Hello, HWC
About your blog post. I commend you for a well-written and researched paper, and you’ve definitely put forth an idea I hadn’t yet heard. You have some valid points. It seems to me though, that a lot of times we tend to overthink these things. Not that I’m saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying I’m not sure that’s the point Jesus was making at that moment–or at least not the point His disciples would necessarily have understood Him to be making.
Jesus was talking about mundane things here–take a purse along, take the things you need, and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one (presumably because you’ll need the sword more). Clearly Jesus did not advocate for, and indeed commanded against taking on the Roman government. (This would have included the Priestly government, whose chief priests were at that time Roman appointees.)
The highways of the day, however, were haunted by violent men. That’s a different category from resisting the government. Rome didn’t seem to have outlawed swords in the hands of the common man, so there must have been some need to protect oneself from other than the government. The obvious thing then, is that the disciples might need to protect themselves against brigands and highwaymen as they spread the gospel. People did tend to travel in groups for protection, but it might be difficult to find a suitable caravan to join. Even if you did find just what you needed, a caravan without defenders would be no safer than a man walking alone.
BUT… why did Jesus say, “It is enough”? I think this may be pretty straightforward. He was giving them some earthly advice and now He had finished with that. He didn’t want to get into a discussion about how many swords, single or double-edged, whether they ought to have Burleigh or Strong-in-the-Arm manufacture, the merits and demerits of Damascus steel, etc. He’d given His practical instructions and now He wanted to move on to more important things. Basically, “Okay, enough about the side arms…”
So, that’s my take on it, for what it may be worth. Yours is a lot deeper and maybe better. Sometimes, though, the simple explanation eludes us because we’re looking for obscure meaning where the gospel writers were just relating the events and sometimes maybe even poking a bit of fun at their own expense about how silly and earthly-minded they’d been.