Luke 9:5

Luk_9:5-6

Shake off the very dust

No connivance with those who reject the gospel

The Jews were accustomed, on their return from heathen countries to the Holy Land, to shake off the dust from their feet at the frontier.

This act signified a breaking away from all joint participation in the life of the idolatrous world. The Apostles were to act in the same way with reference to any Jewish cities which might reject in their person the Kingdom of God. The rejection of the gospel is not the rejection of a mere theory on which men may innocently entertain different opinions. It is the rejection of a message which, if faithfully received, reveals God, and subdues us to Him, and transforms us into His likeness. It is the refusal of the only remedy for moral evil which God has given to man. And notice that this remedy, being offered to us by men sent by God, may be rejected in rejecting their message or their preaching. The faults or idiosyncrasies of the preached are taken no account of by the Lord. It is one with what He says elsewhere, He that heareth you, heareth Me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me, and he that dispiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me. (M. F.Sadler, M. A.)

Dust

What can seem of less consequence, or more worthless, than a pinch of dust? You have but to open your fingers and the wind blows it away in a moment and you see it no more. Yet if but one small grain of dust is blown into your eye it will give you a great deal of trouble. One of the terrible plagues of Egypt sprang from a handful of dust, which God commanded Moses to fling into the air. Every little grain scattered into millions and millions of invisible poison-atoms floating through the air; and wherever they settled, on man or beast, dreadful boils and ulcers broke out. In the great deserts of Arabia and Africa the stormy wind sometimes brings such clouds of sand-dust, hot and stifling, that they hide the sun, and make the day as dark as night. The travellers have to lie flat on their faces, and the horses and camels to bend their noses down close to the ground, or they would be suffocated. Sometimes whole caravans have thus perished; and even a great army was once destroyed and buried in these terrible clouds of hot dust. In Egypt, temples and cities have been buried under hills of sand, made up of tiny grains, which the wind has kept sweeping up from the desert for hundreds of years. Very great things, you see, may come from very small things--even from dust. (E. R. Conder, D. D.)

Dust witnessing to the actions of people

Once, in a certain part of Germany, a box of treasure that was being sent by railway was found at the end of the journey to have been opened and emptied of the treasure, and filled with stones and rubbish. The question was who was the robber? Some sand was found sticking to the box, and a clever mineralogist having looked at the grains of sand through his microscope, said that there was only one station on the railway where there was that kind of sand. Then they knew that the box must have been taken out at that station; and so they found out who was the robber. The dust under his feet, where he had set down the box to open it, was a witness against him. Suppose when people take off their shoes or boots when they come home, every grain of dust could have a tiny tongue and tell where it came from! What different stories they would have to tell! We, say one little pair of shoes, are all covered with sand from the sea-shore, where we have been running about all day, We, say a strong, clumsy pair of boots, have been all day following the plough. And we have brought sand from the floor of country cottages; and we, dust from the unswept floors of poor garrets; and we, mud from many a lane and court and alley. Well-used shoes these; that are busy day after day, carrying comfort to the poor, and the sick, and the sorrowful. And here are a pair of elegant high-heeled boots with hardly a speck on them, for they have done nothing but step from the carpet to the carriage, and from the carriage to the carpet: I am afraid they have no story worth telling. And here are the village postmans shoes, stained with mud of all colours, and thick with dust from twenty miles of road and footpath, park sward and farmyard, as he trudged his daily round. Here is a solitary shoe, for its poor old owner has but one leg, and a wooden stump for the other; and it is laden with the dust of the crossing he has been sweeping, for a few pence, all day long. Some people, I am afraid, would rub and wipe their shoes for a long time, as hard as they could, if they thought the dust under their feet would tell tales of where they have been. At every step you take, you bring something away with you and leave something behind. (E. R. Conder, D. D.)

Heralds of Joy

If a herald were sent to a besieged city with the tidings that no terms of capitulation would be offered, but that every rebel without exception should be put to death, methinks he would go with lingering footsteps, halting by the way to let out his heavy heart in sobs and groans; but if instead thereof, he were commissioned to go to the gates with the white flag to proclaim a free pardon, a general act of amnesty and oblivion, surely he would run as though he had wings to his heels, with a joyful alacrity, to tell to his fellow-citizens the good pleasure of their merciful king. Heralds of salvation, ye carry the most joyful of all messages to the sons of men l When the angels were commissioned for once to become preachers of the gospel, and it was but for once, they made the welkin ring at midnight with their choral songs, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men. They did not moan out a dolorous dirge as of those proclaiming death, but the glad tidings of great joy were set to music, and announced with holy mirth and celestial song. Peace on earth; glory to God in the highest is the joy-note of the gospel--and in such a key should it ever be proclaimed. We find the most eminent of Gods servants frequently magnifying their office as preachers of the gospel. Whitfield was wont to call his pulpit his throne; and when he stood upon some rising knoll to preach to the thousands gathered in the open air, he was more happy than if he had assumed the imperial purple, for he ruled the hearts of men more gloriously than cloth a king. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9:5 shake its dust from your feet: Using a symbol of rejection, they were to leave such a town to the judgment it deserved.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 9:5 . By omitting the ἀκούσωσιν ὑμῶν of Mk. Lk. gives the impression that non-receiving refers to the missionaries not as preachers but as guests = If they will not take you into the house you select, do not try another house, leave the place (so Hahn). This would be rather summary action, and contrary to the spirit of the incident Luk 9:52-56 .

