Matthew 10:14

Mat_10:14

Shake off the dust of your feet.

-The sin of the Sodomites was single, but that of those rejecting the apostles would be manifold, including

(1) infidelity;

(2) disobedience;

(3) ingratitude;

(4) inhospitality;

(5) rebellion and contumacy against God, contrary to the law of nature, and in defiance of the grace of God. (Lapide.)

The danger of defilement

The danger of course was not from dust on the feet, but from defilement on the life and in the heart. Every apostle was to let his impenitent countrymen know that they were as heathen men in the sight of the Messiah, impure in the estimation of the infinitely Holy One. The spirit of the injunction runs through all the ages, and has come down to our day. Its spirit, but its spirit only. And hence a very heavy responsibility rests on that minister of the gospel who gives no intimation of any kind to the impenitent with whom he associates, that they are impure in the sight of God, and in danger of eternal separation from the good. (James Morison, D. D.)

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

Mat 10:14-15. Whosoever shall not receive you — That is, entertain you kindly; nor, in an obedient manner, hearken to your words, when you depart, &c., shake off the dust of your feet — The Jews thought the land of Israel so peculiarly holy, that when they came home from any heathen country they stopped at the borders, and shook or wiped off the dust of it from their feet, that the holy land might not be polluted with it. Therefore the action here enjoined was a lively intimation, that those Jews who had rejected the gospel were holy no longer, but were on a level with heathen and idolaters. Verily, It shall be more tolerable, &c. — As if he had said, And indeed you have reason to shake off the dust of your feet in such a case, for whatever profession such Jews may make of their regard to the true God, and however they may continue to boast of their national privileges, their punishment at the day of final judgment shall not only be greater than that of the generality of Gentile sinners, but even than that of those monsters of unnatural wickedness who formerly inhabited Sodom and Gomorrah, and were consumed with fire and brimstone from heaven. For the people of those cities never sinned against such extraordinary light and such singular favours as they will do who reject the gospel now to be preached to them, with great plainness and power, by you, and attested by such miracles as I shall enable you to perform.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10:14 shake its dust from your feet: This prophet-like gesture is explained by the Israelite custom of expressing displeasure with ungodliness by shaking off Gentile dust whenever crossing the border into Israel. The gesture signifies the disciples’ rejection of those who oppose God’s work (see Acts 18:6). Pronouncing judgment on those who reject the message is part of proclaiming the Good News about the Kingdom (see Matt 11:20-24; 13:10-15; 23:37-39; 24:1-36).

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

Mat 10:14. Ὅς ἐὰν, whosoever) whatever householder or magistrate.—ἐξερχόμενοι, when ye depart) The ignorance of men was not yet invincible. At present, in a greater multitude of labourers and hearers, it is not necessary to depart.[462]—ἤ, or) If you should not be admitted into any house of the city.—κονιορτὸν, dust) Because punishment (Mat 10:15) would overtake the very dust of the land trodden by the feet of the impious, from which the apostles would wish to be altogether free; see Act 13:51; cf. Mat 18:6; Mar 6:11. That seeing your determination, they may know it has been said to them as a testimony against them. The action combined with the word moves both spectators and auditors; see Neh 5:13.—τῶν ποδῶν, your feet) This depends upon ἐκτινάξατε, shake off from. Guilt is supposed to adhere to the feet or shoes; see 1Ki 2:5. Therefore the apostles ought to declare, by shaking the dust from their feet, that the fault of those who did not listen has been removed from them.

[462] Beng, seems to mean, There was not then, as yet, the invincible ignorance of men to contend with, that there is now: it was wilful unbelief; and in such a case it was their duty not to waste time, as the spiritual labourers were few, but to depart. In our day, on the other hand, where the numbers of both spiritual labourers and their hearers are many, it is not the duty of the former to depart, though many wilfully harden themselves, for there are others who labour under ignorance, and it is the minister’s duty to labour to overcome that ignorance, which, though invincible in itself, can be overcome by the Spirit of God.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_10:14. Καὶ ὃς ἐὰν, κ.τ.λ.] The nominative is a case of anacoluthon, and placed at the beginning, so as to be emphatic, as in Mat_7:24 : Whosoever will not have received you … as you quit that house or that town, shake, and so on.

