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Bible Dictionaries
Cloke (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or CLOKE (the spelling in both Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 of the modern ‘cloak’).—There was originally a marked distinction between Classical and Oriental costume, a distinction which was lessened under the cosmopolitanism of the Roman Empire; thus the Greek words used in the NT bear different meanings. The two normal Classical garments, the χιτών and ἰμάτιον of Matthew 5:40 and Luke 6:29, translated ‘coat’ and ‘cloke,’ were usually of extreme simplicity.
The χιτών, tunica, tunic, or shirt (see art. Coat), was the under-garment worn indoors by men and women alike, an oblong strip of material doubled round the body and fastened at the shoulders, without any shaping or sewing, sometimes girt and sometimes ungirt. The sâdin of the Jews differed from this in being longer and furnished with sleeves; over it was worn the kĕthôneth, a long sleeved tunic, open in front, but folded across and girt; this latter formed a second tunica, which is the χιτών, apparently, of Matthew 5:40 and Luke 6:29. Oriental influences led to the adoption of the long tunic in Rome under the name of tunica talaris, a garment which, in Cicero’s time, was regarded as a mark of effeminacy; in later years it was known in its white form as the tunica alba or alb. The ἱμάτιον, over-garment or ‘cloke,’ was, with the Greeks and Romans, originally an oblong strip, thrown over the tunic (χιτών) when the wearer went out of doors; in its simplest form it was the pallium; more elaborately folded, it was the toga. Thus the χιτών and the ἱμάτιον are the under and the over-garment, though what we call underclothing was often worn also. But the use of sleeves among the Orientals made a still greater distinction in their over-garment; the mĕ-‘îl and simlâh of the Jews were sleeved garments rather like a modern overcoat, open in front, and reaching to the feet. The ‘long robe’ of the scribes and Pharisees (Luke 20:46) was the mĕ-‘îl, rendered by St. Luke as στολή, which merely means a long sleeved garment, a tunica talaris, in fact; for which reason the ‘great multitude’ of the Apocalypse (7:9, 13) are also described as wearing στολὰς λευκάς, that is, long white tunics, or tunicae albae, though in Revelation 3:5 the more general word is used—ἐν ἱματίοις λευκοῖς, ‘in white garments’ ( Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885).
The classical over-garment appeared in many varieties besides the changing fashions of the toga. The pallium, Greek in its origin, bad become international in its character at the time of the Roman Empire, and was regarded as the mark of a philosopher or teacher; so Justin Martyr preached in the ‘philosopher’s robe,’ and was thus recognized by Trypho as a teacher (Tryph. 1). It was for this reason that the pallium was chosen by the artists of the Catacombs as the distinguishing dress of Christ, the Apostles, and the Prophets, and has continued so by an artistic convention that has lasted from the 2nd cent. to the present day. The chlamys, χλαωι̇ς, sagum or paludamentum, was made of a smaller ohlong strip, fastened by a buckle on the right shoulder (as in the Apollo Belvidere); it was a light military cloak, and was the ‘scarlet robe,’ χλαμυδα κοκκινην, which the soldiers put upon our Lord in mockery (Matthew 27:28). The seamless ‘coat,’ for which the soldiers cast lots at the Crucifixion, is distinguished by St. John (John 19:23) by the word used for a tunic or under-garment, χιτών, and not by any of the terms used for the various forms of outer garment, such as we should expect if the ‘coat’ were the Jewish simlâh.
Another common form of outer garment is the φαιλόνης, the ‘cloke’ which St. Paul left at Troas (2 Timothy 4:13). This was the paenula (φαινόλης, φενόλης, φαινόλιον), a heavy woollen garment, generally red or dark-yellow in colour, worn as a protection against cold and rain, at first especially by travellers and by artisans and slaves; hence on the one hand its use by St. Paul, and on the other its frequent occurrence in the Catacombs of Rome (where the tunica, the tunica talaris, dalmatic, chlamys, pallium, and the laccrna, a cope-shaped garment, are also found, while the toga occurs only once). The paenula was the original of the Eucharistic chasuble, and resembles it exactly in shape (a circle or ellipse, with a hole in the centre), though not in material. As time went on, it was used by all classes, and after the Peace of the Church it became in course of time restricted to bishops and presbyters. It is worn by the ecclesiastics in the famous 6th cent. frescoes at Ravenna, where appear also the tunica talaris, still adorned with the orphrey-like strips of the clavus, the dalmatic, lacerna, and the pallium, which, by the process of contabulatio or folding, has come to resemble a long stole, and is distinctive of bishops. Thus, while the toga, chlamys, and the original tunica disappeared, and are to us typical of classical antiquity, the paenula, pallium, laccrna, dalmatic, and tunica talaris were handed on as ecclesiastical vestments (chasuble, pall, cope, dalmatic, and alb), the last named forming a link not only with imperial Rome, but also with the East. See, further, art. Dress.
Literature.—A. Conze, Die antike Gewändung; Keil, Benzinger, and Nowack, Heb. Arch.; Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, art. ‘Dress’; Schurer, HJP [Note: JP History of the Jewish People.] , Index, s.v. ‘Clothing’; Wilpert, Die Gewandung der Christen in den ersten Jahrhunderten. and Un capitolo di storia del vestiaro; Braun, Die presterlichen Gewander des Abendlandes, and Die pontificalen Gewander des Abendlandes; Duchesne, Origines du culte chretien.
Percy Dearmer.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Cloke (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/c/cloke-2.html. 1906-1918.