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

(5) A testimony against them.—Better, a testimony unto them.

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

And whosoever will not receive you,.... Unto their houses:

when ye go out of the city; where lodging and entertainment are refused you;

shake off the very dust from your feet, for a testimony against them; See Gill on Mat 10:14, Mar 6:11

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

4 And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart.

5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.

Ver. 5. See Mat 10:14; Mar 6:11; Luk 10:11; Act 13:51.

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.

And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very duet from your feet for a testimony against them. It was the custom of the Jews when they returned from foreign (Gentile) lands, as they crossed the frontiers of the Holy Land, to shake the dust from off their feet. This was an act symbolizing that they had broken, now on their return to their own land, all communion with Gentile peoples which a residence among them had necessitated for a season. The hitter hatred and loathing of the Jews, after their return from the Captivity, for all Gentile races can only be understood by the student of the Talmud. So comprehensive and perfect a hatred, enduring, too, for centuries, has never been witnessed in the ease of any other peoples. This accounts in great measure for the retaliative persecution which more or less has been carried on all through the Christian era against this marvellous race. In our day the day of a liberalism possibly exaggerated and unreal in many parts of Europe the untrained sense of the masses strangely revolts against this spirit of toleration; and wild excesses, massacres, and bitter persecution the Judenhetz, hatred of the Jews in Germany and in Russia are among the curious results of the liberality and universal toleration of the time.

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

Wherever they do not receive you, when you leave

"Here is what you should do in any town where people do not receive you: When you leave"

shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them

To "shake off the dust from your feet" was an expression of strong rejection in that culture. It showed they did not want even the dust of that town to remain on them. (See: Symbolic Action)

they departed

"they left the place were Jesus was"

healing everywhere

"healing wherever they went"

translationWords

receive

testimony

preach

good news

cure

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

5. καὶ τὸν κονιορτόν. See Act 13:51; Act 18:6. The use of κονιορτὸς for κόνις is Hellenistic (LXX[200] Exo 9:9, &c.). It properly means ‘a dustcloud,’ and occurs only in this phrase, except in Act 22:23.

[200] LXX. Septuagint.

ἐπ’ αὐτούς. ‘Against them’; stronger than the αὐτοῖς of Mark, for it points to future judgment.

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.

5.] ἐπʼ αὐτούς, against them;—more determinate than αὐτοῖς, Mark.

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

5. For δέχωνται see on 8:13, and for ἐξερχόμενοι ἀπό see on 4:35. In Act 13:51 we find Paul and Barnabas performing this symbolical action of shaking off the dust. It signified that henceforth they had not the smallest thing in common with the place. It is said that Pharisees performed this action when re-entering Judæa from heathen lands. There and in Act 18:6 Lk. uses ἐκτινάσς., which Mt. and Mk. have here. For ἀποτινασς. comp. Act 28:5. The ἐπʼ αὐτούς means lit. “upon them,” and so against them.” Comp. 2Co 1:23 and Act 13:51, and contrast 2Th 1:10. Mk. here has αὐτοῖς.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Shake off. See on Mt 10:14.

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

Ver. 5. The gospel does not force itself upon men; it is an elastic power, penetrating wherever it finds access, and retiring wherever it is repulsed. This was Jesus’ own mode of acting all through His ministry (Luk 8:37; Joh 3:22).

The Jews were accustomed, on their return from heathen countries to the Holy Land, to shake off the dust from their feet at the frontier. This act symbolized a breaking away from all joint-participation in the life of the idolatrous world. The apostles were to act in the same way in reference to any Jewish cities which might reject in their person the kingdom of God. Καί, even the dust. By this symbolical act they relieved themselves of the burden of all further responsibility on account of the people of that city.

The expression, for a testimony, with the complement ἐπ᾿ αὐτούς, upon them, has evidently reference to the judgment to come; in Mark, the complement αὐτοῖς, for them, makes the testimony an immediate appeal to their guilty consciences.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.