ἐξέρχεσθαι, with a simple genitive (Act_16:39); Kühner, II. 1, p. 346. The ἔξω, which Lachmann, Tischendorf 8. insert (B D א), is a gloss upon what is a rare construction in the New Testament. Notice the present participle, thereby meaning upon the threshold, and relatively at the gate.

ἤ] or, should a whole town refuse to receive you and listen to you. The shaking off the dust is a sign of the merited contempt with which such people are reduced to the level of Gentiles, whose very dust is defiling. Iightfoot, p. 331 f.; Mischna Surenhusii, VI. p. 151; Wetstein on this passage; Act_13:51; Act_18:6. This forcible, meaning of the symbolical injunction is not to be weakened (Grotius, Bleek: Nil nobis vobiscum ultra commercii est; de Wette: Have nothing further to do with them; Ewald: Calmly, as though nothing had happened); on the contrary, it is strengthened by Mat_10:15. Comp. Mat_7:6.

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.

And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city--for possibly a whole town might not furnish one "worthy."

shake off the dust of your feet--"for a testimony against them," as Mark and Luke add (Mar 6:11; Luk 10:11). By this symbolical action they vividly shook themselves from all connection with such, and all responsibility for the guilt of rejecting them and their message. Such symbolical actions were common in ancient times, even among others than the Jews, as strikingly appears in Pilate (Mat 27:24). And even to this day it prevails in the East.

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 14. Shake off the dust of your feet.] The Jews considered themselves defiled by the dust of a heathen country, when was represented by the prophets as a polluted land, Am 7:17, when compared with the land of Israel, which was considered as a holy land, Eze 45:1; therefore, to shake the dust of any city of Israel from off one's clothes or feet was an emblematical action, signifying a renunciation of all farther connection with them, and placing them on a level with the cities of the Heathen. See Clarke on Am 9:7.

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

(14) Shake off the dust of your feet.—The act was a familiar symbol of the sense of indignation, as in the case of St. Paul (Act_13:51) at Antioch in Pisidia. The Jewish maxim, that even the very dust of a heathen land brought defilement with it, added to its significance. It was a protest in act, declaring (as our Lord declares in words) that the city or house which did not receive the messengers of the Christ was below the level even of the Gentiles.

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

14. shake off the dust of your feet] as St Paul did at Antioch in Pisidia, Act_13:51. The cities of Israel that rejected the Gospel should be regarded as heathen. The very dust of them was a defilement as the dust of a heathen land. See Lightfoot, ad loc.

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.

Verily, I say unto you,.... This was not all the punishment that should be inflicted on such despisers of the Gospel of Christ, and the ministers of it; as not to enjoy that peace and prosperity wished for by the apostles, and to be declared to be on an equal foot with Heathen cities and countries: but they were to suffer everlasting punishment in the world to come; which is here asserted by Christ in the strongest manner, saying:

it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha, in the day of judgment, than for that city. The inhabitants of the land of Sodom and Gomorrha are the rather mentioned, because, as they were very notorious and abominable sinners, so their temporal punishment was well known, exemplary and awful, though not that, but their future damnation is here regarded, of which the Jews made no doubt; for they say (y),

"the men of Sodom have no part in the world to come; as it is said, Gen 13:13 "the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners, before the Lord exceedingly": they were "wicked" in this world, and "sinners" in the world to come;''

meaning, that by this passage is designed their double punishment in this, and the other world. But though their punishment was very tremendous, and they will suffer also "the vengeance of eternal fire", as Jude says; yet, their punishment will be milder, and more tolerable, than that of the inhabitants of such a city, that rejects the Gospel of the grace of God: as there are degrees in sinning, for all sins are not alike, as the Stoics say; so there will be degrees in suffering; the sins of those that are favoured with the Gospel, are greater than those who only have had the light of nature, and so their torments will be greater. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha, though they sinned against the light of nature, despised the advice and admonitions of Lot, and ill treated the angels, yet will be more mildly punished than the wicked Jews, who rejected Christ, and his Gospel, and despised his apostles, and ministers; because they sinned not against so much light, and such means of grace, and knowledge, as these did; see Lam 4:6 which is thus paraphrased by the Targumist, and may be aptly applied to the Jews in Christ's time:

"the sin of the congregation of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overturned in a moment; and there dwelt no prophets in it to prophesy, and turn it to repentance.''

The time referred to, signified by "the day of judgment", respects not the destruction of Jerusalem, which was a very severe judgment on that people, but the general judgment, at the end of the world, which is appointed and fixed by God, though unknown to angels and men. The phrase is Jewish, and often to be met with in their writings, who use it in the same sense; particularly in the book of Zohar (z), mention is made of , "the day of judgment", when there will be no pollution in the sanctuary.

(y) Misn. Sanhedrim, c. 11. sect. 3. Hieros. Sanhedrim, fol. 29. 3. (z) In Gen. fol 13. 3. & 16. 1.

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

14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

Ver. 14. And whosoever shall not receive you] Two sure signs of reprobate goats: 1. Not to receive Christ’s ministers to house and harbour, accounting themselves happy in such an entertainment. 2. Not to hear their words. The most good is done by God’s ministers commonly at first coming. Then some receive the word with admiration, others are daily more and more hardened: as fish, though fearful, stir not at the great noise of the sea, whereunto they are accustomed; and as birds that build in a belfry startle not at the tolling of the bell.

Shake off the dust of your feet] In token that you sought not theirs but them, and that you will not carry away so much as any of their accursed dust; and that you will not have any communion at all with them, wait no longer upon them; that the dust of those feet (that should have been beautiful) shall be fatal and feral to them; that God shall henceforward beat them here as small as dust with his heavy judgments, as with an iron mace, Psa 2:9; and that hereafter he shall shake them off as dust, when they come to him for salvation at the last judgment.

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.

Shake off the dust from your feet. It was common enough with the Jews, or at least with the preachers and prophets, to use some extraordinary outward actions, to make what they said more taken notice of by the people, as here the shaking off the dust from their feet was to denote to the obstinate unbelievers, that the very dust which their feet had contracted, in coming to preach to them the gospel, should hereafter rise in judgment against them. (Witham) By this, the apostles were to testify that they took nothing away with them belonging to these reprobate cities. They likewise shewed the long and painful journeys they had undertaken for their salvation. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. xxxiii.) --- He orders them to do this, to shew that they would have nothing in common with them, since they left them even their dust. Or it may be to shew, that the dust which they had gathered in their journey, would be a testimony against them in the day of judgment, because they had refused to receive them, as the Jews were accustomed to perform some remarkable action, for some great crime committed; thus, when they heard blasphemy, they tore their garments. (Menochius)

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).

14. Dust of your feet — Such was the custom of stricter Jews in departing from a heathen city. But henceforth the rejecters of Jesus, though Jews by blood, are heathen in heart. The meaning of the symbol of shaking the dust from your feet, is solemn and striking. It declares the city polluted, and not a particle of it shall adhere to the apostle’s person. It is given over to itself, and consigned to its own destruction.

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

Vers. 14, 15. If rejected, bear your solemn witness to the fact, for to reject you brings awful consequences.

Parallel passages: Mar_6:11 Luk_9:5 (the twelve); Luk_10:10, 11 (the seventy). And whosoever shall not receive you on your formal request as heralds of the kingdomnor hear your words, (Mat_21:17 Act_16:13) in this case finally. That house or (thai, Revised Version) city. "The house," rightly further defined by "that" in English, comes in Matthew only; "that city" comes also in the parallel passage, Mat_5:18, note) I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha. Whose inhabitants were the typical example of the worst of sinners. (Deu_32:32 Isa_1:10 Eze_16:46 Rev_11:8) "The men of Sodom have no part in the world to come" (Mishna, "Sanh.," 10:3). In the day of judgment. Luke has "in that day;" cf. Mat_7:22. In the only two passages in the LXX (Pro_6:34 Isa_34:8) where, as it seems, our phrase occurs, it refers, not to the judgment of all, good and bad alike, but to that of the wicked alone. So also in 2Pe_2:9 2Pe_3:7; and possibly also in Mat_12:36, but not in 1Jn_4:17 (the only passage where it is not anarthrous). Than for that city. Observe that this verse implies that the wicked dead are still in existence, and are waiting for their final judgment; also that in the judgment of the wicked there will be degrees of punishment.

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

Shake off the dust from your feet - The Jews thought the land of Israel so peculiarly holy, that when they came home from any heathen country, they stopped at the borders and shook or wiped off the dust of it from their feet, that the holy land might not be polluted with it. Therefore the action here enjoined was a lively intimation, that those Jews who had rejected the Gospel were holy no longer, but were on a level with heathens and idolaters.

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

14. Shake off the dust of your feet. This was done when there was a positive rejection of the gospel. It was a symbolical act, signifying that all responsibility for the stubborn household or city had ended. Compare Mark 6:11 and Acts 13:51. Nor can the gospel be forced upon an unwilling people in any age.

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.

Connecting Statement:

Jesus continues to instruct his disciples about what they should do when they go to preach.

As for those who do not receive you or listen

"If no people in that house or city will receive you or listen"

you ... your

This is plural and refers to the twelve apostles. (See: Forms of You)

listen to your words

Here "words" refers to what the disciples say. AT: "listen to your message" or "listen to what you have to say" (See: Metonymy)

city

You should translate this the same way you did in Matthew 10:11.

shake off the dust from your feet

"shake the dust off your feet as you leave." This is a sign that God has rejected the people of that house or city. (See: Symbolic Action)

Truly I say to you

"I tell you the truth." This phrase adds emphasis to what Jesus says next.

it shall be more tolerable

"the suffering shall be less"

the land of Sodom and Gomorrah

This refers to the people who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. AT: "the people who lived in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah" (See: Metonymy)

that city

This refers to the people in the city that does not receive the apostles or listen to their message. AT: "the people of the city that does not receive you" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

receive

amen

Sodom

Gomorrah

judgment day

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

14. ἐκτινάξατε τὸν κονιορτόν, as St Paul did at Antioch in Pisidia, Act 13:51. The cities of Israel that rejected the Gospel should be regarded as heathen. The very dust of them was a defilement as the dust of a heathen land. See Lightfoot, ad loc.

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.

14.] See Act 13:51; Act 18:6. A solemn act which might have two meanings: (1) as Luk 10:11 expresses at more length,—‘We take nothing of yours with us, we free ourselves from all contact and communion with you;’ or (2),—which sense probably lies beneath both this and ver. 13, ‘We free ourselves from all participation in your condemnation: will have nothing in common with those who have rejected God’s message.’ See 1Ki 2:5, where the shoes on the feet are mentioned as partakers in the guilt of blood. It was a custom of the Pharisees, when they entered Judæa from a Gentile land, to do this act, as renouncing all communion with Gentiles: those then who would not receive the apostolic message were to be treated as no longer Israelites, but Gentiles. Thus the verse forms a kind of introduction to the next portion of the discourse, where the future mission to the Gentiles is treated of. The ἢ τῆς πόλεως ἐκ. brings in the alternative; “house, if it be a house that rejects you, city, if a whole city.”

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

(M) 14. And whosoever will not receive you, nor hear your words; as you go outside that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.] Mk. has: “And whatsoever place will not receive you, and they will not hear you; as you proceed thence shake off the dust which is under your feet for a testimony against them.” Lk. has: “And whosoever will not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake away the dust from your feet for a testimony against them.” Both Mt. and Lk. substitute κονιορτός for Mk.’s χοῦς, and introduce the reference to the city. Lk. has the same features in the charge to the Seventy (10:10). They are due to the use of independent non-Marcan sources.

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

Shake off [εκτιναξατε] . "The very dust of a heathen country was unclean, and it defiled by contact. It was regarded like a grave, or like the putrescence of death. If a spot of heathen dust had touched an offering, it must at once be burnt. More than that, if by mischance any heathen dust had been brought into Palestine, it did not and could not mingle with that of 'the land, ' but remained to the end what it had been - unclean, defiled and defiling everything to which it adhered." The apostles, therefore, were not only to leave the house or city which should refuse to receive the, "but it was to be considered and treated as if it were heathen, just as in the similar case mentioned in Mt 18:17. All contact with such must be avoided, all trace of it shaken off" (Edersheim, " Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ "). The symbolic act indicated that the apostles and their Lord regarded them not only as unclean, but as entirely responsible for their uncleanness. See Act 18:6.

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