Jesus' Seamless Tunic: A High Priestly Vestment?
In the first part of this series, I offered a reading of Jesus’ seamless tunic as a symbol of unity. Yet this is not the only interpretation on the table.
In this post, I will consider a more popular understanding of the tunic’s significance: that it is a priestly vestment, alluding to Jesus’ role as the high priest.
High Priestly Tunic
The view that Jesus’ tunic is high priestly goes back to 1641, when Hugo Grontius - Dutch jurist and theologian extraordinariare - found a parallel in Josephus.1
The first century Jewish historian describes a high priestly garment as follows:
‘But this tunic (ὁ χιτὼν) is not composed of two pieces, to be stitched (ῥαπτὸς) at the shoulders and at the sides: it is one long woven (ὑφασμένον) cloth, with a slit for the neck, parted not crosswise but lengthwise from the breast to a point in the middle of the back.’ (Antiquities 3. 161 LCL).
Josephus here describes a high priestly tunic (ὁ χιτὼν) that is not sewn (ῥαπτὸς). The term ῥαπτὸς (‘stitched,’ ‘sewn) further relates to ἄραφος (‘without seam’), the word John uses to describe Jesus’ own tunic (χιτὼν).
Josephus’ description of the garment as ‘one long woven (ὑφασμένον) cloth’ also bears resemblance to John’s description as ‘woven in one piece’ (ὑφαντὸς δι’ ὅλου; NASB).
John shares three cognate terms with Josephus in his terse description. On the basis of these similarities, many commentators have considered it plausible that John is casting Jesus as the high priest.2
Challenging the High Priestly View
There are a number of criticisms of this reading. For a start, commentators have questioned what interest John has in presenting Jesus as the High Priest.
Craig Keener notes that “John seems to lack the sort of explicitly high priestly emphasis one finds in Hebrews (2:17; 3:1; 4:14-5:10; 6:20-8:4; 9:11, 25; 10:21; 13:11).”3 Likewise, Andrew Lincoln deems a priestly interpretation doubtful “since a high-priest Christology plays no role elsewhere in his narrative.”4
More problematically, Joan Taylor has questioned the allusion on the ground that it “assumes a knowledge of Temple practices on the part of the readers of John far beyond what is found in scripture, with no clue at all given in the text.”5
As Taylor notes, the difficulty with identifying Jesus’ tunic as high priestly is the lack of any clear link between Josephus’ description and the Jewish Scriptures. The Bible describes a sacred linen tunic worn by the High Priest on the day of Atonement (Lev. 16:4), and a ‘checkered tunic of fine linen’ worn on other instances (Exod. 28:29).
But these tunics only have in common with Jesus’ tunic the fact that they are tunics; neither has anything to do with what Josephus describes as a ‘tunic’ (ὁ χιτὼν). What Josephus is calling a ‘tunic’ is actually the robe of the ephod, described in all its glory in Exodus 28:31-34 - it is not the simple garment undivided in John.6
A Priestly Vestment Restored
While a connection between the tunic and a specific garment is ruled out, it is possible that Jesus’ tunic may be linked to priestly garments more widely. In her defence of the High Priestly reading, Helen Bond has noted a number of similarities between Jesus’ seamless tunic and the high priestly wardrobe more broadly.7
For instance, the term ‘woven’ (ὑφαντός) used of Jesus’ tunic refers exclusively in the Greek Bible to the high priest’s garments.8 To draw attention to the fact that a tunic was ‘woven’, in a scene of sacrifice, might therefore evoke the role of the high priest.
The high priestly vestments were also remembered in rabbinic times. Their ‘woven’ character is mentioned in b. Zebahim 88a and b. Yoma 72b, as was their ‘seamlessness.’ One text states that the ‘the priestly garments were not sewn’ (b. Zebahim 88b) a point that b. Yoma 27b makes in reference to the woven garments of Exod. 31.10.
And it is not only the later rabbinic literature which shows an interest in the high priest’s vestments. Many earlier texts show the same fascination, from Ben Sira to the Letter of Aristeas, to Philo and - as we seen already - Josephus.9
Perhaps, then, it may not have been as difficult as Taylor imagines for readers of the Gospel to draw a connection between Jesus’ tunic and priestly array. This is especially true given John’s special interest in the Temple cult. As Brant Pitre has observed:
‘although scholars continue to debate the exact identity of the audience of the Gospel of John, one thing is indisputable: If there is anything that John clearly assumes on the part of his readers, it is an intimate with the Jerusalem Temple and the Jewish feasts.’ (emphasis original)10
Jesus, the Johannine High Priest?
