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Bible Dictionaries
Towel
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or TOWEL.—‘Towel’ in the two passages in which it occurs in the Gospels (John 13:4 f.) represents λέντιον, which is clearly the Latin linteum, a word meaning, in the first instance, ‘linen cloth,’ and then ‘napkin’ or ‘apron’ worn by slaves or servants, and especially ‘bath-towel.’ Under the Empire this Latin word made its way not only into Greek, but also into late Hebrew in the form ’aluntith. It is found in the Mishna (Shabbath xxii. 5) of the bath-towels used at the hot baths of Tiberias and elsewhere. That slaves or attendants wore the lintenm is more than once referred to in the classics. The best known passage is in Phaed. Fab. ii. John 13:11 ff., where an officious attendant of Tiberius, who was snubbed for his pains, is described as—
‘Ex alticinctis unus atriensibus
Cui tunica ab humeris linteo Pelusio
Erat destricta.’
Less known, but even more interesting, as at the same time supplying parallel and contrast, is the anecdote given by Suetonius (Calig. 26) of the humbling of distinguished senators by the mad Caesar Caligula, by allowing them to stand at his couch or his feet, girt with towels (suceinctos linteo). This is evidently recorded as a grave indignity to which the haughty Romans submitted with the greatest reluctance.
Literature.—Wetstein on John 13:5; Becker’s Gallus (English translation ), 1849, p. 395; Fürst, Glossarium Grœco-Hebrœum, 1890, p. 51a.
W. Taylor Smith.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Towel'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/t/towel.html. 1906-1918.
