QUESTION
Is Jesus saying in Matthew 10:10 don't take two δύο sandals or don't take any sandals? Could the δύο apply to the ὑποδήματα as well as the χιτῶνας?
Matthew 10:10 (NA27 with Mounce-Koivisto Morphology)
10 μὴ πήραν εἰς ὁδὸν μηδὲ δύο χιτῶνας μηδὲ ὑποδήματα μηδὲ ῥάβδον· ἄξιος γὰρ ὁ ἐργάτης τῆς τροφῆς αὐτοῦ.
neither a purse for the road nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff; for the worker is worthy of his food.
RESPONSE
I do not believe that Jesus is specifying whether to keep a pair of sandals on (two sandals) or not (go barefoot). Jesus’ practice was to use familiar details metaphorically to illustrate principles without meaning the details literally necessarily. The principle here is urgency, to start immediately without even stopping to put your sandals on. Jesus was not necessarily specifying whether to take off the sandals or wear what they had on, just not to go pack extra.
Greek is highly elliptical and the modifier of one coordinate (δύο χιτῶνας) often applies elliptically to some of the others (ὑποδήματα which do come in pairs), but the modifier of one conjunct is even more often not an elliptical modifier of the other.
Grammatical Commentary has a feature called distal head pointers to allow coding this kind of distal dependent when semantically appropriate. In the adjacent phrase “whatever town or village” whatever is a proximal modifier of town in the diagram but also a distal modifier of village. The distal head violates the hierarchy principle of diagrams. The hearer gets this intuitively. However, δύο is not coded as a distal modifier.
It seems that the answer is decided by semantics and common sense. You are as prepared as I am in that department.
The thing that is obvious is that by common sense Jesus is not saying not to take two staffs. He is probably saying not to take any staff or any bag. So the TWO does not carry to all the coordinates (and attributives usually do not carry backwards anyway). The second thing that seems apparent is that Jesus is not saying not to take two sandals, since taking one or three is ridiculous and two as applied to sandals is ambiguous as to whether he means two pairs.
The thing that seems simplest is to assume he means to take only one tunic (don't go naked) but no sandals or staff or at least no extras. I know I always go barefoot whenever possible. I would assume that these are not literal commands but only the typical colorful oriental way of saying to travel light.
The confirmation of these proposed interpretations comes from the translations. Take the NASB for example:
“10 or a bag for your journey, or even two coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support.”
Notice that that NASB has inserted ‘even’ to set coats apart from a bag and a staff along with sandals as things not to bring.
— Dennis Kenaga