The Art of the Shoe. Marie-Josèphe Bossan
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and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders” (Samuel, 17:5–6).
The sandal is part of the war imagery evoked in David’s exhortations to Solomon, when the king reminds his son that his servant Joab had murdered two of Israel’s army commanders: “And he shed the blood of war in peacetime, and put the blood of war on his belt that was around his waist, and on his sandals that were on his feet” (Kings, 2:5). And the messianic prophet Isaiah evokes the sandal when speaking of a military threat from a distant nation: “No one will be weary or stumble among them, No one will slumber or sleep; Nor will the belt on their loins be loosed, Nor the strap of their sandals be broken; Whose arrows are sharp, And all their bows bent” (Isaiah, 5:27–28). Shoes and the lack thereof also figure prominently in Isaiah’s prophesy of Egypt’s defeat against Assyria, its ancient rival for domination over the Near East: “In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, ‘Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.’ And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. Then the Lord said, ‘Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory’” (Isaiah, 20:1–5).
To cast or set down ones shoe in a place symbolized occupancy. In an image reminiscent of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen trampling his enemies underfoot, Psalms 60 and 108 celebrate preparations for a military expedition against Edam: “Moab is My wash pot; Over Edom I will cast My shoe; Philistia, shout in triumph because of Me.” “Through God we will do valiantly, For it is He who shall tread down our enemies” (Psalm, 60:8; 12; Psalm, 108:9:13). In the kingdom of Israel, to tag a field with ones foot or to leave ones sandal there symbolized legal ownership. The fundamental text on this tradition is in the Book of Ruth: “Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging, to confirm anything: one man took off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was a confirmation in Israel. Therefore the close relative said to Boaz, ‘Buy it for yourself.’ So he took off his sandal. And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, ‘You are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day’” (Ruth, 4:7–10). The sandal’s legal symbolism is also evident in the Hebrew law requiring a man to marry his brother’s widow if the brother left no male heir. Deuteronomy provides an explicit commentary: “But if the man does not want to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother.’ Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. But if he stands firm and says, ‘I do not want to take her,’ Then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s house.’
And his name shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal removed’” (Deuteronomy, 25:7–10). To walk barefoot also symbolized mourning. In one ritual, the deceased’s relatives went bareheaded and barefoot with their faces partially covered by a type of scarf and ate gifts of bread from their neighbors. Ezekiel mentions the practice in reference to the mourning of the prophet: “Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears. Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Keep your turban fastened and your sandals on your feet; do not cover the lower part of your face or eat the customary food of mourners” (Ezekiel, 24:16–17).
In the 8th century BC Amos evoked the legal rights of the poor and the destitute and railed against the fairness of Israel’s courts, corrupted by money. For example, Judges of Israel would issue judgments on insufficient grounds in exchange for a modest gift, a practice the prophet denounced: “I will not turn away its punishment, Because they sell the righteous for silver, And the poor for a pair of sandals” (Amos, 2:6–8).
The sandal symbolizes seduction in the Book of Judith, which recounts the occupation of a small Palestinian village called Bethulia by the armies of the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar: “I will cover all the land with the feet of my soldiers, to whom I will deliver them as spoils.” (Judith, 2:7)
So Judith, who was a pious widow, got ready to leave town and give herself up to the enemy camp: “She chose sandals for her feet, and put on her anklets, bracelets, rings, earrings, and all her other jewelry. Thus she made herself very beautiful, to captivate the eyes of all the men who should see her.” (Judith, 10:4) With her beauty the young woman aroused the passion of Holphernes, the army’s leader, eventually taking advantage of his stupor after a banquet to cut off his head. In this way she diverted the attention of his armed forces, which included 120,000 infantrymen and 120,000 horsemen. In the hymn of thanksgiving sung by this biblical Joan of Arc, the victorious sandal counts among the accessories of feminine seduction: “Her sandals caught his eyes, and her beauty captivated his mind. The sword cut through his neck” (Judith, 16:9 New American Bible).
The Bible is mostly reticent concerning the aesthetics of the shoe. Ezekiel alludes to it discretely in the guilty loves of Jerusalem: “I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments” (Ezekiel, 16:10). And if the word boot only appears once in Isaiah (“Every warrior’s boot used in battle” (The Birth of the Prince of Peace, Isaiah, 9:5, New International Version), the sandal is primarily recognized as a symbol. This symbolism endures in the Muslim ritual of removing shoes before entering a mosque, a ritual that continues in the Muslim world day.
10. Domenico Feti. Moses before the Burning Bush. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
11. Sandals found in the fortress of Massada.
12. François Boucher, Saint Peter Trying to Walk on Water, 1766. Saint-Louis Cathedral, Versailles.
The Shoe in the New Testament: The Sandals of Jesus
The writings of the apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John confirm the prediction John the Baptist made while baptizing people with water in Bethania, beyond the River Jordan: each evoke Jesus’ shoes through the voice of the prophet: “…but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry” (Matthew, 3:11). “And he preached, saying, ‘There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose” (Mark, 1:7).
“I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose” (Luke, 3:16).
“…but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose” (John, 26–27).
This statement (repeated four times) refers to sandals that were attached to the foot with a strap. These were typical during the Roman occupation of Palestine and were worn by Jesus’ contemporaries. The New Testament mentions them on numerous occasions. If we look at the story of Mathew and Luke in the calling of the seventy-two disciples, Jesus advises them to walk barefoot: “Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs… (Matthew, 10:9–10) And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet” (Matthew, 10:14) “…behold, I send you out