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Mark 6:11

in Mark 6

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.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And whatsoever place shall not receive you, and they hear you not, as ye go forth thence, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony unto them.

KJV

And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

This verse in Mark 6

Commentary

12 notes on this verse

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 1107.

And whoever shall not receive you, &c. This the Lord commanded them, that they might show that they had walked a long way for their sakes, and to no purpose. Or, because they received nothing from them, not even dust, which they shake off, that it might be a testimony against them, that is, by way of convicting them.

This site's exposition

stay there until you leave that area

on Mark 6:10-11

Jews shook the dust from their feet when leaving Gentile ground. The command to shake the dust off your feet at an Israelite town, as a testimony against them, treats it as outside the covenant's welcome.

This site's exposition

shake the dust off your feet

Adam Clarke notes that the closing clause about Sodom and Gomorrah, found in older English Bibles, is missing from many early manuscripts. The Berean text follows them. Theophylact of Ohrid reads the shaken dust as a sign that the messengers had walked a long way for that town in vain.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers2 voices

A commentator

Pseudo-Clement

Clementine Homilies, Homily 3 · Written before 400.

proposed

Therefore, standing and seeing all the people gazing upon him in profound silence, and Simon the magician standing in the midst, he began to speak thus: "Peace be to all you who are in readiness to give your right hands to the truth of God, …

A commentator

Pseudo-Chrysostom

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 500.

proposed

(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) Or else, that it might be a witness of the toil of the way, which they sustained for them; or as if the dust of the sins of the preachers was turned against themselves.

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Commentary on Mark · Written before 1107.

proposed

From those who would not receive them, they were to shake off the dust from their feet, according to the Lord's words, as a sign that they had made a long journey for their sake and yet without benefit to them, or as a sign …

A commentator

Bede

On the Gospel of Mark · Written before 735.

proposed

And whoever does not receive you or listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. Dust is shaken off the feet as a testimony of one's work, showing that they have entered the city and …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

9 ), shall turn into a plague to them; and their condemnation in the great day, will be more intolerable than that of Sodom: for the angels were sent to Sodom, and were abused there; yet that would not bring on so great a guilt and so great a ruin as the contempt and abuse of the apostles of Christ, who bring with them the offers of gospel grace.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens

4 more voices on this verse

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And, whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you,....

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

And whosoever shall not receive you - Ὁς αν τοπος μη δεξηται, whatsoever Place will not receive you: this is the reading of BL, four others, and the later Syriac in the margin. Verily, etc. - All this clause is omitted in BCDL, two others, one Arabic, one Persic, Coptic, Armenian, Vulgate, and all the Itala but three. Mill and Beza approve of the omission, and Griesbach leaves it out of the text. It has probably been transferred here from Mat 10:15. See this subject, from Mar 6:7-11, explained at large on Mat 10:1-15 (note).
These verses describe the first sending forth of the apostles to preach. The great Head of the church made proof of His ministers, before He left them alone in the world. He taught them to try their own powers of teaching, and to find out their own weaknesses, while He was yet with them. Thus, on the one hand, He was enabled to correct their mistakes. Thus, on the other, they were trained for the work they were one day to do, and were not novices, when finally left to themselves.
These verses describe the first sending forth of the apostles to preach. The great Head of the church made proof of His ministers, before He left them alone in the world. He taught them to try their own powers of teaching, and to find out their own weaknesses, while He was yet with them. Thus, on the one hand, He was enabled to correct their mistakes. Thus, on the other, they were trained for the work they were one day to do, and were not novices, when finally left to themselves. Well would it be for the church, if all ministers of the Gospel were prepared for their duty in like manner, and did not so often take up their office untried, unproved, and inexperienced. Let us observe, in these verses, how our Lord Jesus Christ sent forth His apostles "two by two." Mark is the only evangelist who mentions this fact. It is one that deserves especial notice. There can be no doubt that this fact is meant to teach us the advantages of Christian company to all who work for Christ. The wise man had good reason for saying, "Two are better than one." (Eccles. 4:9.) Two men together will do more work than two men singly. They will help one another in judgment, and commit fewer mistakes. They will aid one another in difficulties, and less often fail of success. They will stir one another up when tempted to idleness, and less often relapse into indolence and indifference. They will comfort one another in times of trial, and be less often cast down. "Woe to him that is alone when he falls; for he has not another to help him up." (Eccles. 4:10.) It is probable that this principle is not sufficiently remembered in the church of Christ in these latter days. The harvest is undoubtedly great all over the world, both at home and abroad. The laborers are unquestionably few, and the supply of faithful men far less than the demand.

The words behind it

23 Greek words

Every 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.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    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…

    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,…

  • Through

    Jude 1:7

    In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal…

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 29:23

      All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the…

    • 2 Peter 2:6

      if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;

    • Romans 1:26–27

      For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

    • Genesis 18:20

      Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous,

    • Genesis 19:24–26

      Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.

Where this verse is studied

About Mark

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Public domain.
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Public domain.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, On the Gospel of Mark; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Pseudo-Chrysostom, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Pseudo-Clement, Clementine Homilies, Homily 3; Theophylact of Ohrid, Catena Aurea by Aquinas and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark.