Verse 16
Jesus pictured His defenseless disciples in a dangerous environment. The Shepherd was sending His sheep into a wolf pack. They needed, therefore, to be as shrewd as serpents, a proverbial way of saying prudent. Their shrewdness must not be cunning though, for they needed to be innocent as well. Either characteristic without the other is dangerous. Innocence without prudence becomes naiveté.
The disciples were to be both prudent and innocent toward the objects of their ministry. Doves are retiring birds; they leave when other birds oppose them rather than fighting. This is how the disciples were to behave. They needed to be shrewd by avoiding conflicts and attacks where possible, but when these came they were to withdraw to other households and other towns. These figures were common in Rabbinic teaching. But the rabbis normally used the sheep and doves as figures of Israel, and the wolves and serpents as representing the Gentiles. [Note: Edersheim, The Life . . ., 1:645.]
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