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Bible Dictionaries
Foot
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or FOOT . Isaiah 3:18; Isaiah 3:18 refers to the ornaments of women’s feet. Most of the metaphorical or figurative usages are connected with the idea of the feet as the lowest part of the body, opposed to the head; hence falling at a man’s feet, as the extreme of reverence or humility, kissing the feet ( Luke 7:38 ), sitting at the feet, as the attitude of the pupil ( Luke 10:39 , Acts 22:3 ). The foot was literally placed on the neck of conquered foes ( Joshua 10:24 ), as may be seen in Egyptian monuments. Hence ‘under foot’ is used of subjection ( Psalms 8:6 , 1 Corinthians 15:27 ). In Deuteronomy 11:10 the reference is to some system of irrigation in vogue in Egypt, either to the turning of a water-wheel by the foot, or to a method of distributing water from a canal ‘by making or breaking down with the foot the small ridges which regulate its flow’ (Driver, ad loc. ). Other usages arise from the feet as stained or defiled in walking. The shaking of dust from the feet ( Matthew 10:14 , Acts 13:51 ) was the sign of complete rejection; the land was as a heathen land, and its dust unclean. So the sandals were removed as a sign of reverence ( Exodus 3:5 , Joshua 5:15; cf. covering the feet, Isaiah 6:2 ). To remove the sandal was also the sign of the renunciation of a right ( Deuteronomy 25:9 , Ruth 4:8 ). To walk barefoot was the symbol of mourning ( 2 Samuel 15:30 ) or slavery ( Isaiah 20:2 ). Jeremiah 2:25 ‘Withhold thy foot from being unshod,’ i.e. do not wear the shoes off your feet in running after strange gods.
Washing the feet stained with the dust of the road was part of the regular duty of hospitality ( Genesis 18:4 , Exo 30:19 , 2 Samuel 11:8 , Song of Solomon 5:3 , Luke 7:44 ). The use of ointment for this purpose was the sign of the penitent’s lavish love ( Luke 7:38 , Joh John 12:3 ). The washing of the feet at the Last Supper is primarily connected with this custom ( John 13:1-38 ). Christ ‘the Lord and Master’ assumes the garb and does the work of a slave ( John 13:4 ). The lesson is not merely one of humility (cf. the dispute in Luke 22:24 ), but of ready and self-sacrificing service. An interesting Rabbinic parallel is quoted on Ezekiel 16:9 : ‘Among men the slave washes his master; but with God it is not so.’ Edersheim further sees in the act a substitute for the washing of hands which was part of the Paschal ceremonial; and there may be a reference to the proverb, connected with the Greek mysteries, that a great undertaking must not be entered upon ‘with unwashed feet.’ The service of the Kingdom of heaven (or in particular the crisis of that night) is not to be approached in the spirit of unthinking pride shown in the dispute about precedence (see D. Smith, The Days of His Flesh , p. 440). Besides the lesson of humility, there is also the symbolism of purification. St. Peter, at first protesting, afterwards characteristically accepts this as literal. Christ’s reply takes up the figure of one who has walked from the bath to his host’s house, and needs only to have the dust of his journey removed. Broadly, they are clean by their consecration to Him, but they need continual cleansing from the defilements of daily life. ‘It seems impossible not to see in the word “bathed” a foreshadowing of the idea of Christian baptism’ (Westcott, ad loc. ). The same or other commentaries should be consulted for later imitations of the ceremony (cf. 1 Timothy 5:10 ).
C. W. Emmet.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Foot'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/f/foot.html. 1909.
