Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Washing feet
A good host set out water so arriving guests could wash the dust of the road off their feet. Doing the washing yourself was a slave's work, and a disciple was not expected to touch even his teacher's feet.
Handing a guest a towel at the door is good manners; kneeling down to wash his feet yourself is something else. People walked dusty roads in sandals. A good host gave arriving guests water for their feet. The washing itself, untying the sandals and pouring the water over the feet, was the work of a slave or of someone in a very low place. That is why a teacher washing his students' feet, or a woman pouring perfume on a guest's feet, stopped the room.
After travelers had come a long way, the host provided water for their feet, following Abraham's example (Genesis 18:4). But loosing sandals and washing another person's feet was servile work. Most often a servant did it, or very submissive wives or children (1 Samuel 25:41). Dirt roads made feet dusty, and the water was poured over the feet into a basin. The ESV and CSB Study Bibles call it a task for non-Jewish slaves, normally done on arrival rather than during the meal. Hosts gave water for the feet but anointed only the head, and only servants normally handled a person's feet. Disciples served their teachers, as Elisha served Elijah and Joshua served Moses. But the one service not expected even of them was handling the master's feet (Keener). Bailey, writing from Middle Eastern village life, says only the lowest servants tied up their robes for such work: "Servants, indeed, only lower-class servants and slaves, belt their robes." The Mishnah told worshipers to wash the dust of the street from their feet before approaching the sacred precincts (Berakhot 9.5).
An analogy: a company's chief executive who, at the staff dinner, ties on a waiter's apron and serves the interns at their tables. Nobody can stop him, and nobody knows where to look.
Because the washing itself was a slave's job, a teacher kneeling with a basin before his own disciples, as in John 13:14, turns the known order of rank upside down. A host who offers no water at all, as in Luke 7:44, has slighted his guest. When 1 Timothy 5:10 lists washing the feet of God's people among a widow's good works, it names humble service, not a host's courtesy.
Not a gracious gesture from the top. A modern boss who serves the staff can look generous. Here the act was so low that the disciple whose feet were being washed tried to refuse it, and the sources treat it as a slave's task, not a leader's kindness.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1timothy-5-1-16\/","n":"1 Timothy 5:1-16, Older men as fathers, and the widows' list","s":"Timothy is to treat older and younger believers as family; the church is to honor widows who are truly in need, families are to support their own, and only older widows of proven character are to be put on the list.","r":"1 Timothy 5:1-16"}
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 12:3, 13:3-8 and 13:12-14, and on Luke 7:43-46 and 1 Timothy 5:10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 12:3, 13:5 and 13:14, and on 1 Timothy 5:10
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on John 12:3 and 13:1-17
- CSB Study Bible, note on John 13:1-17
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 29, The Parable of the Serving Master
- N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, ch. 12, The Reasons for Jesus' Crucifixion, endnote 77
