Have you ever wondered “what clothing people in the New Testament wear”? A quick glance through a Bible story book shows people dressed in long robes, perhaps with turbans and sleeved coats (not unlike an open bathrobe). But is this depiction really what people in the 1st Century AD/CE would have worn?
What clothing was worn by men and women of the Bible?
This is the question I started chasing in December of 2020 when I painted my first Nativity scene. I pulled all my Bible dictionaries and started googling “New Testament garments,” “what clothing did people in the New Testament wear,” “What clothes did Jesus wear?” and any other query I could think of.
After analyzing that research and comparing it with words for clothing used in the New Testament, I painted my first Nativity set. Yet, as the year went on, and I painted other sets, I started noticing that the Bible dictionaries and articles, I was using for my research, didn’t take archeological periods into consideration, at all.
Most Bible dictionaries and online articles talked about what people wore in the Bible times as though the people wore the same clothing from Abraham (aprox. 2000 BC/BCE) to Paul (30-60 CE/AD). But, this span of time covers several archeological periods and many different nationalities. Daniel in Persia would most definitely NOT have been wearing the same type of clothing as Peter in Galilee or David in iron-age Judah.
Most Bible illustrations I found relied on renaissance art or 19th century middle-eastern Bedouin clothing, rather than archeological or cultural research. Therefore, most Bible illustrations have a very different look and feel from picture books describing ancient cultures. Almost as though the Bible is a made-up world and the ancient Egyptians were real. But in fact, the people of the Bible would have worn clothing very similar to their ancient neighbors.
I realized that in order to answer the question “What clothing did people in the New Testament wear?” and to paint historically accurate Peg dolls, I would need to focus on archeological periods and various cultural styles. If I was to begin to grasp the historical setting, I would need to consider archeological artifacts and how ancient cultures portrayed themselves and each other. I could not be content with simply following tradition or making-up I thought people of the Bible might possibly wear.**
**(Now, there are periods of scripture, like Adam & Eve and Noah, where we have very little or no archeological evidence. If we are to image these time periods, our illustrations will be pure-conjecture based off what we know from other ancient cultures. But allowing conjecture to be our basis for illustrations in other time periods where we DO have archeological and cultural evidence is not acceptable.)
So, what clothing DID people in the new testament wear?
The New Testament occurred during the early Roman archeological period (37 BCE – 37 CE). There is no evidence of different dress for the Jewish people in the 1st century AD/CE. Jewish people of this time dressed very similarly to their Greek and Roman counterparts (with a little Parthenian mixed in). [Shlezinger-Katsman]
Jewish people were distinguished by the fabric, not style, of their clothes.
The primary difference in clothing between Jewish and gentile people was not the cut or style of their clothing, but the fabric. Jewish men and women did not wear garments of mixed fabrics (i.e. wool and linen combined). They typically would have worn unmixed woolen garments, though the wealthy could have afforded to wear unmixed linen garments. [Shlezinger-Katsman, 365]
Roman period textile fragments have been found dyed in a rainbow of colors (blues, browns, greens, teals, oranges, peaches, pinks, reds, white, yellows) as well as a plethora of undyed fragments highlighting the various colors of sheep. [Israeli Antiquities Authority search]
Everybody wore a tunic .
Everyone wore a tunic (Greek: chiton; Latin: tunica). [Edwards, 236] The tunic was a simple garment composed of two rectangular pieces of cloth sewn together at the shoulders and sides to make a loose robe, leaving openings for the head and arms. [Edwards, 236; Josephus, 3§161] They came in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. And multiple tunics could be worn at once (cf. Matt 10:9-10; Mk 6:9; Luke 9:3).
Many tunics were decorated with bands of color running from the top to the bottom on either side of the neck. At one point, the striped bands on Roman tunics indicated social status and wealth, but in Jewish fashion these bands seem to have been used purely for decorative purposes. [Shlezinger-Katsman, 267; Edwards: 236; Taylor]
Tunics for Women and Children
Men and women wore the same basic tunic, though often a man’s tunic was knee length and a woman’s would come to her ankle. A woman would often tie a strip of fabric around her tunic at her waist or directly under her bosom. Children wore smaller versions of their parents’ clothing as found in the Cave of Letters. [Shlezinger-Katsman, 268; Edwards: 236]
Women would generally wear brighter and darker colors than men, who would typically be dressed in light or undyed fabrics. [Shlezinger-Katsman: 369; Edwards 236; see Note 1]
ARCHEOLOGY:
Tunic fragments have been found in Israel at Mezad Rahel, Masada, Nahal Never (Cave of Letters), Moa. These specific fragments are in shades of brown, pink, red, white, and yellow alongside some natural/un-dyed tunic fragments. This does not mean tunics were only available in these colors. Simply, these are the colors where the textile fragment was large enough and had appropriate identifying marks to determine it was indeed from a tunic.
