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FEET.—The word occurs frequently in the Gospels. Figuratively it has a wide range of meaning. It is employed in phrases which express worthlessness (‘to be trodden under foot,’ Mat_5:13), supplication (‘fell at his feet,’ Mar_5:22; Mar_7:25), great honour or reverence (Luk_7:38-46 the woman who kissed Jesus’ feet; Joh_11:2 Mary; Mat_28:9 ‘held him by the feet’), ignorant or blasphemous contempt (Mat_Mat_7:6 ‘trample under foot’), righteous condemnation or rejection (Mat_10:14 ‘shake dust off feet’), salvation through sacrifice (Mat_18:8 || Mar_9:45 cutting off hand or foot), discipleship (Luk_8:35 cured demoniac sitting at Jesus’ feet; Luk_10:39 Mary), helplessness (Mat_22:13 ‘bind hand and foot’), complete triumph (Mat_22:44, Mar_12:36 || Luk_20:43 enemies of Messianic King put under His feet), absolute safety (Mat_4:6 || Luk_4:11 ‘lest thou dash thy foot against a stone’), subjection (Mat_5:35 earth the footstool of God’s feet). In washing the feet of the disciples Jesus inculcates lessons of humility, mutual service, and the need of daily cleansing from sin (Joh_13:5-14). See artt. Bason, Foot.
Of the feet of Jesus Himself mention is made in the NT very frequently. Before His feet suppliants fell down (Mar_5:22; Mar_7:25, Luk_8:41), and also a Samaritan who returned to give thanks (Luk_17:16). At His feet sufferers were laid to be healed (Mat_13:30). Neglectful of the courtesies of a host, Simon the Pharisee gave Him no water to refresh His feet (Luk_7:44); but a sinful woman on the same occasion wet His feet with her tears, wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed them, and anointed them with ointment (Luk_7:38; Luk_7:44 ff.); and Mary of Bethany showed her great love and gratitude in a similar fashion, when she lavished the contents of her alabaster cruse of precious spikenard (Joh_11:2; Joh_12:3; cf. Mat_26:7, Mar_14:3) upon the feet which had brought the Lord from beyond Jordan (Joh_10:40; Joh_11:7) to speak the life-giving word at her brother’s grave (Joh_11:43 f.). At Jesus’ feet the restored demoniac sat (Luk_8:35), like Mary afterwards when she ‘heard his word’ (Luk_10:39). The two angels who guarded the sepulchre were seen sitting ‘the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain’ (Joh_20:12). It was His feet that the two Marys clung to when they first met Jesus on the Resurrection morning. [Though love prompted them to lay hold of Him, did reverence forbid them to touch more than His feet?]. When Jesus in the upper room showed His hands and His feet to His disciples (Luk_24:39 f.), it was doubtless to prove to them that He who now stood before them was the same Jesus who by hands and feet had been nailed to the cross (cf. Joh_20:20; Joh_20:25; Joh_20:27). St. Paul says of the ascended Christ that all things are put under His feet (Eph_1:22), and that beneath His feet death itself shall be destroyed (1Co_15:25 ff.). And in the Book of Revelation, when the heavenly Jesus appears to the seer of Patmos, the place of His feet has been made glorious (cf. Isa_60:13). Those feet which were dust-stained in the house of Simon the Pharisee, and weary by the well of Sychar (Joh_4:6), and pierced with nails on the cross of Calvary, are now ‘like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace’ (Rev_1:15; cf. Rev_2:18).
It has been questioned whether the feet of Jesus were nailed to the cross. The doubt is based on the facts that in the Fourth Gospel Jesus mentions only His hands and side (Joh_20:20), and that sometimes in crucifixion the feet were simply tied to the cross. The nailing of the feet of Jesus would not have been disputed were it not part of an argument to prove that He did not really die on the cross. ‘That the feet were usually nailed (in crucifixion), and that the case of Jesus was no exception to the general rule, may be regarded as beyond doubt’ (Meyer on Mat_27:35). There is a difference of opinion as to whether the feet of Jesus were nailed to the cross separately, with two nails, or the one over the other with the same nail. In early art the feet are more frequently represented as separately nailed, but in later art as nailed together, the one over the other. Tradition favours the opinion that the feet were nailed separately. See art. Crucifixion.
Literature.—Meyer’s Com. on St. Matthew; Ellicott, Historical Lectures on the Life of Our Lord, p. 353; Andrews, Bible Student’s Life of Our Lord2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , p. 462 f.
John Reid.