Matthew 10: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus calls his twelve disciples, names them, gives them authority over unclean spirits and every sickness, and sends them to the lost sheep of Israel with instructions about what to preach, what not to carry, where to stay, and how to respond when a town refuses them. He then warns them that they will be handed over to councils, whipped, brought before rulers, hated, and betrayed by their own relatives, and tells them not to fear those who can kill only the body. The chapter ends with sayings about loving him more than family, taking up the cross, losing and finding one's life, and the reward for anyone who welcomes his messengers.

Claim by Claim

1. 10:1
   • Jesus called his twelve disciples to him.
   • Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits.
   • The authority given was to cast unclean spirits out.
   • Jesus gave them power to heal every sickness.
   • Jesus gave them power to heal every disease.
2. 10:2
   • The names of the twelve apostles are given.
   • Simon, who is called Peter, is first.
   • Andrew is Simon Peter's brother.
   • James is the son of Zebedee.
   • John is James's brother.
3. 10:3
   • Philip is among the twelve.
   • Bartholomew is among the twelve.
   • Thomas is among the twelve.
   • Matthew is among the twelve.
   • Matthew was a tax collector.
   • James is the son of Alphaeus.
   • Lebbaeus, surnamed Thaddaeus, is among the twelve.
4. 10:4
   • Simon the Canaanite is among the twelve.
   • Judas Iscariot is among the twelve.
   • Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus.
5. 10:5
   • Jesus sent out these twelve.
   • Jesus gave them commands as he sent them.
   • Jesus told them not to go into the way of the Gentiles.
   • Jesus told them not to enter any city of the Samaritans.
6. 10:6
   • Jesus told them to go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7. 10:7
   • Jesus told them to preach as they went.
   • The message they were to preach is that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
8. 10:8
   • Jesus told them to heal the sick.
   • Jesus told them to cleanse the lepers.
   • Jesus told them to raise the dead.
   • Jesus told them to cast out demons.
   • Jesus said they had received freely.
   • Jesus told them to give freely.
9. 10:9
   • Jesus told them not to acquire gold for their belts.
   • Jesus told them not to acquire silver for their belts.
   • Jesus told them not to acquire copper for their belts.
10. 10:10
    • Jesus told them to take no bag for the journey.
    • Jesus told them not to take two tunics.
    • Jesus told them not to take sandals.
    • Jesus told them not to take a staff.
    • Jesus said the worker is worthy of his food.
11. 10:11
    • Jesus told them that in whatever city or village they entered, they should find out who in it is worthy.
    • Jesus told them to stay there until they departed.
12. 10:12
    • Jesus told them to greet the house as they entered it.
13. 10:13
    • If the house is worthy, their peace is to come upon it.
    • If the house is not worthy, their peace is to return to them.
14. 10:14
    • Some will not receive them.
    • Some will not hear their words.
    • Jesus told them to shake the dust off their feet when leaving such a house or city.
15. 10:15
    • Jesus prefaced this with a solemn assurance.
    • It will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
16. 10:16
    • Jesus said he was sending them out as sheep in the midst of wolves.
    • Jesus told them to be wise as serpents.
    • Jesus told them to be innocent as doves.
17. 10:17
    • Jesus told them to beware of men.
    • Men will hand them over to councils.
    • Men will scourge them in their synagogues.
18. 10:18
    • They will be brought before governors and kings for Jesus' sake.
    • This will be for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.
19. 10:19
    • When they are handed over, they are not to worry about how or what they will speak.
    • What they are to speak will be given to them in that hour.
20. 10:20
    • It is not they who speak.
    • The Spirit of their Father speaks in them.
21. 10:21
    • Brother will deliver up brother to death.
    • A father will deliver up his child to death.
    • Children will rise up against their parents.
    • Children will have their parents put to death.
22. 10:22
    • They will be hated by all for Jesus' name's sake.
    • The one who endures to the end will be saved.
23. 10:23
    • When they persecute them in one city, they are to flee to another.
    • Jesus prefaced this with a solemn assurance.
    • They will not have finished going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
24. 10:24
    • A disciple is not above his teacher.
    • A servant is not above his master.
25. 10:25
    • It is enough for the disciple to become like his teacher.
    • It is enough for the servant to become like his master.
    • They have called the master of the house Beelzebub.
    • They will call the members of his household worse.
26. 10:26
    • Jesus told them not to fear them.
    • There is nothing covered that will not be revealed.
    • There is nothing hidden that will not be known.
27. 10:27
    • What Jesus tells them in darkness, they are to speak in the light.
    • What they hear in the ear, they are to proclaim on the housetops.
28. 10:28
    • They are not to fear those who kill the body.
    • Those who kill the body are not able to kill the soul.
    • They are to fear instead the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
29. 10:29
    • Two sparrows are sold for a farthing.
    • Not one of them falls to the ground apart from their Father.
30. 10:30
    • The very hairs of their head are all numbered.
31. 10:31
    • Jesus told them not to fear.
    • They are of more value than many sparrows.
32. 10:32
    • Whoever confesses Jesus before men, Jesus will confess him before his Father in heaven.
33. 10:33
    • Whoever denies Jesus before men, Jesus will deny him before his Father in heaven.
34. 10:34
    • Jesus said they should not think he came to bring peace on earth.
    • Jesus did not come to bring peace.
    • Jesus came to bring a sword.
35. 10:35
    • Jesus came to set a man against his father.
    • Jesus came to set a daughter against her mother.
    • Jesus came to set a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
36. 10:36
    • A man's enemies will be the members of his own household.
37. 10:37
    • Whoever loves father or mother more than Jesus is not worthy of him.
    • Whoever loves son or daughter more than Jesus is not worthy of him.
38. 10:38
    • Whoever does not take his cross and follow after Jesus is not worthy of him.
39. 10:39
    • Whoever finds his life will lose it.
    • Whoever loses his life for Jesus' sake will find it.
40. 10:40
    • Whoever receives them receives Jesus.
    • Whoever receives Jesus receives the one who sent Jesus.
41. 10:41
    • Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.
    • Whoever receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward.
42. 10:42
    • Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple will not lose his reward.
    • Jesus prefaced this with a solemn assurance.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1

