In Mark 6:7-11, Jesus grants His twelve disciples the authority to cast out unclean spirits before sending them across the land. He provides them with instructions for their mission throughout Israel, including guidance on how to respond when a town does not receive them favorably.
In Mark 6:7-11Mark 6:7-11 commentary, commentary Jesus sends out the twelve disciples in pairs, giving them authority over unclean spirits and instructing them to travel lightly, rely on hospitality, and shake the dust off their feet as a testimony against any place that rejects them.
At some point, either while Jesus was traveling through the cities and towns teaching, preaching, and healing, or after completing this tour, He organized His core disciples to send them on their own mission tours.
And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits (v 7).
The pronoun—He—in this passage refers to Jesus. The twelve refers to the twelve disciples whom Jesus called to be His apostles (Mark 3:13-19Mark 3:13-19 commentary, commentary see also Matthew 10:2-4Matthew 10:2-4 commentary).
Jesus had a broader group of followers, often referred to as His disciples (Luke 10:1Luke 10:1 commentary; John 6:66John 6:66 commentary). But Jesus also had a closer group of disciples known as the twelve.
The twelve disciples will remain with Jesus throughout the rest of His ministry, witnessing His miracles and hearing His parables, which they will discuss with Him during quieter moments. They will follow Him wherever He goes and be present with Him in the upper room for the “Last Supper” (Mark 14:12-25Mark 14:12-25 commentary), witnessing everything that unfolds from that moment until His arrest. One of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, betrays Jesus and is an accomplice in His arrest, after which he takes his own life. All of the remaining eleven, save for the Apostle John, will abandon Him during His trial, hiding during His crucifixion and the following day.
After God raises Jesus from the dead, the eleven will encounter the resurrected Lord and receive the Spirit of God, empowering them to carry out the Great Commission. They replace Judas Iscariot with a disciple named Matthias, who had followed Jesus since the early days of His ministry, thus making the team of apostles twelve again. According to Church tradition, they all suffered for their faith, dying as martyrs—except for John, who endured the suffering of exile.
In verse 7, Mark specifies that Jesus only sent out the twelve disciples for this particular assignment. Mark also includes the detail that Jesus sent them out in pairs. The disciples would not be alone for this assignment. They would have a partner to help them and encourage them along the way when things were difficult or hard. This follows the principle that Solomon wrote of in the Book of Ecclesiastes:
“Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 commentary)
Mark’s account of Jesus’s instructions (Mark 6:7-11Mark 6:7-11 commentary) is a more concise version of Matthew’s record (Matthew 10:1Matthew 10:1 commentary, 5-425-42 commentary).
Mark writes: Jesus gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Matthew adds that Jesus also gave them authority “to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness” (Matthew 10:1Matthew 10:1 commentary).
Luke’s account also includes both that Jesus granted them “power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases” (Luke 9:1bLuke 9:1b commentary).
Before sending His disciples out to gather more followers, Christ grants them the power to perform supernatural miracles. For a time, they will be able to cast out demons just as He does, because He has given them authority. This authority does not come from themselves but from Jesus, who commissions them.
In doing this, Jesus follows the same pattern He lived by with His Father. In the Gospel of John, Jesus declares that He does nothing by His own initiative or power but only what the Father instructs Him to do. Throughout His earthly life, He acts solely within the authority given to Him by His Father. In many ways, Jesus is offering His disciples the opportunity to be like Him.
Matthew’s account records that the message the twelve were to proclaim was: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 10:7Matthew 10:7 commentary). Luke’s account says: “He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing” (Luke 9:2Luke 9:2 commentary).
Moreover, Jesus stresses in Matthew’s account that the twelve were to avoid the towns of Gentiles and Samaritans and were to exclusively “go to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 10:6Matthew 10:6 commentary).
Mark’s account omits these aspects. But Mark does emphasize the message of repentance—which is closely associated with the kingdom throughout the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke—in his account of the disciples’ mission in Mark 6:12Mark 6:12 commentary.
The most basic explanation for why Matthew included these Jewish details and Mark omitted them was because Matthew was written for a Jewish audience and Mark was written for Gentile audience—specifically the believers in Rome.
