The Apostles' Outfit

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Apr 6, 1882

The Apostles' Outfit.

THE wallet of the new version is a much more intelligible word than the scrip of the old, but still needs explanation, as wallet with us is a synonym for pocket-book. It was a small bag, or satchel, hung by straps from the shoulders—something like the hunters' and fishermen's bags of our day—and was made of the skins of kids, stripped off whole, and tanned by a very simple process. The Galilean shepherds and farmers still universally use them, carrying in them their food—a quantity of thin, tough bread, a few olives, and perhaps a little cheese--for the day or more.

The purse was a pocket made in the leathern girdle which was worn about the waist to bind in and hold the flowing robe or dress or tunic together. The sandal worn by their class was simply a sole of leather bound on the feet by thongs, and was for hard service. Two tunics were sometimes worn by persons of rank, wealth, or official position. The twelve were to assume nothing, as the Pharisees did, but to strictly preserve their simplicity.

The entire "outfit," as Dr. Thomson says, shows that these first missionaries were plain fishermen, shepherds, or farmers; and to such men there was no extraordinary self-denial in the matter or the mode of their mission. He expounds the instructions thus: "You are going to your brethren in the neighboring villages, and the best way to get to their hearts and their confidence, is to throw yourselves upon their hospitality; nor was there any departure from the simple manners of the country in this."—Dr. Broadus.