6:11

Some Greek manuscripts have an extra sentence at the end of 6:11. The King James Version follows these manuscripts and adds the following:

Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

Many of the older Greek manuscripts do not include this sentence, and most English versions do not include it. The sentence is in Matthew 10:15, and scholars believe someone added it later to the parallel passage here in Mark 6:11. It is recommended that you should not include this sentence in your translation.

6:11a

And if any place will not welcome you: The clause will not welcome you means that nobody in the town invited the disciples to stay in their home. Also, nobody did anything to show the disciples that they wanted them to be in their town.

or listen to you: The clause listen to you refers to the people of a particular place refusing to listen to the disciples’ message.

6:11b

shake the dust off your feet when you leave that place: Here Jesus told the disciples to remove or shake off any dust that was sticking to their feet and sandals. They probably did this by shaking their feet or brushing off the dust with their hands. Consider how you would describe this kind of action in your language.

Shaking the dust off their feet was a cultural gesture that had a symbolic meaning. When a Jewish person shook the dust of a place off of his feet, it indicated that he did not have any relationship with the people in that place. It implied that the people were not God’s people. In this context, it meant that the disciples were no longer responsible for what happened to those people. God would punish the people because they did not accept the disciples and their message. The people would cause their own punishment, because they refused the message.

It is important to translate this gesture literally here in 6:11b. Then you can explain the meaning in the next phrase (6:11c).

Here are some other ways to translate this:

shake off the dust from the bottom of your feet when you leave
-or-
when you leave, shake/brush/tap your feet to remove the dust

your feet: If your language has specific words for the “lower leg and foot” or for the “sole of the foot,” you may use either of these expressions.

6:11c

as a testimony against them: The phrase as a testimony against them gives the meaning of the symbol of shaking dust off one’s feet. When the apostles shook off the dust of a town from their feet, they were warning the people. They were saying that God would judge them if they did not repent.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

as a warning to them that God will judge/punish them
-or-
as a sign to show them that they are responsible/guilty

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