And he sendeth forth two of his disciples… (Mark 14:13)

I found myself pondering the above phrase, and found some things of interest that I’d like to pass along.

We know  from other passages that these two disciples were Peter and John; why are they not named?

There are some that say that Mark acquired (all of) his material from Peter, and that Peter is often not mentioned in Mark’s gospel.  However, I reject this theory. I believe the Scriptures were given by inspiration of God, and that God gave Mark the exactly what to write down.

It’s clear that God had no desire to hide the identity of these men, since they are identified in other gospels.

Perhaps, however, it is a lesson to us that we don’t always have to tell everything we know. The passage remains absolutely true without identifying the people involved.

As with many things in Christian living, there are extremes we need to avoid – some preachers only give general warnings, and never identify anyone by name.  Perhaps they don’t want to be “critical” — but the Scriptures are filled with examples of Jesus, Paul, and John being critical of specific, identified individuals — and John spoke much about “love”.

At the same time, there seem to be those who never seem to give general information, but are always bringing up names. This passage stands as a lesson.

Maybe it would be best if we sought wisdom from God in situations where we have a choice to name names or be silent.