Dress
Dress in Scripture begins as a covering for shame and ends as a sign of glory. Between those two poles, the Bible follows clothing through every register of life: the patriarch's coat of many colors, the priest's woven ephod, the king's purple, the prophet's hairy mantle, the mourner's rent robe, the bride's jewels, and the saints' white garments around the throne. Garments mark identity and station, they pass between people as gifts and pledges, they are torn in grief and folded for inheritance, and they steadily accumulate figurative weight until righteousness itself becomes something one wears.
The First Garments
After the eyes of the man and the woman were opened in the garden, "they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons" (Ge 3:7). This is dress's first appearance in Scripture, and it is a self-made covering for newly recognized shame. The covering does not stand. "And [the Speech of] Yahweh God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them" (Ge 3:21). The coats of skins are the first divine act of clothing: skin in place of fig-leaf, and the clothing itself given by God rather than fashioned by the wearer. From this point forward, dress in the Bible carries that double valence — what humans put on themselves, and what is put on them.
Coats, Mantles, and Ordinary Wear
The patriarchal narratives are full of personal garments that drive the plot. Rebekah takes "the goodly garments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son" (Ge 27:15), and a stolen blessing turns on borrowed clothes. Israel "loved Joseph more than all his sons … and he made him a coat of many colors" (Ge 37:3). When Joseph is taken for dead, his father "rent his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days" (Ge 37:34). Years later, when the brothers are restored, "to all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred [shekels of] silver, and five changes of raiment" (Ge 45:22). Pharaoh likewise "took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck" (Ge 41:42).
The ordinary wardrobe of Israel is glimpsed across the books. There is the coat ("fasten on sandals and don't put on two coats," Mr 6:9), the cloak ("from him who takes away your cloak don't withhold your coat also," Lu 6:29; "the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, bring when you come, and the books, especially the parchments," 2Ti 4:13), the belt or girdle, the mantle, the turban or head-tire, the veil, and sandals. Hannah "made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year" for Samuel (1Sa 2:19) — a domestic note on how a child grew up in a serving garment renewed each year. The poet of Proverbs says of the worthy woman: "She makes linen garments and sells them, And delivers belts to the merchant" (Pr 31:24).
Priestly Vestments
Among the clothing described in the Bible, the garments of the priesthood receive the most detailed treatment. They are a deliberate work, made "for glory and for beauty": "And you will make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty" (Ex 28:2). The full inventory is given in summary: "And these are the garments which they will make: a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a coat of checker work, a turban, and a belt: and they will make holy garments for Aaron your brother, and his sons, that he may serve me in the priest's office" (Ex 28:4).
The materials are royal: "And of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, they made finely wrought garments, for ministering in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron; as Yahweh commanded Moses" (Ex 39:1). The ephod is "of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen" (Ex 39:2), the robe of the ephod is "woven work, all of blue" (Ex 39:22), the head-gear is "the turban of fine linen, and the goodly head-tires of fine linen, and the linen breeches of fine twined linen" (Ex 39:28). The same blue, purple, and scarlet are woven into the veil that screens the Most Holy Place: "And you will make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: with cherubim the work of the skillful workman it will be made" (Ex 26:31; cf. Ex 36:35; 2Ch 3:14). Sirach summarizes the high priestly array: "[With] the holy garments of gold and violet, And purple, the work of the designer; And the breastplate of judgement, and the ephod and belt" (Sir 45:10).
The investiture of Aaron is itself a liturgical act. Moses "put on him the coat, and girded him with the belt, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him, and he girded him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and bound it to him with it" (Le 8:7). On Aaron's head Moses "set the turban …; and on the turban, in front, he set the golden plate, the holy crown" (Le 8:9). The clothing carries the office: "And the holy garments of Aaron will be for his sons after him, to be anointed in them, and to be consecrated in them" (Ex 29:29). And when the office passes, the garments pass: "and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son: and Aaron will be gathered [to his people], and will die there" (Nu 20:26).
Ezekiel's restored priesthood keeps the same logic: "when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they will be clothed with linen garments; and no wool will come upon them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and inside" (Eze 44:17). "They will have linen tires on their heads, and will have linen breeches on their loins; they will not gird themselves with [anything that causes] sweat" (Eze 44:18).
The ephod, the central priestly garment, has a wider biblical reach. Samuel "ministered before Yahweh, being a lad, girded with a linen ephod" (1Sa 2:18), and David "danced before Yahweh with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod" (2Sa 6:14). David repeatedly calls for the ephod for inquiry: "And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, I pray you, bring the ephod here to me. And Abiathar brought the ephod there to David" (1Sa 30:7; cf. 1Sa 23:9). But the ephod can be made into an idol: Gideon "made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went whoring after it there; and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house" (Jg 8:27); Micah likewise "made an ephod, and talismans, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest" (Jg 17:5; cf. Jg 18:14). When Israel goes into exile, Hosea announces the silencing of all of these: "the sons of Israel will remain many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without pillar, and without ephod or talismans" (Ho 3:4).
