Mark 6:8

And he charged them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse; but to go shod with sandals: and, said he, put not on two coats.

The parallel accounts (Matthew 10:5-15; Luke 10:4-11) provide another pseudocon, inasmuch as Matthew said, "Get you no staff," whereas Mark's account plainly allowed one to be carried, with Luke agreeing with Matthew, "no staff." McMillan called this a "discrepancy."[12] But if we take Luke's reference as meaning that the purchase or procurement of a staff was the meaning of the Saviour's instruction, as is clearly the case in Matthew, and as might reasonably be inferred from its appearance in a list of things one would usually buy in anticipation of a journey, the discrepancy disappears. We agree with the more ancient authorities on this place which state that "They were not to go to the pains of getting one if not supplied already; they were not to trouble themselves about preparation, even so little as that."[13] "The language implies that a staff was optional; they were not to bother about getting a staff, if one was not at hand."[14] That a staff was allowed (though not the purchase of one) is clear from Mark's account.

[12] Earle McMillan, op. cit., p. 78.

[13] W. N. Clarke, Commentary on the Gospel of Mark (Valley Forge: The Judson Press, 1881), p. 85.

[14] J. J. Taylor, The Gospel according to Mark (Nashville: Southern Baptist Convention, 1911), p. 83.