Romans 10:15 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

How shall they preach, except they be sent?— St. Paul is careful every where to preserve the esteem of his brethren the Jews. May not therefore this, with the two foregoing verses, be understood as an apology to them for professing himself an Apostle of the Gentiles, as he does by the tenor of this epistle, and in the next chapter expressly? Romans 10:13. In this chapter (Romans 10:12.) he had shewn, that both Jews and Greeks, or Gentiles, were to be saved by receiving the Gospel of Christ; and if so, it was necessary that somebody should be sent to teach it to them; and therefore the Jews had no reason to be offended with any one sent on that employment. Feet are variously used in Scripture, and sometimes have respect to things internal and spiritual: for as the life of man and the practice of piety are compared to walking, Psalms 1:1.; so his feet may signify the principles upon which he acts, and the disposition of his mind, as Ecclesiastes 5:1. Keep thy foot, when thou goest to the house of God. Agreeably to this, the feet of the messengers in Isaiah, and of the apostles in thisverse, may signify the validity of their mission, the authority upon which they acted, and any character or qualifications with which they were invested. Bos observes that, in Sophocles, the hands and feet of those who came upon a kind design are represented as beautiful to such as receive benefit by their arrival. See Locke, and Isaiah 52:7.