When Jesus first came, the Messiah’s kingdom was to be proclaimed to the Jews first. It was only after the Jews rejected Jesus and His kingdom that the Gospel became open to the Gentiles. As Matthew was likely composed before Mark, it was written at a time when the church was largely Jewish. But Mark was written after many Gentiles across the Roman world began believing in Jesus for salvation, and Jesus’s instruction to only go to the house of Israel no longer applied. Mark omitted this instruction likely to avoid confusion and/or having to pause his narrative to explain this.
He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belt—but to wear sandals; and He added, “Do not put on two tunics.” (vv 8-9)
Jesus instructed the twelve that they should take practically nothing with them to help them while they were on their journey.
The only exceptions He permitted was a mere staff and sandals. These would help them walk from town to town on their journey.
They were to take:
No bread—i.e. no extra food
No bag—i.e. no clothes, or personal effects
No money in their belt
The twelve were not even to put on two tunics.
They were to live totally dependent upon God and the mercy of the people they visited for the things they needed.
The more possessions they carried, the more those possessions would hinder their mission to proclaim the kingdom (Matthew 10:7Matthew 10:7 commentary). Jesus was training the twelve to walk by faith and remain focused on their mission, preparing them for the time when He would leave the earth and entrust them with spreading the gospel of the kingdom.
According to Matthew, Jesus also forbid them to use their power for transactions or seek earthly riches through their miraculous ability to heal (Matthew 10:9Matthew 10:9 commentary). In addition to showing how the kingdom of God was not to be exploited for selfish mammon, this again points to how the twelve were to live completely dependent upon God. These instructions gave the twelve an opportunity to put into practice the teachings Jesus taught on His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7Matthew 5-7 commentary). Teachings such as:
Do not store up treasures on earth, but rather store up treasures in heaven. (Matthew 6:19-20Matthew 6:19-20 commentary)
Do not worry about your life—trust God for the things you need. (Matthew 6:25-32Matthew 6:25-32 commentary)
Jesus instructed the twelve about how they were to approach a town, enter it, and find a house where they can stay,
“And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that city.” (Matthew 10:11Matthew 10:11 commentary)
Mark’s account appears to condense this instruction:
And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town” (v 10).
In other words, the twelve were to find lodging in the homes of the gracious people they visited (Matthew 10:11Matthew 10:11 commentary), “for the worker is worthy of his support.” (Matthew 10:10Matthew 10:10 commentary).
Hospitality to travelers was a significant cultural value in much of the ancient world. Smaller towns and villages often lacked formal lodging, such as inns, so many travelers relied on local residents for a place to stay. Travelers were considered vulnerable, and it was customary to welcome them as overnight guests, providing food and shelter if they asked. Moses instructed Israel to be hospitable to foreigners living among them, and the practical application of this command naturally extended to Jewish travelers from out of town:
“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34Leviticus 19:33-34 commentary)
Jesus also used the value of hospitality to illustrate faithfulness in action and as a standard for judgment (Matthew 25:31-46Matthew 25:31-46 commentary). In His warning, He said, “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me’” (Matthew 25:40Matthew 25:40 commentary).
Jesus also used hospitable actions to reveal hearts. He once visited the home of Simon the Pharisee, who silently questioned Jesus’s character when a sinful woman washed His feet. In response, Jesus contrasted Simon’s failure to perform the customary duty of offering hospitality, while the repentant woman went beyond expectations to show kindness (Luke 7:44-48Luke 7:44-48 commentary).
The New Testament further emphasizes the virtue of hospitality in 1 Timothy 5:101 Timothy 5:10 commentary, commentaryTitus 1:8Titus 1:8 commentary, commentaryHebrews 13:2Hebrews 13:2 commentary, and commentary1 Peter 4:91 Peter 4:9 commentary.
“Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them” (v 11).
Jesus is not instructing His disciples to repay harm with retaliation, as in the phrase "an eye for an eye." Rather, He is advising them to leave judgment to God. If the people of a town are inhospitable or reject the message they preach, they should not take it personally or hold a grudge. Instead, they are to shake it off and move on to the next town, trusting that God will handle the situation.
Again, Matthew’s expansive account of Jesus’s instructions to the twelve provides further explanation.
First, Matthew’s account also includes Jesus’s instruction for how the twelve are to respond to a positive reception: “If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace” (Matthew 10:13aMatthew 10:13a commentary).