The common outer-layer was a mantle.
Over their tunic, people would wear a mantle (Greek: himation), unless they were doing physical labor. This was the most common outer garment for all people in the 1st century (cf. Matthew 24:18; Mark 5:28-30; 10:50; 11:7-8).
Historically accurate Peter and John peg dolls by We Who Thirst.
A mantle consisted of a rectangular cloth often woven from wool that would be wrapped around the body. Often men would wrap their mantles with the corner of the garment thrown over their left shoulder and wrapped around the left arm as depicted in the Dura Europos synagogue paintings. [Shlezinger-Katsman, 369]
A man’s mantle would usually be undyed or dyed in light colors and would be decorated with notched bands in reddish brown or blackish-blue. Sometimes the mantle was also decorated with stripes the same color as the notched bands that ran around the portion of the mantle draped around the neck. [Shlezinger-Katsman: 369; Edwards, 236; see Note 2]
The separate Jewish prayer shawls used by Jewish men today evolved from a 3rd Century tradition. And there is debate on whether Jewish men in the Roman period had show fringes (tzitzit) attached to the four corners of their mantles. [Shlezinger-Katsman, 368; Edwards, 236; Marlowe; see Note 3]
Women also wore mantles but may have wrapped them differently
Women’s mantles were the same basic shape and design as mens. But they were dyed darker and more varied colors and were often longer/wider. Whereas men’s mantles were decorated with a notched-bad, women’s mantles were decorated with a notched-gamma-shaped design.
The wrap of a woman’s mantle could be done a couple different ways. Some women would wrap their mantle similarly to a mans, with the garment thrown over their shoulder and gathered around their left arm (as in the Hammat Tiberias mosaic below). [Shlezinger-Katsman: 369; Edwards 236]
Women would also frequently fasten their mantle with a broach near the left shoulder while wrapping the mantle elaborately around their body (as shown in the Dura Europos frescos below). A wealthy woman’s garments could have been made with linen and gold thread.
Historically accurate Joanna, Mary of Clopas, Mary Magdalene, and every-day woman peg dolls by We Who Thirst.
ARCHEOLOGY:
Mantles with notched bands and gammas have been found at Masada, Nahal Never (Cave of Letters, Cave 2 – ca. 90-135 CE), Nahal Qidron (Christmas Cave) in Israel as well as at Dura Europos, Egypt, Palmyra, and in the At-Tar Caves west of ancient Babylon. Mantle fragments discovered in Israel were left undyed in various colors of sheep as well as being dyed in shades of red, green, and orange. Mantles could have been in a great many other colors as well that have not been uncovered or cannot be identified as mantles. [Edwards: 236; see Note 4]
Evidence for how men and women wrapped their mantles comes from the Dura Europos synagogue paintings as well as several synagogue mosaic floors (Hammat Tiberias). These artistic renderings are dated to the 3rd and 4th centuries. There have been few if any usable pictorial renderings of 1st century clothing. Fortunately, fashion in the ancient world changed extremely slowly.
What item of clothing did people in the New Testament wear on their heads?
Men went bareheaded.
In the Roman Period, there is no archaeological evidence that men routinely wore any sort of head-covering. They may have had various hats or helmets depending upon their vocation, but head coverings were not included as part of the everyday garb for males. [Shlezinger-Katsman: 371]
Women often wore head-coverings.
Women, however, had several options for headwear. It may have also been acceptable for women to appear in public unveiled, [Edwards: 236] though most archeological sources show women veiled most of the time when not at home. Literary sources also point to Jewish women wearing headcoverings throughout the diaspora, so likely they did similarly in their homeland. [Edwards: 236; Shlezinger-Katsman: 372; Cohen: 30-31; Philo, 599 – The Special Laws, III 56); see Note 5]
Option 1) Mantle draped over their head
Most women would have used their mantle as a head-covering, draping it over their head when leaving the house as seen in the Dura Europos synagogue frescos (above) or the Hammat Tiberias synagogue mosaic (above).
Option 2) Hairnet
A second option for a head-covering would be a hairnet. This could have been worn by itself or under the mantle drape. Hairnets have been found at Nahal Hever (Cave of Letters, Cave of Horrors), Masada, Wadi Murabba’at, Nahal Qidron (Christmas Cave) and imaged in the Bet Alpha synagogue. There is also numerous depictions of Roman women wearing hairnets, such as the Sappho fresco found in Pompeii.
Option 3) Cap (kipa)
Rabbinic sources refer to women wearing a cap (kipa) which also could have been worn under the mantle drape.
