What Shoes Symbolise in the Bible: Reverence, Contracts and Freedom

Sandals do more work in the Bible than almost any other everyday object. They seal contracts, mark holy ground, signal freedom and settle disputes over inheritance. Once we know what a shoe meant, several familiar passages read differently.

The most famous of these moments comes at the burning bush:

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)

Joshua is given the same order outside Jericho, almost word for word, by the commander of the Lord’s army (Joshua 5:15).

Sandals carried the dust and filth of the road, so to take them off was to acknowledge that this ground was not like other ground. By most accounts the priests served barefoot in the sanctuary for the same reason.

And because bare feet cannot run, taking off our shoes also says something easy to miss: that we are not leaving.

In Israel a sandal could even make a transfer of property final, as the book of Ruth explains:

Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalising transactions in Israel. (Ruth 4:7)

The narrator has to stop and explain it, which tells us the custom was already archaic by the time Ruth was written down. Handing over a sandal was as good as a signature: it passed on the right to walk on a piece of land.

The sandal has a darker use in the law of levirate marriage. When a man refuses to raise up offspring for his dead brother, he is brought before the elders, and his brother’s widow shall go up to him, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.” (Deuteronomy 25:9)

From then on his household is known as “the family of the unsandalled,” and he is punished with a shoe and a name.

Slaves and captives went barefoot, while free people did not, and that lies behind two scenes we might otherwise find merely touching.

When the prodigal comes home, the father’s instructions are precise: Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. (Luke 15:22)

The son had come asking to be made a hired servant, and the sandals are his father’s answer to that request, given without a word of discussion.

And when John the Baptist is asked who he is, he says: He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. (John 1:27)

Untying a master’s sandals was held to be too low a task to require even of a Hebrew slave. John picks that one task at the very bottom and says he is not fit for it.

That is what makes John 13 harder to take in, not sweeter. There Jesus takes off his outer clothing, wraps a towel around himself and washes their feet.

When the disciples are sent out, the instructions about footwear are exact: Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. (Mark 6:9)

They were to take what they needed for walking, and nothing that would only be wanted if the journey went badly.

Israel’s first marching orders were given for a meal eaten standing up: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand (Exodus 12:11). They were dressed to leave before there was anywhere to go.

Moses reminds them later that through forty years in the desert your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet (Deuteronomy 29:5).

Paul’s list of armour gives the feet a line of their own, and it is the strangest item on it:

and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15)

A Roman soldier’s caligae were studded for grip, made less for marching than for standing without slipping while he was being pushed.

Yet the word Paul chooses is readiness, and what he shoes the feet with is peace, which nobody putting together a suit of armour would have picked.

What do shoes symbolise in the Bible?

They stand for several things: reverence when they are removed (Exodus 3:5), legal transfer when they are handed over (Ruth 4:7), freedom and sonship when they are given (Luke 15:22), and readiness when they are worn (Ephesians 6:15).

Why did Moses have to take off his sandals?

Because the ground was holy (Exodus 3:5). Sandals carried the dust of the road, and bare feet also say that a person is not about to leave.

What is the sandal ceremony in Ruth?

It was how a transfer of property was sealed, by handing over a sandal (Ruth 4:7). The narrator has to explain it, which tells us the custom was already old.

Why did John the Baptist mention sandal straps?

Untying a master’s sandals was work too low to require even of a Hebrew slave, so John names that lowest task and says he is not worthy of it (John 1:27).

What does Ephesians 6:15 mean?

A soldier’s studded boots gave him grip for standing firm, and Paul shoes the feet with readiness and with peace, which is hardly the obvious choice for armour.