Let us suppose, then, that Jesus’ seamless tunic would have evoked the high priestly vestments. What is he doing wearing one? And how does it fit into his narrative?
As we noted above, some scholars assume that John has little high priestly emphasis. However, this is not true. Though his emphasis is not as explicit as Hebrews, Helen K. Bond argues that “[John] has a much greater interest than any other evangelist.”11
In John, the roles of both Caiphas and his father-in-law Annas are accentuated, while the trial scene seems to display Jesus’ superiority to the high priest (Jn. 18:19-24). Moreover, in the build-up to the crucifixion, Jesus takes upon the roles of high priest, when he consecrates himself as a sacrifice, interceding with the Lord (17:19).12
This presentation of Jesus as the ‘new’ high priest also fits hand-in-glove John’s overall depiction of Jesus as the fulfilment of various feasts and cultic institutions. He is the meaning of the Temple, the Sabbath, the Light of the World, the Living Water, and - importantly, as I have argued elsewhere - the Passover lamb in his death.
But if Jesus is the paschal lamb, who is the priest making the sacrifice? The priest is, of course, Jesus himself. The imagery of Jesus as high priest fits the scene well. As Saint Augustine described, Jesus is both priest and victim (De Civ. De. 10, 20).
Symbol of Unity or High Priestly Garment?
If the tunic is a high priestly vestment, this seems to stand at odds with the reading I offered in my previous post, that it symbolises the unity of the Church.
But perhaps we do not need to choose. If the garment would both evoke a high priestly garment and symbolise unity, it is noteworthy that another garment does the same. In Philo’s description of the high priest’s garments, it is their unrendered nature which symbolises the unity of the world, held together by the logos (Fug. 110-112).
Could Jesus’ own priestly garment now be symbolising the unity of the Church?
Before we commit ourselves to an ever more complex symbolic interpretation, however, it may be useful to come back to earth. In material terms, what actually was a seamless tunic? And what might this teach us about John’s portrayal of Jesus?
In the final part of this series, it is to these questions we shall turn.
See Raymond E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave. The Anchor Bible Reference Library. Vol. 2 (London: Doubleday, 1994), 956 .
See, for example, De la Potterie, ‘La unique sans couture, symbole du Christ grand prêtre?’, Bib 60 (1979), pp.255-69 (260).
Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary. Volume II. (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 2003), 1140.
Andrew T. Lincoln, The Gospel According to Saint John. Black’s New Testament Commentaries. (London: Continuum, 2005), 476.
Joan E. Taylor, What did Jesus Look Like? (London: T&T Clark, 2018), 186.
See Alan Kerr, The Temple of Jesus’ Body: The Temple Theme in the Gospel of John. Library of New Testament Studies 220 (London: T&T Clark, 2002), 319-320. It may be that Josephus has called this a tunic because it is described in the Septuagint as an ‘undergarment’ (ὑποδύτην; Exod 28:31, 34), worn beneath the ephod, just as a tunic is a type of undergarment, commonly worn beneath a mantle.
See Helen K. Bond, “Discarding the Seamless Robe: The High Priesthood of Jesus in John’s Gospel” in Israel’s God and Rebecca’s Children: Essays in Honor of Larry W. Hurtado and Alan F. Segal, eds. David B. Capes, April D. DeConick, Helen K. Bond, Troy Miller (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2007), 183-194 (188).
See Exodus 28:6, 32; 35:35; 36:10, 12, 15, 29, 34; 37:3, 5, 21.
See Ben Sira (Gk. 50:5-11; Hb. 45:6-13); Letter of Aristeas, 99; Philo, Mos. 2.117–35; Flight 110–12; Spec. Laws 1.84–85, 93–96; and QE 2.107–24; Jewish Antiquities, 3.151-180, 184-187. For a recent treatment of Josephus’ description of the vestments, see Joabson Xavier Pena, “Wearing the Cosmos: The High Priestly Attire in Josephus’ Judean Antiquities,” JSJ 52 (2021): 359-387
See Brant Pitre, Jesus and the Last Supper (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015), 369.
Bond, “Seamless Robe,” 191.
Bond, “Seamless Robe,” 191-192. For a study which stress-tests John’s high priestly typology, see John Paul Heil, “Jesus as the Unique High Priest in the Gospel of John,” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 57 n.4 (1995): 729-745.