Royal Apparel and Crowns
Royal dress is its own category. Saul's daughters mourn the king who "clothed you⁺ in scarlet delicately, Who put ornaments of gold on your⁺ apparel" (2Sa 1:24). Esther turns on robes again and again: Vashti is summoned "with the royal crown, to show the peoples and the princes her beauty" (Es 1:11); Haman drafts the formula "let royal apparel be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a royal crown is set" (Es 6:8); Mordecai eventually "went forth from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan shouted and was glad" (Es 8:15).
In Babylon, dress signifies promotion and demotion. Belshazzar offers, to whoever can read the writing on the wall, that "he will be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and will be the third ruler in the kingdom" (Da 5:7), and Daniel duly is "clothed with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck" (Da 5:29). When the three friends are bound for the furnace, the narrator names every layer: "Then these [prominent] men were bound in their hosen, their tunics, and their mantles, and their [other] garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace" (Da 3:21).
In 1 Maccabees the diadem appears repeatedly as a contested political object. After Alexander, "they all put crowns upon themselves after his death, and their sons after them, many years; and evils were multiplied in the earth" (1Ma 1:9). The crown of Asia passes from claimant to claimant: "Ptolemy entered into Antioch, and set two crowns on his head, that of Egypt, and that of Asia" (1Ma 11:13); Tryphon's young king "put on the diadem" (1Ma 11:54); Tryphon himself reigns in his place "and put on the crown of Asia: and brought great evils on the land" (1Ma 13:32). In the same book the Jewish high priesthood is openly absorbed into royal dress: "and that you be called the king's friend (and he sent him a purple robe, and a crown of gold)" (1Ma 10:20); "And he commanded that Jonathan's garments should be taken off, and that he should be clothed with purple: and they did so" (1Ma 10:62). The temple itself is given the same vocabulary: "they adorned the front of the temple with crowns of gold, and settings, and they renewed the gates" (1Ma 4:57).
The crown moves through Israel's earlier kingship as well. After Saul falls, "I took the crown that was on his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord" (2Sa 1:10); David takes "the crown of Milcom from off his head; and its weight was a talent of gold, and [in it were] precious stones; and it was set on David's head" (2Sa 12:30). At the coronation of Joash, "they brought out the king's son, and put the crown on him" (2Ki 11:12). The Psalter spiritualizes the same image: "you have made him but a little lower than God, And crown him with glory and majesty" (Ps 8:5); "you set a crown of fine gold on his head" (Ps 21:3); "Who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies" (Ps 103:4). Proverbs widens the figure further: a wise woman "is the crown of her husband" (Pr 12:4); "the gray head is a crown of glory" (Pr 16:31); "sons of sons are the crown of old men" (Pr 17:6); "she will give to your head a chaplet of grace; A crown of beauty she will deliver to you" (Pr 4:9). Sirach picks up the same line: "the crown of wisdom is the fear of Yahweh, Blossoming with peace and improving health" (Sir 1:18; cf. Sir 1:11; Sir 6:30-31; Sir 40:4).
The Belt and the Mantle
The girdle or belt anchors several of these categories together. It is part of the priestly array: "you will make for them belts" (Ex 28:40; cf. Ex 28:4; Le 8:7). It is also the prophet's costume — the men who answer Ahaziah describe Elijah: "He was a hairy man, and girded with a loincloth of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite" (2Ki 1:8). Jeremiah is told to buy a linen loincloth as a sign-act (Je 13:1), and the everyday craftswoman "delivers belts to the merchant" (Pr 31:24). Isaiah takes the belt into the realm of metaphor: of the messianic shoot, "righteousness will be the loincloth of his waist, and faithfulness the loincloth of his loins" (Is 11:5); of the warrior of Yahweh, "neither will the loincloth of their loins be loosed, nor the strap of their sandals be broken" (Is 5:27); of the new steward Eliakim, "I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt, and I will commit your government into his hand" (Is 22:21). Paul completes the line: "Stand therefore, having girded your⁺ loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness" (Ep 6:14). The Apocalypse renders Christ in the same frame: "one like a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girded about at the breasts with a golden belt" (Re 1:13), and the seven angels of plague are "girded about their breasts with golden belts" (Re 15:6).
