some things were to be divulged generally, others not.
“These things preach openly,” says 4 Ezra, “but these things keep secret,” explaining that there are twenty-four sacred books for public teaching but seventy others which are reserved only “for the wise among thy people.” “Paul did not divulge all his revelations,” says Chrysostom, “but concealed the greater part of them; and though he did not tell everything, neither was he silent about everything, lest he leave an opening for the teachings of false apostles.” J. Jeremias has recently shown how such a policy explains the apparent contradiction in ordering the apostles to preach in all the world while at the same time commanding them not to go outside of Israel: the general preaching, Jeremias explains, was for a later dispensation, the limited preaching for the present time.94 Jesus’
This was the policy that the disciples followed… “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, … freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses” (Matthew 10:5 [Matt. 5:2], 8-9). That is why Peter says, “Silver and gold have I none”; the Lord had commanded that he shouldn’t have any.
Nothing is easier, Clausewitz notes, than to justify bloodshed.10 One Latter-day Saint correspondent writes to me that 1 Samuel 15:2—3 is proof that Christ commands a scorched-earth policy for us, and that Matthew 10:34 [Matt. 5:7]—35 is proof that “Christ . . . advocated war within families.” The first instance is a very special case, unique in history; in the second an ambiguous English translation confuses a result-clause (the plain statement of fact that the preaching of the gospel divides families) with a purpose-clause (that Christ came with the express wish and purpose to destroy families); and so a determined exegesis can twist this one verse into making the Prince of Peace an author of contention. Such an act is a clear demonstration not of logic or philology but of the spirit.
Men have even used the expulsion of Satan from heaven, “the peaceable kingdom,” as an argument that violence is the order of heaven since Satan was “thrust down in a twinkling” for resorting to violence. There is no limit to the acts of depravity that might be justified and sanctified by appeal to specific instances in scripture. It is best to allow no latitude whatever to individual interpretation, with its easy rationalizations and sophistries, as long as we have an abundance of clear and specific statements of just what pleases and displeases our Heavenly Father (cf. Moses 7:29 [Gen. 4:16]—34). It is significant that Mormon did not for a moment condone the Nephite search for blood and vengeance because it was directed against the Lamanites; it did not mitigate the shedding of blood for him because it was Lamanite blood that was being shed.
Clausewitz describes the motivating forces and objectives of war and the means by which they are achieved and the spirit in which war must be undertaken (this he considers the most important of all) with the devastating honesty that has made him the prince of military analysts. The same list may be found, exactly reversed, setting forth in the Doctrine and Covenants the nature of that power by which God operates, by which the worlds are created and sustained (D&C 76:24 [T&C 69:5]).
Admittedly we are faced with grim situations—these are not called the last days for nothing! How we react to these situations is part of the test we undergo in this time of probation. In the darkest period of the history of the church, when the saints were nearer than they ever were before or after to extermination by force of arms, Joseph Smith appeared to Brigham Young in a dream with the instructions that alone could save them: “Tell the people to .
The third entry’s wider argument is the law of consecration: Nibley is reading the missionary charge as its New Testament instance, which is his frame rather than the text’s. The fourth is a correction rather than an exposition, and a useful one for the hardest verse in movement V.