Interpretation 72.2 (2018): 163-74.

Abstract: In dialogue with contemporary issues of movement and social change, this article examines traditions preserved in the New Testament about the commissioning of the first itinerant preachers of the gospel and whether or not apostles voluntarily took on such impoverished travel. The article proposes that an examination of the performative nature of apostolic travel challenges our modern notions of agency and choice, particularly in regard to issues of justice. By focusing on the versions of and allusions to Jesus’s commission preserved in the Synoptic sayings source Q (Luke 10:1–12//Matt 10:5–15) and 1 Cor 9:14, we can retrieve early reflections on how itinerant preaching reframes the individual and society. Subversive demands for justice reveal how individuals are constrained by their contexts and offer a vision of the future in the present.