What Does Mark 6:11 Mean?
And wherever they will not receive you or hear and respond to you, when you go out from there, shake off the dust from beneath your feet as a witness against them. Truly, I say to you, It will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
When a message is refused, even the dust shaken from the messenger’s feet becomes testimony.
THE MEANING
The verse names two ways of refusing: not receiving the messengers and not hearing them. When you refuse them, their departure does not erase the encounter; the dust becomes testimony against the city. It places that refusal under a judgment more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha than for that city.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a refusal leaves no witness once the messenger has gone.
THE ROOT
μαρτύριον
martyrion
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
witness; bearing witness
English can make “testimony” sound like a report, but the Greek word belongs to the same family as “witness” and “bear witness.” Here, the dust itself is assigned that role: the refusal remains visible as a witness against the city.
ALSO GROWS
martys: witness
μάρτυς
The person who sees or testifies belongs to the same word family as the testimony left by the departing messengers.
martyreō: bear witness, testify
μαρτυρέω
This verb makes the shared root’s action explicit: the refusal is borne witness to.
martyria: testimony, evidence
μαρτυρία
This related noun shows how witness becomes the testimony named in the verse.
δέχομαι
dechomai
GROWS FROM
δεχ-
dech-
receive, accept, welcome
“receive” in this verse is dechomai. The verse distinguishes receiving the messengers from hearing them. Rejection is not reduced to failing to understand: welcome and listening are both named as possible points of refusal.
ALSO GROWS
apodechomai: accept, welcome
ἀποδέχομαι
This compound keeps the sense of receiving while making acceptance explicit.
paradechomai: receive, accept
παραδέχομαι
This related verb carries the same family sense of taking something in or accepting it.
THE PATTERN
A refused warning does not erase the witness of what was refused.
He heard the sound of the horn and did not respond, taking no warning; his blood shall be upon him. But whoever takes the warning shall escape with his living soul.But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came to Iconium.THE THREAD
But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came to Iconium.Acts uses the same Greek verb, ἐκτινάσσω (ektinassō, shake off), for the gesture Mark describes. The repeated action shows the dust shaken away as part of the testimony that remains when the messengers depart.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us