The mantle functions almost as a portable office. Jonathan strips off his and gives it to David, "and his apparel, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his belt" (1Sa 18:4). Elijah "wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave" (1Ki 19:13); he uses the same mantle to part the Jordan (2Ki 2:8); when he is taken up, Elisha "took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of the Jordan" (2Ki 2:13). Boaz has Ruth bring her mantle to receive the measured grain (Ru 3:15). On the cross, the soldiers "took his garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part; and also the coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout" (Jn 19:23), and "they part my garments among them, And on my vesture they cast lots" (Ps 22:18).
The Veil
Covering the face has its own settled vocabulary. Rebekah, riding to meet Isaac, "took her veil, and covered herself" (Ge 24:65); Tamar "put off from her the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate" (Ge 38:14); Isaiah's catalogue of women's attire ends with "the hand-mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the veils" (Is 3:23). Moses uses a veil after speaking with Yahweh: "when Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face" (Ex 34:33), and Paul reads that act figuratively: "Moses, [who] put a veil on his face, that the sons of Israel should not look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away" (2Co 3:13). The same word is used of the curtain that screens the Most Holy Place (Ex 26:31; Ex 36:35; 2Ch 3:14), and Hebrews carries that curtain over to the body of Christ: "we have as an anchor of the soul; both sure and steadfast; and entering into that which is inside the veil" (He 6:19); "by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (He 10:20).
Sackcloth, Rending, and Mourning
Garments speak grief by being torn. When Joseph appears to die, "Jacob rent his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days" (Ge 37:34). Job, on the day he loses everything, "arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped" (Job 1:20). Ezra responds to news of intermarriage: "when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded" (Ezr 9:3). Israel's communal mourning is registered the same way at Sinai: "when the people heard this evil news, they mourned: and no man put on himself his ornaments" (Ex 33:4). Isaiah promises that the daughters of Zion's verdict will be the same pattern in reverse: "instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; branding instead of beauty" (Is 3:16-24).
Women's Attire and Ornament
Several texts catalogue the apparel and jewelry of Israel's women in detail. Rebekah is given "a golden ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold" (Ge 24:22); afterwards "the slave brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah" (Ge 24:53). The free-will offering for the tabernacle is itself an inventory of women's adornment: "the men as well as the women, as many as were willing-hearted, brought brooches, and earrings, and signet-rings, and armlets, all jewels of gold; even every man who offered an offering of gold to Yahweh" (Ex 35:22; cf. Ex 3:22). The soldiers returning from Midian bring "jewels of gold, ankle-chains, and bracelets, signet-rings, earrings, and armlets, to make atonement for our souls before Yahweh" (Nu 31:50). The Song calls the bride beautiful with "plaits [of hair], Your neck with strings of jewels" (Ss 1:10).
The most extended description is in Isaiah 3, where the same vocabulary is read as judgment. "In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, and the cauls, and the crescents" (Is 3:18); "the rings, and the nose-jewels" (Is 3:21); "the festival robes, and the mantles, and the shawls, and the satchels" (Is 3:22); "the hand-mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the veils" (Is 3:23). Tamar is described as wearing "a garment of diverse colors … for with such robes were the king's daughters who were virgins appareled" (2Sa 13:18). The royal psalm sings of the bride: "The king's daughter inside [the palace] is all glorious: Her clothing is inwrought with gold" (Ps 45:13).
The New Testament holds the same vocabulary but turns the moral edge inward. "In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment" (1Ti 2:9). Peter follows the same line and pivots to the heart: "Whose [adorning] let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel; but [let it be] the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible [apparel] of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (1Pe 3:3-4). The argument is not against ornament as such — Scripture's good wedding scenes are full of it — but against treating the outside as the substance of beauty.
Excess, Hoarding, and Pretense
Wisdom literature flags the temptation to overstock the wardrobe. Of the wicked, Job says: "Though he heaps up silver as the dust, And prepares raiment as the clay" (Job 27:16). The pretense of clothing receives the harshest names in the New Testament. The scribes "desire to walk in long robes, and [to have] salutations in the marketplaces" (Mr 12:38). Paul disclaims using preaching as "a cloak of greed" (1Th 2:5), and Peter warns the freed Christian against using "your⁺ freedom for a cloak of wickedness" (1Pe 2:16). James pictures partiality at the very door of the assembly: "you⁺ have regard to him who wears the fine clothing, and say, You sit here in a good place; and you⁺ say to the poor man, You stand, or sit there under my footstool" (Jas 2:3). The rich man of Lu 16:19 "was clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day" — and the verse is allowed to do all of its own work.
