ἐκτινάσσω

From the study of Matthew 10:14

Range of meaning

Shake out, shake off forcefully. Used of shaking out cloth or dust, and in sign-acts of disowning someone or calling down a curse.

Against the English

English 'shake off' is accurate. What English readers miss is that this was a recognised sign-act, a public gesture with fixed meaning, not a way of tidying up or calming down.

How it drifted

The phrase has become an English idiom for moving on from a disappointment, which removes its biblical meaning of public testimony.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX Neh 5:13 has Nehemiah shake out (ἐξετίναξα) the fold of his garment: 'so may God shake out every man who does not keep this promise.' LXX Isa 52:2 tells Jerusalem to shake off its dust (ἐκτίναξαι τὸν χοῦν) and rise. In Acts 13:51 Paul and Barnabas shake the dust off their feet against Pisidian Antioch, and in Acts 18:6 Paul shakes out his garments and says, 'Your blood be on your own heads; I am innocent.'

From the study of Acts 13:51

Range of meaning

To shake something out or off forcefully: shaking out a cloak or a fold of a garment, shaking dust off. In the middle voice, to shake something off oneself (BDAG). The word is about a physical motion, and the setting decides what the motion means.

Against the English

'Shook off' is accurate. The trouble is that modern English uses 'shake it off' to mean getting over something emotionally, which pulls the reader toward an inner, private meaning. The Greek describes a public act that people were meant to see.

How it drifted

The modern idiom 'shake it off' / 'shake the dust off and move on' (to recover from a setback) shapes how the phrase is heard today. It is not what the act signified.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Old Testament (LXX) uses the verb for Nehemiah's sign-act: 'I shook out my lap and said, So may God shake out every man... who does not keep this word' (Neh 5:13, LXX 2 Esdras 15:13). That was a public, solemn gesture with a threat attached. In the NT: Mark 6:11 and Matt 10:14 (shaking off dust, Jesus' instruction), and Acts 18:6, where Paul 'shook out his garments' at the Corinthian synagogue and said, 'Your blood be on your own heads; I am innocent.'

From the study of Acts 18:6

Range of meaning

To shake out or shake off. Used of shaking dust off the feet (Mark 6:11; Acts 13:51) and, here only in the NT, of shaking out one's clothes.

Against the English

'Shook out his garments' (BSB, ESV, NASB) is literal. KJV 'shook his raiment' drops the 'out'. NIV adds 'in protest', which reads the gesture for you. That is defensible, but the protest is only part of what it meant.

Used elsewhere in the period

Neh 5:13 is the closest parallel. Nehemiah 'shook out the fold of my garment' (LXX: τὴν ἀναβολήν μου ἐξετίναξα) and said, 'So may God shake out every man… who does not keep this promise.' There the gesture is a sign of judgment on covenant-breakers. Jesus told his messengers to shake the dust off their feet against towns that rejected them (Luke 9:5; 10:11), and Paul and Barnabas did so in Acts 13:51. Later Jewish custom, recorded in rabbinic writings, of shaking off Gentile dust on returning to the land is sometimes cited as background for the foot gesture.