It doesn't create suspicion that you're a transgressor if you carry money, sandals, backpacks, whatever. It does create suspicion if your men have arms.
I do think we've well and truly split this hair at this point.
You'll notice that nowhere in the NT do the Apostles ever use a sword, or any other weapon, for defense, although the Christian Community is frequently at risk for arrest and imprisonment and/or stoning.
I prescind from any argument for pacifism. (I do not believe in pacifism.) I'm just pointing to the record.
A sword is not necessary to be numbered among the transgressors - in fact is *wasn't* even brought up at Christ's trial.
You are making the argument that "since it is the evidence, it must be required." The Scripture doesn't say that.
I want to draw your attention to this in particular:
A sword is not found in the prophecy quoted by Christ, nor supported by the immediate context, nor found in the accusations against Christ.
It doesn't create suspicion that you're a transgressor if you carry money, sandals, backpacks, whatever. It does create suspicion if your men have arms.
No suspicion is necessary. Christ wasn't being arrested for suspicion of arms. Nor were soldiers walking buy who spotted some men with swords. They were already coming to arrest Christ.
This idea of suspicion is one your argument brings to the text. It isn't there found there in Greek, nor the Hebrew translation of the prophecy, nor otherwise. Suspicion of bearing arms is irrelevant to the event and to the history of the trial and to the prophecy.
You'll notice that nowhere in the NT do the Apostles ever use a sword, or any other weapon, for defense, although the Christian Community is frequently at risk for arrest and imprisonment and/or stoning.
This is an interesting idea that doesn't bear on this passage, since Christ instructs them to buy swords.
(I'm laughing to myself that you are requiring something to have happened during the NT and example of the Apostles. 😃)
... and ultimately, you are making an argument from silence. We simply do not know. The Holy Spirit chose not to record it if it happened.
(and here, if I was a Roman, I'd say, "But God could have! Not everything is recorded in Scripture!)
Rome certainly found the sword later in history...
Best.
But we ALL know that the Roman Catholic Church has built quite a magnificent organization upon things that have NOT been said in the Scriptures it compiled for the world.