Acts 2:35

Greek (Tischendorf 8th ed.)

English Translation

Until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."'

World English Bible · Public Domain

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ὑποπόδιον

hypopódion

G5286

“footstool”

Noun, Accusative, Singular, Neuter

Appears 8× in the Greek New Testament
First appears at Matthew 5:35

Full Thayer's Definition

Origin: from a compound of G5259 and G4228

TDNT: None

1. a footstool a. to make one a footstool of one's feet, i.e. to subject, to reduce under one's power b. metaph. taken from the practice of conquerors who placed their feet on the necks of their conquered enemies

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

10: words
8: distinct lemmas
Acts: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is ὑποπόδιον footstool G5286 — appearing just 8 times in the whole Greek New Testament.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

ὑποπόδιον footstool G5286 occurs in 8 verses of the Greek New Testament. Also found in:

Repetition

Words recur within this verse:

τοὺς the G3588 ×2
σου you G4771 ×2

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Acts 2:35 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Romans 16:20 And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Revelation 19:19–20:3 I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army.
Isaiah 60:14 The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you; and all those who despised you shall bow themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you The city of Yahweh, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 59:18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.
Revelation 20:8–15 and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel."
Psalms 18:40–42 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, That I might cut off those who hate me.
Psalms 72:9 Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him. His enemies shall lick the dust.

Isaiah 63:4–6 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.
Luke 20:16–18 He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others." When they heard it, they said, "May it never be!"
Joshua 10:24–25 It happened, when they brought forth those kings to Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who went with him, Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings. They came near, and put their feet on the necks of them.
Psalms 2:8–12 Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, The uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
Psalms 21:8–12 Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
Isaiah 49:23 Kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am Yahweh; and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed.
Luke 19:27 But bring those enemies of mine who didn't want me to reign over them here, and kill them before me.'"

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Commentary

Notes on Acts 2:35 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Commentary source

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 35. Until I make thy foes thy footstool.] It was usual with conquerors to put their feet on the necks of vanquished leaders, as emblematical of the state of subjection to which they were reduced, and the total extinction of their power. By quoting these words, Peter shows the Jews, who continued enemies to Christ, that their discomfiture and ruin must necessarily take place, their own king and prophet having predicted this in connection with the other things which had already been so literally and circumstantially fulfilled. This conclusion had the desired effect, when pressed home with the strong application in the following verse.

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

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

35. until 1 make thy foes thy footstool] To put the foot on the neck of an enemy is an expression for complete victory. This was an Oriental custom (cp. Jos_10:24). Christ’s enemies are to become His footstool, but His power shall not end then. When they are all subdued His kingdom shall continue and be more glorious.

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.

John Gill's Exposition

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,.... "With certain knowledge", as the Arabic version renders it; with full assurance of it: this is a case that is plain and clear, a matter of fact that may be depended on; which all the people of Israel, called "the house of Israel", a phrase frequently used of that people in the Old Testament, which every individual of that body of men might be assured of:

that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ; that is, that God the Father had not only constituted and appointed Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah, the Lord of lords, and King of kings, and had invested him with that office, power, and authority, but he had made him manifest to be so by the Holy Spirit which he had received, and now poured forth the same, and not another; even him whom they had rejected with so much contempt; whom they had treated in such a scornful and brutish manner; had spit upon, buffeted, and scourged, and at last crucified; and yet, now, even he had all power in heaven, and in earth, given him, and was exalted above every name; that in his name every knee should bow. The phrase of "making a Messiah", or "Christ", is used in the Talmudic writings (f),

"The holy blessed God sought to make Hezekiah the Messiah, or Christ, and Sennacherib Gog and Magog; the property or attribute of justice said before the holy blessed God, Lord of the world, and what was David, the king of Israel, who said so many songs and hymns before thee, and thou didst not make him Christ? Hezekiah, for whom thou hast done all these wonders, and he hath not said a song before thee, wilt thou make him the Messiah, or Christ? wherefore his mouth was shut up; and the earth opened, and said a song before him; Lord of the world, I have said a song before thee, for this righteous one, , and he made him Messiah, or Christ.

(f) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 94. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

Ver. 35. Thy footstool] They that will not bend shall break; Christ will fetch in his rebels, and set his feet of fine brass on the necks of them, Rev 1:15.

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Christ is commissioned and empowered to reign over and govern all creatures, and all their actions, till the consummation of all things, so long as the world lasts, in which he, his people, and truths, will have enemies, Eph 1:20-22; 1Co 15:27,28.

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

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

35. Thy footstool—A figure taken from the custom of ancient conquerors of setting their feet on the heads or necks of their captured foes. So Josephus paints the Jewish hero Jonathan as treating Pudens the Roman: “Treading upon the dead general he shook his bloody sword, with his shield in his left hand, shouting many things to the army, boasting over his fallen foe, and scoffing at the Romans looking on.” But the conqueror in the present Messianic image is sitting in quiet victorious state beside the throne of Jehovah, with all his foes lying like a footstool beneath his feet.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Till for until, A.V.; thine enemies for thy foes, A.V.; the footstool of thy feet for thy footstool, A.V.

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

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Until I make thine enemies thy footstool - This text is here quoted with the greatest address, as suggesting in the words of David, their great prophetic monarch, how certain their own ruin must be, if they went on to oppose Christ. Psalm cx, 1.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

McGarvey & Pendleton's Commentaries

J. W. McGarvey

See notes on verse 34

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.

The People's New Testament

B. W. Johnson

35. Until I make, etc. When the work of the Mediator is ended and all conquered to Christ, then all power is given up to the Father. See 1 Cor. 15:23–28.

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.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges

35. ὑποπόδιον. To put the foot on the neck of a prostrate enemy was in the Eastern world a token of complete conquest. (Cf. Jos 10:24.)

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.

Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament

Marvin R. Vincent

Thy footstool. A. V. omits of thy feet.

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

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Acts, in the Acts, opens this verse with 10 words (8 distinct Greek lemmas). Its most distinctive word is hypopódion (“footstool”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word hypopódion carries the sense “footstool.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Matthew 5:35, which shares the word «footstool», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “the” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
Compare how Adam Clarke's Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
“the” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Greek lemmas span 10 words in this verse.