Foreign Apparel and the Cult
Dress can also locate one's allegiance. When Jehu purges Baal-worship, the wardrobe is the trap: "And he said to him who was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshipers of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments. And Jehu went … into the house of Baal; and he said to the worshipers of Baal, Search and look, in case there are here with you⁺ any of the slaves of Yahweh, but only the worshipers of Baal themselves [should be here]" (2Ki 10:22-23). Zephaniah aims directly at the same point: "in the day of Yahweh's sacrifice … I will punish the princes, and the king's sons, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel" (Zep 1:8). Hosea places Israel's idolatry in the same vocabulary: "she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says Yahweh" (Ho 2:13). Jeremiah turns to the city: "Though you dress yourself with scarlet, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain you make yourself fair; [your] lovers despise you, they seek your soul" (Je 4:30).
Law and Propriety
Alongside narrative, the Torah lays down rules of dress. "A woman will not wear that which pertains to a man, neither will a man put on a woman's garment; for whoever does these things is disgusting to Yahweh your God" (De 22:5). "You will not wear a mingled stuff, wool and linen together" (De 22:11). "You will make yourself fringes on the four borders of your vesture, with which you cover yourself" (De 22:12). The garment of the poor is protected by statute: "If you at all take your fellow man's garment for a pledge, you will restore it to him before the sun goes down" (Ex 22:26).
Trade in cloth is itself part of the picture. Tyre's traffickers dealt "in choice wares, in wrappings of blue and embroidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar, these were your merchandise" (Eze 27:24). Esther's Mordecai and Daniel's Belshazzar both extend the same palette of blue, purple, and white linen.
The Robe Given by Another
A second movement runs in parallel to the first. Garments in Scripture are given as well as worn, and being clothed by another is itself a category. Pharaoh "arrayed [Joseph] in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck" (Ge 41:42). Jonathan "stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to David, and his apparel, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his belt" (1Sa 18:4). Belshazzar clothes Daniel; the king of Persia clothes Mordecai; the father of the prodigal commands his slaves: "Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet" (Lu 15:22).
The prophets carry that gesture into the heavenly courtroom. Joshua the high priest is "clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel" (Zec 3:3); the angel commands, "Take the filthy garments from off him. And to him he said, Look, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel" (Zec 3:4). Job, looking back on his integrity, can say: "I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: My justice was as a robe and a diadem" (Job 29:14). The Psalmist hears of priestly investiture in the same key: "Her priests also I will clothe with salvation; And her saints will shout aloud for joy" (Ps 132:16). And Isaiah brings the figure to its climax: "I will greatly rejoice in [the Speech of] Yahweh, my soul will be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels" (Is 61:10). Zion is told to put on her own beauty by command: "Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city" (Is 52:1).
The Garment of Sin and the Garment of Righteousness
Against this stands a corresponding figurative line: clothing as iniquity. "Pride is as a chain about their neck; Violence covers them as a garment" (Ps 73:6). The wicked man "clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment, And it came into his inward parts like water, And like oil into his bones" (Ps 109:18). Jude warns the church to act in love but "hating even the garment spotted by the flesh" (Jud 1:23). Isaiah offers the most sweeping form of the figure: "we have all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and all of us fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away" (Is 64:6).
The figure can also describe the absence of clothing as exposure. Paul writes that "if so be that being unclothed we will not be found naked" (2Co 5:3). The Laodicean church is told that for all its self-rated wealth it does "not know that you are the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked" (Re 3:17), and is counselled "to buy of me … white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and [that] the shame of your nakedness not be made manifest" (Re 3:18). The voice from the throne adds: "Look, I come as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see him shamefully exposed" (Re 16:15).
White Garments
The closing books of the Bible push the vocabulary of dress toward white. Daniel sees that in the last days "many will purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined" (Da 12:10). The Apocalypse fills out the picture. The faithful in Sardis "did not defile their garments: and they will walk with me in white; for they are worthy" (Re 3:4). "He who overcomes will thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no way blot his name out of the Book of Life" (Re 3:5). Around the throne sit "four and twenty elders … arrayed in white garments; and on their heads crowns of gold" (Re 4:4). The countless multitude is "arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands" (Re 7:9). The bride is the consummation of every earlier figure: "And it was given to her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright [and] pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints" (Re 19:8). The new Jerusalem is described in the same vocabulary as a finished bride's gown: "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband" (Re 21:2).
The rider on the white horse is dressed in a garment of his own: "[he is] arrayed in a garment dipped in blood, and his name is called The Speech of God" (Re 19:13). Scripture's first garment was a covering against shame. Its last is a vesture of glory, given by another, identifying the wearer with the One who clothed Adam in skins.