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Staff (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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STAFF.—Two different words occurring in the Gospels are rendered ‘staff’ in Authorized and Revised Versions .—(1) ῥάβδος, (2) ξύλον.

1. Only once is ῥάβδος found in the Gospels, viz. in the Synoptic account of the instructions given by Jesus to the Twelve as He sent them on their mission (Mark 6:8 = Matthew 10:10 = Luke 9:3). It denotes, of course, the ordinary walking-staff of the traveller, which, as used in the East, is somewhat longer than the walking-stick we know, and is simply a long, slightly-tapering rod, serviceable for support and for defence.

The main interest of the reference to the staff in the connexion above mentioned lies in the textual difference exhibited by the parallel passages. The instruction as given in Mark 6:8 was that the Twelve were to take nothing with them, ‘except a staff only’ (εἰ μὴ ῥάβδον μόνον); whereas, according to Mt. (μηδὲ ῥάβδον) and Lk. (μήτε ῥάβδον), they were to take nothing at all, not even a staff. Wright cites this in suppport of a suggestion that Mt. and Lk. were ‘affected by the tendency to expect exceptional severity in the case of religious teachers’ (Synopsis, p. 57). But perhaps it is adequately explained as due at first to a mere copyist’s assimilation to the other negative items that occur. In both Mt. and Lk., again, there is a v. 1. in some Manuscripts which gives the plural ῥάβδους, ‘neither staves.’ This variant is not necessarily to be ascribed to a set purpose to afford a loophole for harmonizing the accounts. The Authorized Version , however, reading ‘staves’ in both cases, lies open to suspicion on this point; for in Matthew 10:10 it gives ‘nor yet staves,’ with the extraordinary marginal note ‘Gr. a staff,’ showing that their text actually read ῥάβδον. So the way is left open for the puerile suggestion that the accounts are consistent, inasmuch as Jesus meant that His disciples were not to take more than one staff each! Yet Wyclif’s earlier version (following the Vulgate ) had rendered ‘nether a yerde’ in Matthew 10:10 (similarly Luke 9:3), careless of the discrepancy with Mark 6:8 (‘but a yerde oneli’). Cf. Tindale in Matthew 10:10 ‘nor yet a rodde.’ The superiority of Mk.’s account is self-evident: there is a touch of perfect naturalness about it.

2. The ξύλον mentioned in Mark 14:43 (|| Matthew 26:47, and see Luke 22:52), like the sword, is distinctly a weapon. John 18:3 uses the general expression ὅπλα. The ξύλα (Authorized and Revised Versions ‘staves’) were the wooden truncheons or clubs of the Jewish police (ὑπηρέται). Josephus (BJ ii. ix. 4) mentions them as weapons used by Pilate’s soldiers in attacking a crowd of Jews at Jerusalem.

J. S. Clemens.