Mark 6:8

and commanded them Now follows a brief summary of the charge, which the Lord proceeded to give them on this occasion, and which is recorded at far greater length by St Matthew, Matthew 10:5-42.

save a staff They were to go forth with their staff as they had it at the time, but they were not (Matthew 10:10) to "seek," or "procure one carefully" for the purposes of this journey. The "staff" in Matthew 10:10, depends on "acquire not" or "provide not for yourselves" in Mark 6:9.

no scrip Scrip, from Sw. skrâppa, denotes a "wallet" or "small bag." Comp. 1 Samuel 17:40, "And (David) took his staff in his hand and chose him five smooth stones, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip." It was so called, perhaps, because it was designed to hold scraps, trifling articles, scraped off as it were from something larger. It was part of the pilgrim's or traveller's equipage: comp. Piers Ploughman's Vis. 3573;

"I seigh nevere palmere

With pyk ne with Scrippe,"

and Shakespeare, As you like it, III. 2. 171,

"Though not with bag and baggage, yet with scripand scrippage." The scrip of the Galilean peasants was of leather, "the skins of kids stripped off whole, and tanned by a very simple process," used especially to carry their food on a journey, and slung over their shoulders (Thomson's Land and the Book, p. 355).

no money "There was no departure from the simple manners of the country in this. At this day the farmer sets out on excursions, quite as extensive, without a parain his purse, and a modern Moslem prophet of Tarshîshx thus sends forth his apostles over this identical region. No traveller in the East would hesitate to throw himself on the hospitality of any villager." Thomson's Land and Book, p. 346.