In Matt 10:11 and Luke 10:11 (and several other places) Jesus tells the disciples:

”If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.” Matt 10:11 NIV

Clearly the expression is an idiom like “you should wash your hands of the situation”. But as I am drawing this feet shaking, what does it look like?

Ask an expert

I asked my historical/cultural consultants Dr. Mark Woolmer and Arkan Amin Zaki Al-Amin “Do you know how it's done? Do you take your sandal off and wave it, do you shake your foot, do you wipe your foot on a stone?”

Arkan advised that “Jesus says, "Shake the dust off your feet." This is an ancient way still used today to "discard" a relationship or task. Shaking your feet or the lower part of your robes to shake off the dust stirred up by your feet. It means "I am finished with you and am leaving. Furthermore, as I leave, I take nothing from this house, not even its dust!" (like Acts 13:51). I remember it from a lecture almost 17 years ago by Ken Bailey. What I remember him saying was that you would shake the lower part of the robe/tunic or take off the cloak and shake it”

Dr. Mark Woolmer advised “Luke uses the Greek word πόδας which means foot*, however, it is possible that the meaning could also include shaking the hem of an ankle length garment (an obscure meaning of πόδας is "the hem of ship's sail") which would fit with the shaking of the lower part of the garment suggested by Bailey”.

*- Arkan also points out that the word used for foot can be used any part of the leg and is not as limited as the English definition.

The Drawing

These helpful comments helped me draw the image in a way where the disciple is shaking his foot and the hem meaning that it is right either way. Here is the inked drawing where you can even still see the purple “pencils”