Option 4) Head-scarf
Lastly, though there are conflicting opinions among scholars, women could have worn a separate head-scarf made from wool or linen. [Shlezinger-Katsman: 374 contra Edwards: 236] This scarf would have been long enough to reach just past the shoulders. Fragments of such scarves were found in the Cave of Letters.
HAIR & MAKEUP
Men could be either bearded or clean-shaven.
As regards to hair and facial hair, the style for men was varied. The Judea Capta coins show some Jewish soldiers wearing longish hair and beards, while other sources imply men had short cropped hair and were clean shaven after the style of the Romans.
Women likely wore braids and some make-up.
Little is known how women styled their hair. Some assume they wore it long and in a simple braid down their back. Women (especially the wealthy) could have copied the Roman hairstyles of the day, like on the Beth Alpha synagogue and the Sappho fresco (above).
Women did use various cosmetics such as eyeshadows and perfume. Archaeologists at Masada found palettes for mixing eyeshadow, bronze eyeshadow applicator sticks, perfume vials, a bronze mirror frame, wooden comb, fibula, and ring keys.
Jewelry was made from the standard metals like gold, silver, bronze, and copper as well as glass carnelian, and agate. Earrings were typically made from metal, whereas beads were made of bone, semi-precious stones, wood, and various other materials. Bracelets and rings were commonly made of either metal or glass. [Edwards: 236; Israeli Antiquities Authority search]
For further reading related to “What clothing did people in the New Testament wear?” see these articles:
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Notes:
[1] “This color distinction is mentioned in a rabbinic tradition according to which rabbis prohibited women from wearing ‘white’ clothing and men from wearing coloured garments. . . Even when women did wear a lightly dyed mantle, they may have taken care to wear a more vibrantly coloured tunic beneath it to give their attire some colour.” (Shlezinger-Katsman: 369 citing Cifre. Deut. 226; Magness 2002a: 114; Shlezinger-Katsman 2003: 107)
[2] Edwards, 236 cites Yadin 1963: 223: “Yadin argues that the stripe framed the face when the himation was pulled over the head for prayer or sacrifice. The stripe may be the kraspedon (RSV “edge”) of Jesus’ himation, which the woman with the flow of blood touched (Matt 9:20 = Luke 8:44). This may explain, as well, the passage that states the Pharisees made their phylactēria broad and their kraspeda long (stripes rather than fringes) (Matt 23:5).”
[3] Shlezinger-Katsman: 368 citing Sifre Deut. 234; Cohen 1993: 8; cf. y. Dem. 4:6; 24a; Edwards, 236 citing Yadin 1963: 223
[4] Yadin 1963: 227–32; Fujii 1987: 225–26 noted in Edwards: 236
[5] Edwards: 236 citing Thompson 1988: 133; de Vaux 1935: 397–412; Shlezinger-Katsman: 372 citing Tertullian.
BIBLIOGRAPHY regarding what clothing people in the New Testament wear.
Books
Shaye J. D. Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties (1999, pp. 30-31)
Douglas R. Edwards, “Dress and Ornamentation,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992).[Book – Digitally accessed on Logos]
Katharina Galor, “Jewellery; The Archaeological Evidence,” Chapter 21, he Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine, ed. Catherine Hezser, (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2010), pp. 393-401
Tziona Grossmark, “Jewellery: The Literary Evidence,” he Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine, ed. Catherine Hezser, (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2010), Chapter 20, pp. 382-392
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987). [Book – Digitally accessed on Logos]
Charles Duke Yonge with Philo of Alexandria, The Works of Philo: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995) [Book – Digitally accessed on Logos]
Dafna Shlezinger-Katzman, “Clothing,” The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine, ed. Catherine Hezser, (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2010), Chapter 19, pp 362-379 [Physical Book]
Journals
Joan E. Taylor, “What did Jesus look like?,” Friends of ASOR, Vol II, No. 4, April 2015 on the American Society of Overseas Research website, https://www.asor.org/anetoday/2015/04/what-did-jesus-look-like/ (Accessed 3/4/22) [Online Journal]
Websites
“National Treasures: Selected Artifacts from the Shelby White and Leon Levy Center for National Treasures” website, by Israel Antiquities Authority: https://www.antiquities.org.il/t/ (Accessed 3/2/22 – Default is Hebrew change option to English) [Webpage} SEE> Advanced Search page: https://www.antiquities.org.il/t/SearchPhotos_en.aspx
Michael Marlowe, “Headcovering Customs of the Ancient World” on bible-researcher.com, http://www.bible-researcher.com/headcoverings3.html#note11 (Accessed 3/4/22) [Webpage]
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