At the time Jesus gave these instructions, it was a real possibility that a Jewish town could positively receive the message that Jesus was the Messiah or they could reject it. It was a live issue that would soon be determined—therefore Matthew, writing to the Jews and trying to demonstrate to them that Jesus whom they crucified was truly the Messiah, left this positive portion of Jesus’s instruction in his account.
But by the time Mark’s account was composed, the issue had been decided; the Jews not only rejected and crucified Jesus, they had also largely rejected the message of His resurrection and the calls to repent from His disciples (Acts 3:17-21Acts 3:17-21 commentary). This also includes the Jewish rejection of Paul’s preaching in the temple (Acts 21:17 - 22:23Acts 21:17 - 22:23 commentary).
Therefore, Mark may have omitted Jesus’s instruction about a positive reception (Matthew 10:13aMatthew 10:13a commentary) because it was no longer a live issue. And Mark may have left in the instruction about the negative rejection—Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them—because the Jews had already rejected Jesus as the Messiah.
Matthew’s account also provides a severe warning for the Jews’ rejection of the Gospel:
“Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.” (Matthew 10:15Matthew 10:15 commentary)
In Jewish practice, travelers would sometimes shake off Gentile dust when re-entering Israel to avoid defilement. Similarly, the action of the twelve signified that even fellow Jews who rejected the gospel were placing themselves outside of God’s covenant blessings. It was a solemn warning that their refusal would not go unnoticed and that accountability before God would follow.
The expression shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them further symbolizes how the messengers are not responsible for how their audience receives the message. By shaking the dust off the soles of their feet, the twelve were separating themselves from the unbelief of that town and that town’s coming judgment.
Matthew’s extended account of Jesus’s instructions continues quite a bit further, and its message is often called “The Little Commission” (Matthew 10:1Matthew 10:1 commentary, 5-425-42 commentary). It can be understood as a precursor to “the Great Commission” (Matthew 28:18-20Matthew 28:18-20 commentary).
The Bible Says Commentary of Matthew’s extended account of Jesus’s instructions are linked below:
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Mark 6:7-11 meaning
The parallel gospel accounts for Mark 6:7-11Mark 6:7-11 commentary are found in Matthew 10:1Matthew 10:1 commentary; 9-149-14 commentary and commentary Luke 9:1-5Luke 9:1-5 commentary.
In Mark 6:7-11Mark 6:7-11 commentary, commentary Jesus sends out the twelve disciples in pairs, giving them authority over unclean spirits and instructing them to travel lightly, rely on hospitality, and shake the dust off their feet as a testimony against any place that rejects them.
At some point, either while Jesus was traveling through the cities and towns teaching, preaching, and healing, or after completing this tour, He organized His core disciples to send them on their own mission tours.
And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits (v 7).
The pronoun—He—in this passage refers to Jesus. The twelve refers to the twelve disciples whom Jesus called to be His apostles (Mark 3:13-19Mark 3:13-19 commentary, commentary see also Matthew 10:2-4Matthew 10:2-4 commentary).
Jesus had a broader group of followers, often referred to as His disciples (Luke 10:1Luke 10:1 commentary; John 6:66John 6:66 commentary). But Jesus also had a closer group of disciples known as the twelve.
The twelve disciples will remain with Jesus throughout the rest of His ministry, witnessing His miracles and hearing His parables, which they will discuss with Him during quieter moments. They will follow Him wherever He goes and be present with Him in the upper room for the “Last Supper” (Mark 14:12-25Mark 14:12-25 commentary), witnessing everything that unfolds from that moment until His arrest. One of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, betrays Jesus and is an accomplice in His arrest, after which he takes his own life. All of the remaining eleven, save for the Apostle John, will abandon Him during His trial, hiding during His crucifixion and the following day.
After God raises Jesus from the dead, the eleven will encounter the resurrected Lord and receive the Spirit of God, empowering them to carry out the Great Commission. They replace Judas Iscariot with a disciple named Matthias, who had followed Jesus since the early days of His ministry, thus making the team of apostles twelve again. According to Church tradition, they all suffered for their faith, dying as martyrs—except for John, who endured the suffering of exile.