"Unclean spirits" is the ordinary term in the Gospels for what verse 8 calls devils, that is, demons. "Unclean" is not about dirt. It belongs to the vocabulary of ritual purity and marks something as unfit to come near what is holy.

10:2

"Apostle" is a Greek word meaning one who is sent out as an authorized representative, so the word itself is a job description rather than a title. "Peter" is likewise a nickname and not a family name: the Greek petros means rock or stone. "The first, Simon" may mean first in the list or first in standing; the Greek allows either.

10:3

A "publican" was a tax collector, from the Latin publicanus. Such men contracted for the right to collect tolls and duties in a district and made their living from what they took above the quota, and they worked for the occupying power. They were widely regarded as both cheats and collaborators. "Surname" in 1611 English meant an extra name or nickname, not a family name; ancient copies of Matthew differ here between Lebbaeus, Thaddaeus, and the two combined.

10:4

"Simon the Canaanite" has nothing to do with the land of Canaan. The King James is transliterating an Aramaic word, qan'ana, meaning zealous; Luke translates the same label into Greek as "the Zealot." It may describe fierce personal devotion to the law of Moses, or membership in a party committed to armed resistance against Rome. "Iscariot" is most often explained as "man of Kerioth," a town in the south.

10:5

The Samaritans were the people of the hill country between Judea and Galilee. They shared much ancestry with the Jews and kept their own version of the five books of Moses, but they worshiped at Mount Gerizim rather than at the temple in Jerusalem, and the two groups had been hostile to each other for centuries. Naming Gentiles and Samaritans together marks out everyone who was not a Jew in the full sense.

10:6

"The house of Israel" means the Jewish people as a whole, thought of as one extended family descended from Jacob, who was also called Israel. The phrase can be read as "the lost sheep, that is, the house of Israel" or as "the lost sheep among the house of Israel"; the Greek is open to both.

10:7

"At hand" translates a verb meaning has come near, in time or in space. "The kingdom of heaven" is Matthew's regular phrase where Mark and Luke say "the kingdom of God"; saying heaven was a customary way of referring to God without pronouncing the name.

10:8

"Leper" covered a range of persistent skin conditions, not only the disease now called leprosy or Hansen's disease. Under the law of Moses such a person was ritually unclean and had to live apart from the community and away from worship until a priest examined him and declared him clean. That is why the verb is "cleanse" rather than "heal": the cure and the restoration to normal life were one thing.

10:9

"Brass" in 1611 English covered copper and its alloys. Copper coins were the small change of the day, so gold, silver and copper together simply means money of any value. "Purses" translates a word meaning belts: travelers carried coins in a fold or pouch of the cloth belt around the waist.

10:10

"Scrip" is an old English word for a traveler's or beggar's bag, used for food and spare belongings. A "coat" is the tunic worn next to the skin, and carrying a second one was normal practice on the road. "Staves" is the plural of staff, a walking stick that also served as a defense against animals. "Meat" in 1611 English meant food of any kind, not flesh in particular. The whole list describes setting out with no provision at all and depending on the hospitality of strangers.

10:11

"Worthy" here means a suitable host: someone willing to take the messengers in and hear them. "There abide till ye go thence" means stay in that one house for the whole visit rather than moving on to better lodging if it is offered.

10:12

"Salute" in 1611 English simply means greet. The customary greeting was a wish of peace, shalom, which is why the next verse can speak of that peace resting on the house or coming back.

10:13

The greeting of peace is treated here as a real gift that is handed over, and one that can be withdrawn intact if it is refused.

10:14

Shaking the dust off the feet was a recognized gesture. Jews returning from Gentile territory were said to shake off its dust so that nothing foreign was carried into the land. Performed on the way out of a Jewish town, it publicly declares that the place has put itself outside, and that the responsibility for the refusal now rests with the townspeople and not with the messengers.

