In the Synoptic Gospels, there is a puzzling series of commands given by Yeshua to those disciples he is sending out to proclaim the good news.
Acquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff . . . And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave.
Matthew 10:9-10, 14
He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. . . . And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet.
Mark 6:8-9, 11
And he said to them,
Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. . . . And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet.Luke 9:3, 5
Many words have been spilled explicating the reasons, intentions, or purpose of these commands. And not a few have devoted themselves to untangling the confusing and seemingly contradictory nature of what is or isn’t allowed.[1] What virtually every discussion lacks, however, is a comparison of Yeshua’s ordinances with the halacha of ancient Jewish tradition and Oral Law.
He may not enter into the Temple Mount with his staff or his sandal or his wallet, or with the dust upon his feet, nor may he make of it a short by-path; still less may he spit there.
Mishnah, Tractate Berakot 9:5
It has been taught . . . a man must not go up to the hill of the Temple neither with shoes, nor with dust on his feet, nor with money wrapped in a cloth, nor with a girdle[2] on. . . . Nor may a man make use of it as a shortcut, and less still may he spit there.
Palestinian Gemara, Tractate Berakot 9:5 (8)
As it has been taught: ’A man should not enter the Temple Mount either with his staff in his hand, or his shoe on his foot, or with his money tied up in his cloth, or with his money bag slung over his shoulder, and he should not make it a short cut, and spitting [there is forbidden].
Babylonian Gemara, Tractate Berakot 62:b
These are authoritative traditions which prohibited or discouraged certain articles and items from being worn or carried as well as certain actions and activities from taking place when going to the Temple. Even more prohibitions were enjoined as one drew further and further toward the Oracle—from the Outer Court to the Inner Court to the Holy and then Holiest Place. There is no doubt that the number and type of regulations one followed depended on one’s specific inclination and religious affiliation. As we’ve already seen in No Sex In The City, the Essenes (perhaps the strictest of them all), would have disallowed intercourse and defecation for those even going into Jerusalem. Even members of the same sect, such as the Pharisees, might disagree on specifics or take on the ideas of a certain faction against the other (perhaps the school of Hillel against the school of Shammai). It may be the case that the Way sect[3] or certain members therein treated many such regulations according to the principle Yeshua taught that if one was cleansed inwardly, then the outside would be clean and that defilement was an inner matter, not on outer one.[4] Thus, for instance, we have the account preserved only in papyrus Oxyrhynchus 840 in which Yeshua takes his disciples on a tour of the Temple and where a chief priest rebukes him and his disciples for being in the Inner Court without having bathed or washed their feet. Yeshua replies:
Art thou then, being here in the temple, clean?
He [the chief priest] saith unto him, I am clean; for I washed in the pool of David, and having descended by one staircase I ascended by another, and I put on white and clean garments, and then I came and looked upon these holy vessels.
The Saviour answered and said unto him, Woe ye blind, who see not. Thou hast washed in these running waters wherein dogs and swine have been cast night and day, and hast cleansed and wiped the outside skin which also the harlots and flute-girls anoint and wash and wipe and beautify for the lust of men; but within they are full of scorpions and all wickedness. But I and my disciples, who thou sayest have not bathed, have been dipped in the waters of eternal life.
See Shake The Dust From Your Feet - P2.
[1] – For instance, is Yeshua allowing a staff (Mark) or not allowing a staff (Matthew, Luke)? Is he allowing sandals (Mark) or not allowing sandals (Matthew)?
[2] – Most scholars describe this word as a type of outer garment worn over the clothes—perhaps a cloak or tunic.
[3] – By which is meant any Hebrew or Torah-observant follower of Yeshua. See Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22.
[4] – Matthew 23:25-26 and Mark 7:15. See also Luke 11:37-41 where Yeshua dines without washing. Similarly, Titus 1:15 states that to those who are pure, all things are pure.