In verse 7, Mark specifies that Jesus only sent out the twelve disciples for this particular assignment. Mark also includes the detail that Jesus sent them out in pairs. The disciples would not be alone for this assignment. They would have a partner to help them and encourage them along the way when things were difficult or hard. This follows the principle that Solomon wrote of in the Book of Ecclesiastes:
“Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.”
(Ecclesiastes 4:9-12Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 commentary)
Mark’s account of Jesus’s instructions (Mark 6:7-11Mark 6:7-11 commentary) is a more concise version of Matthew’s record (Matthew 10:1Matthew 10:1 commentary, 5-425-42 commentary).
Mark writes: Jesus gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Matthew adds that Jesus also gave them authority “to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness” (Matthew 10:1Matthew 10:1 commentary).
Luke’s account also includes both that Jesus granted them “power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases” (Luke 9:1bLuke 9:1b commentary).
Before sending His disciples out to gather more followers, Christ grants them the power to perform supernatural miracles. For a time, they will be able to cast out demons just as He does, because He has given them authority. This authority does not come from themselves but from Jesus, who commissions them.
In doing this, Jesus follows the same pattern He lived by with His Father. In the Gospel of John, Jesus declares that He does nothing by His own initiative or power but only what the Father instructs Him to do. Throughout His earthly life, He acts solely within the authority given to Him by His Father. In many ways, Jesus is offering His disciples the opportunity to be like Him.
Matthew’s account records that the message the twelve were to proclaim was: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 10:7Matthew 10:7 commentary). Luke’s account says: “He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing” (Luke 9:2Luke 9:2 commentary).
Moreover, Jesus stresses in Matthew’s account that the twelve were to avoid the towns of Gentiles and Samaritans and were to exclusively “go to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 10:6Matthew 10:6 commentary).
Mark’s account omits these aspects. But Mark does emphasize the message of repentance—which is closely associated with the kingdom throughout the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke—in his account of the disciples’ mission in Mark 6:12Mark 6:12 commentary.
The most basic explanation for why Matthew included these Jewish details and Mark omitted them was because Matthew was written for a Jewish audience and Mark was written for Gentile audience—specifically the believers in Rome.
When Jesus first came, the Messiah’s kingdom was to be proclaimed to the Jews first. It was only after the Jews rejected Jesus and His kingdom that the Gospel became open to the Gentiles. As Matthew was likely composed before Mark, it was written at a time when the church was largely Jewish. But Mark was written after many Gentiles across the Roman world began believing in Jesus for salvation, and Jesus’s instruction to only go to the house of Israel no longer applied. Mark omitted this instruction likely to avoid confusion and/or having to pause his narrative to explain this.
He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belt—but to wear sandals; and He added, “Do not put on two tunics.” (vv 8-9)
Jesus instructed the twelve that they should take practically nothing with them to help them while they were on their journey.
The only exceptions He permitted was a mere staff and sandals. These would help them walk from town to town on their journey.
They were to take:
The twelve were not even to put on two tunics.
They were to live totally dependent upon God and the mercy of the people they visited for the things they needed.
The more possessions they carried, the more those possessions would hinder their mission to proclaim the kingdom (Matthew 10:7Matthew 10:7 commentary). Jesus was training the twelve to walk by faith and remain focused on their mission, preparing them for the time when He would leave the earth and entrust them with spreading the gospel of the kingdom.
According to Matthew, Jesus also forbid them to use their power for transactions or seek earthly riches through their miraculous ability to heal (Matthew 10:9Matthew 10:9 commentary). In addition to showing how the kingdom of God was not to be exploited for selfish mammon, this again points to how the twelve were to live completely dependent upon God. These instructions gave the twelve an opportunity to put into practice the teachings Jesus taught on His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7Matthew 5-7 commentary). Teachings such as:
(Matthew 6:19-20Matthew 6:19-20 commentary)
(Matthew 6:24Matthew 6:24 commentary)
(Matthew 6:25-32Matthew 6:25-32 commentary)
Jesus instructed the twelve about how they were to approach a town, enter it, and find a house where they can stay,
“And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that city.”
(Matthew 10:11Matthew 10:11 commentary)
Mark’s account appears to condense this instruction:
And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town” (v 10).