10:15

Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities destroyed by fire in Genesis 19, and they had long since become the standard byword for a place wiped out in judgment. "More tolerable" means more bearable, easier to endure.

10:16

"Wise" here translates a word meaning shrewd or prudent, the practical cleverness that keeps you out of a trap. "Harmless" in 1611 English means innocent, with no harm in you, not feeble or ineffective.

10:17

"The councils" were the local Jewish courts, each a small sanhedrin, which could try cases and impose penalties. "Scourge" means flog with a whip; synagogue discipline included a beating of thirty-nine lashes, one short of the forty allowed by the law of Moses.

10:18

"For a testimony against them" translates a Greek phrase that can equally be rendered "as a witness to them." Whether the trial is an accusation of the judges or an opportunity to speak to them is left open in the original.

10:19

"Take no thought" in 1611 English means do not be anxious, do not fret. It is not an instruction to stop thinking. "In that same hour" means at that very moment, not within the next sixty minutes.

10:20

Jesus called God "Father." The Spirit is God himself, close by and helping people.

10:21

"Deliver up" means hand over to the authorities. It is the same verb used of Judas in verse 4 and of the arrests in verse 17.

10:22

"Hated of all men" means hated by everyone; "of" carried the sense of "by" in 1611 English. "For my name's sake" means because of your connection to me: in this way of speaking a person's name stands in for the person himself.

10:23

"The Son of man" is the phrase Jesus habitually uses of himself. In ordinary Aramaic it can mean simply "a human being," but it also picks up the figure in Daniel 7:13 who is given authority by God. "Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel" means you will not have finished working your way through them.

10:24

"Master" here means teacher, the word used of a rabbi and his students. "Lord" in the second half is the household master, and "servant" translates a word meaning a slave, someone owned rather than employed. Two different relationships are being set side by side.

10:25

"The master of the house" is the householder, the head of the family, and "them of his household" are everyone else under his roof, including slaves. Beelzebub is a name for the ruler of the demons. The oldest copies read Beelzebul; the form Beelzebub in the King James matches the name of a Philistine god in 2 Kings 1, "lord of the flies," which was itself probably a mocking distortion of the god's real title.

10:27

Roofs in that part of the world were flat and were used as living space, so speaking from one meant being heard by the whole street. "What ye hear in the ear" means what is whispered to you privately.

10:28

"Hell" here translates Gehenna, the name of a ravine just outside Jerusalem, the Valley of Hinnom, which had a grim history as a place of child sacrifice and later served as a standard image for the place of final punishment. It is a different word from Hades, which means the realm of the dead in general.

10:29

A "farthing" was the smallest English coin in 1611. The Greek word is assarion, a small Roman copper coin worth roughly a sixteenth of a day's wage for a laborer. Sparrows were the cheapest food sold in the market. "Without your Father" is literally "apart from your Father"; the Greek does not say apart from his knowledge, his permission or his care, and translators have supplied all three.

10:32

"Confess" in 1611 English means to acknowledge openly, to state publicly where you stand, and it carries a courtroom flavor: declaring in front of witnesses whose side you are on. The second half of the sentence pictures the same act performed in the other direction, someone speaking up for you before God.

10:34

The Greek reads literally "I came not to cast peace on the earth, but a sword." The sword stands for violent division, and Luke's version of this saying uses the plain word "division."

10:35

These three lines quote Micah 7:6, a description of a society in which the most basic family loyalties have collapsed. "Set at variance" in 1611 English means set at odds, put in conflict. The pairings are those of a household where a married son brought his wife into his parents' home, so the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law shared a roof.

10:37

To be worthy of someone means to be good enough for them, to deserve them.

10:38

A person condemned to crucifixion carried the crossbeam himself to the place of execution, through the streets and in front of the crowd. Crucifixion was a Roman penalty reserved mainly for slaves and rebels and was designed to humiliate as much as to kill. The image is therefore of someone already under sentence of death, walking publicly toward it.

10:39

"Life" here translates psyche, the same word rendered "soul" in verse 28. It means a person's life or very self, so the saying turns on one word used twice with two weights. "Findeth his life" carries the sense of securing it, hanging on to it.

10:40

In Jewish legal usage a man's authorized agent counted, for the business at hand, as the man himself; what was done to the agent was done to the sender. The chain of welcome in this verse works on that principle.

10:41

"In the name of a prophet" means because he is a prophet, on the ground of what he is. It is not a formula of words. "A prophet's reward" is the reward that belongs to the prophet, shared by the person who took him in.

10:42

"These little ones" most likely means the messengers themselves, people of no standing in the eyes of the towns they enter. A cup of cold water, drawn fresh from a well or spring, was the cheapest possible act of hospitality in a hot country. "In the name of a disciple" again means because he is a disciple, and "in no wise" is an emphatic never, by no means.