shake off the dust from your feet

The Greek in Matthew 10:14 that is translated as “shake off the dust from your feet” in English is translated in this occurrence in Matt. 10:14 as “shake off the dust from your feet to show renunciation” in Estado de México Otomi for clarification. In the other passages in Mark, Luke and Acts the Greek text gives a clarification as well. (Source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.)

See also shake the dust off your feet.

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In Nepali translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and other people with the medium honorific pronoun timīlē (तिमीले) or timīlēharū (तिमीलेहरू). His disciples respond with a high honorific pronoun. (Source: Chitra Chhetri in The Bible Translator 2009, p. 73ff. )

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

See also formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese).

complete verse (Matthew 10:14)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 10:14:

  • Uma: “If there is a house owner or villager who does not want to receive you or who does not want to listen to your words, leave that house or that village, and you knock off the dust that sticks to the soles of your feet, as a sign that God will punish them.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If the people do not treat-you-according-to-custom and if they do not want to listen to you, leave from that house or that town. First shake off the dust of your feet as a sign that you are ‘through’ with them, and then leave.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And if there is a village that doesn’t receive you or if they don’t listen to what you cause them to understand, leave them. And knock the dust off of your feet as a sign to them that God will punish them.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When you arrive in a town or house and they do not entertain you and they also refuse to hear what you are saying, brush-off your soles (of feet) at your leaving so they will thereby-know that they are responsible for their punishment.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And whoever won’t receive you or listen to what you are teaching, when you go from that house or town, brush off the dust from your legs/feet as a sign that the people there who didn’t believe are now regarded by God as not his people.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “If you are not looked well upon in a town or at a house, you are not given a welcome and the people do not want to listen to what you say, then go, leave the town or the house. Shake off the dust that is on the soles of your feet.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Matthew 10:14

Any one refers to the people of that house or town mentioned later in the verse. A literal rendering of if any one will not receive you is misleading, for it may imply that if any one person in the entire house or town does not receive Jesus’ disciples, then they must leave. Therefore if any one will not is better phrased in English as “and if no one will” (Phillips; An American Translation “and where no one will”). One may then reorder the verse and translate “If no one in that house or town will welcome you … then leave it….”

For comments on the verb receive, see verse 40.

Listen to your words is translated “listen to you” by Good News Translation and An American Translation; New English Bible renders “listen to what you say,” while a number of other translations render “listen to what you have to say” (Phillips, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible).

Shake off the dust from your feet indicates an action of absolute rejection. Both Mark (6.11) and Luke (9.5) interpret the gesture for their readers: “as a testimony against them” (Good News Translation “That will be a warning to them!”). In Acts 13.51 Barnabas and Paul shake the dust off their feet against the people of the city of Antioch. There the Greek has “against them,” which Good News Translation interprets “in protest against them.” It may be helpful in the present passage also to interpret the significance of the action: “and shake the dust off your feet in protest against them” or “… as a sign that you have rejected them.”

There have been translators who have not kept the form shake off the dust from your feet but only the meaning, as in “show (or, tell) those people that you have rejected them.” Other translations have substituted an action from their own culture which has the same symbolic value. However, there does seem to be some value in keeping the biblical form if possible, if necessary adding a phrase that interprets it as we suggested above. The verse can then say “If no one in that house or town will welcome you or listen to what you have to say, then leave there and shake the dust off your feet as you leave, to show that you have rejected them.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Matthew 10:14

10:14a

And if anyone will not welcome you: This clause refers to someone or even the whole town (10:14b) refusing to give hospitality to the disciples.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

And if some home or town will not welcome you (Good News Translation)
-or-
Whoever does not take care of you
-or-
And whoever refuses to give you hospitality

or heed your words: This phrase is the second thing that the household or town refuses to do: they will not listen to what the disciples say. It refers to these people not listening to the good news about Jesus. It does not refer to words in general. For example:

listen to your message (Contemporary English Version)

10:14b

shake the dust off your feet: Here Jesus told his disciples to shake or remove the dust that was on their feet (and sandals). They probably did this by shaking their feet or brushing off the dust with their hands.

This 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 showed that he rejected those people.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

• Explain it in the text. For example:

shake the dust off your feet ⌊to show that you reject them⌋

• Explain it in a footnote. Here is a sample footnote:

When the Jews wanted to show that they had rejected a place, they had a custom of shaking the dust off their feet.

when you leave that home or town: In Greek, this clause occurs before the command to “shake the dust off your feet.” This clause may also be translated as part of that command. For example:

leave that house or city, and shake its dust off your feet (God’s Word)

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