Acts 13:51

Act_13:51. Ἐκτιναξ. τ. κονιορτ.] as a sign of the greatest contempt. Comp. Act_18:6, and see on Mat_10:14.

ἐπʼ αὐτούς] against them, is to be understood either as denoting the direction of the movement of the feet in shaking off the dust, or, more significantly, in the sense of the direction, frame of mind, in which the action took place. Comp. Luk_9:5.

Ἰκόνιον] belonging at an earlier period to Phrygia (Xen. Anab. i. 2. 19), but at this time the capital of Lycaonia (Strabo, xii. p. 568; Cic. ad Div. xv. 4; Plin. N. H. v. 25), and even yet (Konieh or Koniyah, see Ainsworths Travels in the track of the Ten Thousand Greeks) an important city. Ammian. Marc. xiv. 2, reckons it to belong to (the neighbouring) Pisidia, in opposition to the above witnesses,an error easily committed. In Iconium the legend makes Thecla be converted by Paul.

From the Pisidian Antioch they did not move farther forward, but turned south-eastward, in order (Act_14:26) at a later period to return by ship to the Syrian Antioch.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 13:51 . ἐκτιναξάμενοι , cf. Mat 10:14 , Luk 10:11 , Mar 6:11 . The symbolic act would be understood by the Jews as an intimation that all further intercourse was at an end. There is no reason to see in the words a late addition by the author of Acts to the source; the disciples mentioned in Act 13:52 need not have been Jews at all, but Gentiles, and in Act 14:21 nothing is said of any intercourse except with those who were already disciples. Ἰκόνιον , see on Act 14:1 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The wickedness of the world cannot let God to gather his Church together, and to foster and cherish it, when it is gathered together.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

shook off the dust of their feet against them--as directed (Mat 10:14).

came unto Iconium--a populous city about forty-five miles southeast from Pisidian Antioch: at the foot of Mount Taurus; on the borders of Lycaonia, Phrygia, and Pisidia; and in later times largely contributing to the consolidation of the Turkish empire.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 51. They shook off the dust of their feet against them] This was a very significant rite; by it, they in effect said: Ye are worse than the heathen: even your very land is accursed for your opposition to God, and we dare not permit even its dust to cleave to the soles of our feet; and we shake it off, in departing from your country, according to our Lord's command, (Mt 10:14,) for a testimony against you, that we offered you salvation, but ye rejected it and persecuted us. The Jews, when travelling in heathen countries, took care, when they came to the borders of their own, to shake off the dust of their feet, lest any of the unhallowed ground should defile the sacred land of Israel.

Came unto Iconium.] According to Strabo, Iconium was a small fortified town, the capital of Lycaonia, at present called Cogni. "Lycaonia was a province at the back of Pamphylia, higher up in Asia Minor, and to the northeast of Pamphylia." Pearce.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

51. When they had shaken of the dust of their feet. We may also gather, even by the commandment of Christ, (Matthew 10:14; Luke 9:5; 10:11,) that this was a token of cursing among the Jews. For it is not to be thought that Christ meant to have his [disciples] use an unknown sign, forasmuch as it was his purpose to terrify the gross and professed condemners of his doctrine. Furthermore, he meant by this means to declare that God doth so detest the wicked, that we must take meat heed that we have no fellowship with them, lest we be infected with their uncleanness. All the wicked are said, indeed, to pollute the ground whereon they tread; but the Lord did never command that any, save only the condemners of his word, should be so rejected with such execration. If any adulterer or whoremonger, if any perjured person, if any drunkard, were to be excommunicate, this sign was not used. Therefore, it appeareth how intolerable the contempt of the word of God is in his sight; because, when as he commandeth that the dust of the feet be shaken off, it is as much as if he should pronounce that they are the bond-slaves of Satan, men past hope, and worthy to be banished from off the earth. Wherefore, let this so great;, severity teach us to reverence the gospel. Also the ministers of the word are taught with how great ferventness of zeal they must maintain the majesty of the word, that they do not coldly dissemble and wink at the contempt thereof.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(51) They shook off the dust of their feet against them.—The act was one of literal obedience to our Lord’s commands (see Note on Mat_10:14), and may fairly be regarded as evidence that that command had come to the knowledge of Paul and Barnabas as well as of the Twelve. It was in itself, however, the language of a natural symbolism which every Jew would understand, a declaration that not the heathen, but the unbelieving and malignant Jews, were those who made the very dust on which they trod common and unclean.

And came unto Iconium.—The journey to Iconium is passed over rapidly, and we may infer that it presented no opportunities for mission work. That city lay on the road between Antioch and Derbe at a distance of ninety miles south-east from the former city, and forty north-west from the latter. When the travellers arrived there they found what they probably had not met with on their route—a synagogue, which indicated the presence of a Jewish population, on whom they could begin to work. The city, which from its size and stateliness has been called the Damascus of Lycaonia, was famous in the early Apocryphal Christian writings as the scene of the intercourse between St. Paul and his convert Thekla. In the middle ages it rose to importance as the capital of the Seljukian sultans, and, under the slightly altered name of Konieh, is still a flourishing city. By some ancient writers it was assigned to Phrygia, by others to Lycaonia.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

51. shook off the dust of their feet against them] This significant action, like that of the “shaking of the raiment” (Act_18:6), implied that those against whom it was done were henceforth left to go their own way. Cp. Neh_5:13, Mat_10:14.

Iconium] a city in Pisidia to the east of Antioch. It is still a large town, and preserves the trace of its old name, being now called Konich. See Dictionary of the Bible.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

51 But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.

Ver. 51. {See Trapp on "Mat 10:14"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But they shook off the dust ... - See the notes on Mat 10:14.

And came unto Iconium - This was the capital of Lycaonia. It is now called Konieh, and is the capital of Caramania. “Konieh extends to the east and south over the plain far beyond the walls, which are about two miles in circumference ... Mountains covered with snow rise on every side, excepting toward the east, where a plain, as flat as the desert of Arabia, extends far beyond the reach of the eye” (Capt. Kinnear). “Little, if anything, remains of Greek or Roman Iconium, if we except the ancient inscriptions and the fragments of sculptures which are built into the Turkish walls.” “The city wall is said to have been erected by the Seljukian sultans: it seems to have been built from the ruins of more ancient buildings, as broken columns, capitals, pedestals, bas-reliefs, and other pieces of sculpture contribute toward its construction. It has 80 gates, of a square form, each known by a separate name, and, as well as most of the towers, embellished with Arabic inscriptions ... I observed a few Greek characters on the walls, but they were in so elevated a situation that I could not decipher them” (Capt. Kinneir). See Colonel Leake’s description; and also the work of Col. Chesney (1850) on the Euphrates Expedition, vol. i, p. 348, 349.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Shaking off the dust, &c. See the Annotations, Matthew x. 14.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This was according to our Saviour’s command, Mat 10:14; Mar 6:11; Luk 9:5, so often is it mentioned, and so considerable a matter it is for us to know, and dread the punishment appointed for such as refuse the gospel, and contemn the salvation offered by it. What this was symbolical of is not expressed. The Hebrew proverb says, The dust of an ethnic city or country doth pollute a man; and they might by this represent, that the inhabitants of such a city or place, who did not entertain the gospel, and the ministers thereof, they would repute as the vilest sinners, and they should by God be dealt with accordingly.

Iconium: see Act 14:1.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

51. Shook off the dust—According to the command of Jesus, (Mat_10:14,) upon which see our note.

Unto Iconium—For Iconium see Act_13:1 of the next chapter.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They shook off the dust, etc.; according to the Lord"s injunction (Luk_9:5; comp. Act_18:6) And came into Iconium; a distance of about sixty miles south-east, a five days" journey (Renan). Iconium lay on the high road from Antioch in Syria to Ephesus. It is now called Cogni, and has a population of nearly thirty thousand souls. Iconium is assigned by Xenophon to Phrygia; by others to Pisidia; and again by others (Cicero, Strabo, etc.) to Lyeaonia. At this time it was the capital of a separate tetrarchy (Lewin, "Saint Paul"), but Renan calls it" the capital of Lycaonia" ("Saint Paul," p. 41).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See notes one verse 49

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

51. They shook off the dust of their feet. See Luke 9:5. The Master's command was obeyed. Iconium. In Lycaonia, about fifty miles east of the Pisidian Antioch. At a later period, Iconium became celebrated as the capital of the Turks, before Constantinople fell into their hands. The Turkish sultan was long called the Sultan of Iconium. It was only after the Turkish conquests in Europe that the capital was moved to Constantinople. It is still a place of 30,000 inhabitants, and is called Konieh.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

51. αὐτῶν omitted with אABC. Unrepresented in Vulg.

51. οἱ δὲ ἐκτιναξάμενοι τὸν κονιορτὸν κ.τ.λ., but they having shaken off the dust of their feet against them. This significant action, like that of the ‘shaking of the raiment’ (Act 18:6), implied that those against whom it was done were henceforth left to go their own way. Cf. Mat 10:14.

Ἰκόνιον, Iconium. A city in Pisidia to the east of Antioch. It is still a large town, and preserves a trace of its old name, being now called Konieh. See Dict. of the Bible.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

51.] As commanded by our Lord, Mat 10:14, where see note.

Ἰκόνιον] A populous city, east of Antioch in Pisidia, lying in a fertile plain at the foot of, and almost surrounded by, Mount Taurus. It is reckoned by Xenophon (Anab. i. 2. 19) as belonging to Phrygia,—by Strabo (xii. 568) and Cicero (ad Famil. xv. 4) to Lycaonia, of which it was practically the capital,—by Ammianus Marcellinus (xiv. 2) to Pisidia. At this time, it was the capital of a distinct territory, ruled by a tetrarch (Plin. N. H. v. 27), and probably on that account is not reckoned to any of the above-mentioned districts. It became famous in the middle ages as the capital of the Seljukian Sultans, and had a great part in the growth of the Ottoman empire. It is now Konín, a town of 30,000 inhabitants. (Winer, Realw.; C. and H. i. pp. 220, f.)

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Shook off. See on Mt 10:14.

Dust. See on Luk 10:11.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.