In other words, the twelve were to find lodging in the homes of the gracious people they visited (Matthew 10:11Matthew 10:11 commentary), “for the worker is worthy of his support.” (Matthew 10:10Matthew 10:10 commentary).
Hospitality to travelers was a significant cultural value in much of the ancient world. Smaller towns and villages often lacked formal lodging, such as inns, so many travelers relied on local residents for a place to stay. Travelers were considered vulnerable, and it was customary to welcome them as overnight guests, providing food and shelter if they asked. Moses instructed Israel to be hospitable to foreigners living among them, and the practical application of this command naturally extended to Jewish travelers from out of town:
“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.”
(Leviticus 19:33-34Leviticus 19:33-34 commentary)
Jesus also used the value of hospitality to illustrate faithfulness in action and as a standard for judgment (Matthew 25:31-46Matthew 25:31-46 commentary). In His warning, He said, “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me’” (Matthew 25:40Matthew 25:40 commentary).
Jesus also used hospitable actions to reveal hearts. He once visited the home of Simon the Pharisee, who silently questioned Jesus’s character when a sinful woman washed His feet. In response, Jesus contrasted Simon’s failure to perform the customary duty of offering hospitality, while the repentant woman went beyond expectations to show kindness (Luke 7:44-48Luke 7:44-48 commentary).
The New Testament further emphasizes the virtue of hospitality in 1 Timothy 5:101 Timothy 5:10 commentary, commentary Titus 1:8Titus 1:8 commentary, commentary Hebrews 13:2Hebrews 13:2 commentary, and commentary 1 Peter 4:91 Peter 4:9 commentary.
“Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them” (v 11).
Jesus is not instructing His disciples to repay harm with retaliation, as in the phrase "an eye for an eye." Rather, He is advising them to leave judgment to God. If the people of a town are inhospitable or reject the message they preach, they should not take it personally or hold a grudge. Instead, they are to shake it off and move on to the next town, trusting that God will handle the situation.
Again, Matthew’s expansive account of Jesus’s instructions to the twelve provides further explanation.
First, Matthew’s account also includes Jesus’s instruction for how the twelve are to respond to a positive reception: “If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace” (Matthew 10:13aMatthew 10:13a commentary).
At the time Jesus gave these instructions, it was a real possibility that a Jewish town could positively receive the message that Jesus was the Messiah or they could reject it. It was a live issue that would soon be determined—therefore Matthew, writing to the Jews and trying to demonstrate to them that Jesus whom they crucified was truly the Messiah, left this positive portion of Jesus’s instruction in his account.
But by the time Mark’s account was composed, the issue had been decided; the Jews not only rejected and crucified Jesus, they had also largely rejected the message of His resurrection and the calls to repent from His disciples (Acts 3:17-21Acts 3:17-21 commentary). This also includes the Jewish rejection of Paul’s preaching in the temple (Acts 21:17 - 22:23Acts 21:17 - 22:23 commentary).
Therefore, Mark may have omitted Jesus’s instruction about a positive reception (Matthew 10:13aMatthew 10:13a commentary) because it was no longer a live issue. And Mark may have left in the instruction about the negative rejection—Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them—because the Jews had already rejected Jesus as the Messiah.
Matthew’s account also provides a severe warning for the Jews’ rejection of the Gospel:
“Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.”
(Matthew 10:15Matthew 10:15 commentary)
In Jewish practice, travelers would sometimes shake off Gentile dust when re-entering Israel to avoid defilement. Similarly, the action of the twelve signified that even fellow Jews who rejected the gospel were placing themselves outside of God’s covenant blessings. It was a solemn warning that their refusal would not go unnoticed and that accountability before God would follow.
The expression shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them further symbolizes how the messengers are not responsible for how their audience receives the message. By shaking the dust off the soles of their feet, the twelve were separating themselves from the unbelief of that town and that town’s coming judgment.
Matthew’s extended account of Jesus’s instructions continues quite a bit further, and its message is often called “The Little Commission” (Matthew 10:1Matthew 10:1 commentary, 5-425-42 commentary). It can be understood as a precursor to “the Great Commission” (Matthew 28:18-20Matthew 28:18-20 commentary).
The Bible Says Commentary of Matthew’s extended account of Jesus’s instructions are linked below: