Acts 13:51
in Acts 13So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.
KJV
But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.
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This verse in Acts 13
Commentary
10 notes on this verseBut shaking the dust off their feet against them, they went to Iconium. The dust is shaken off the feet according to the precept of the Gospel as a testimony of their labor, that they entered their city and that the apostolic preaching reached them; …
This site's exposition
stirred up the devout and honourable women
on Acts 13:50-52
The Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts, the socially prominent converts turned instruments of the opposition, likely through their husbands' civic standing in the colony. Paul and Barnabas shook off the dust of their feet against them, obeying the Lord's own instruction in Luke 9:5 and 10:11 for a town that refuses the gospel, and came to Iconium, the next stop rather than a retreat. The disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost, Luke's closing note on the whole chapter, joy standing directly against the persecution just narrated rather than after it has passed.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
They fulfill what the Lord commanded them, saying: "If anyone does not receive you, shake off the dust from your feet." (Matt. 10:14, Mark 6:11, and Luke 9:5) But these not only did not receive them, but even drove them out of their borders, which …
"But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium." Here now they used that terrible sign which Christ enjoined, "If any receive you not, shake off the dust from your feet"; but these did it upon no light ground, but because they were driven away by them. This was no hurt to the disciples; on the contrary, they the more continued in the word.
Then, what is more terrible, "they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium. But the disciples, it says, were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost." The teachers were suffering persecution, and the disciples rejoiced.
The Medieval Church1 voice
They did not do this without reason, but because they had been driven out by the Jews.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
), so that the design of this chapter is to show how cautiously, how gradually, and with what good reason the apostles carried the gospel into the Gentile world, and admitted the Gentiles into the church, which was so great an offence to the Jews, and which Paul is so industrious to justify in his epistles.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
But they shook off the dust of their feet against them,.... As Christ directed his apostles to do; See Gill on Mat 10:
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
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, (Mat 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.
The words behind it
12 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| οἱ | hoi | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| δὲ | de | But | G1161 → | 2765 times |
| ἐκτιναξάμενοι | ektinaxamenoi | having shaken off | G1621 → | |
| τὸν | ton | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| κονιορτὸν | koniorton | dust | G2868 → | |
| τῶν | ton | of the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ποδῶν | podon | feet | G4228 → | 93 times |
| ἐπ᾽ | ep᾽ | against | G1909 → | 883 times |
| αὐτοὺς | autous | them | G846 → | 5565 times |
| ἦλθον | elthon | they went | G2064 → | 628 times |
| εἰς | eis | to | G1519 → | 1755 times |
| Ἰκόνιον. | ikonion | Iconium. | G2430 → | 6 times |
οἱ<the>
hoiG3588 →19766 times
δὲBut
deG1161 →2765 times
ἐκτιναξάμενοιhaving shaken off
ektinaxamenoiG1621 →
τὸνthe
tonG3588 →19766 times
κονιορτὸνdust
koniortonG2868 →
τῶνof the
tonG3588 →19766 times
ποδῶνfeet
podonG4228 →93 times
ἐπ᾽against
ep᾽G1909 →883 times
αὐτοὺςthem
autousG846 →5565 times
ἦλθονthey went
elthonG2064 →628 times
εἰςto
eisG1519 →1755 times
Ἰκόνιον.Iconium.
ikonionG2430 →6 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 10:14And if anyone will not welcome you or heed your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.
it leads to
- Acts 18:6
But when they opposed and insulted him, he shook out his garments and told them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to…
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Nehemiah 5:13
I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “May God likewise shake out of His house and possession every man who does not keep this promise. May such a man be…
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Mark 6:11
If anyone will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that place, as a testimony against them.”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Luke 10:10–11
But if you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go into the streets and declare,
- Acts 18:6
Through
Acts 18:6But when they opposed and insulted him, he shook out his garments and told them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 33:4
Then if anyone hears the sound of the horn but fails to heed the warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.
- 2 Samuel 1:16
For David had said to the Amalekite, “Your blood be on your own head because your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I killed the LORD’s anointed.’”
- Ezekiel 33:8–9
If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ but you do not speak out to dissuade him from his way, then that wicked man will die in his iniquity,…
- Ezekiel 33:4
Through
Mark 6:11If anyone will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that place, as a testimony against them.”
it leads to
- Matthew 10:14–15
And if anyone will not welcome you or heed your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Matthew 10:14–15
Where this verse is studied
About Acts
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Acts; John Chrysostom, Homily on Acts 30; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on Acts; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Acts and William Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen.