Jesus' Seamless Tunic: A Symbol of Unity

Stepping into the Wardrobe of Jesus

In the Gospels, we are told very little about what Jesus wore.

Every so often, there is a fleeting glimpse into his wardrobe: the ‘edge’ of his cloak, the disciples’ Cynic-like dress, his parodic rental of kingly robes. Yet when it comes to detailed description, almost everything is left to the imagination.

That is, until we come one of the final scenes of the Fourth Gospel.

In John’s crucifixion, we are afforded an extended look at Jesus’ clothing. Like the Synoptic Gospels - Matthew, Mark and Luke - John tells us that Jesus’ garments were divided on the cross. But unlike the Synoptics, John unpacks this division:

‘Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his clothes (ta himatia) and divided them into four parts, to every soldier a part, and the tunic (kai ton chitona). Now the coat was without seam, woven whole from the top down.’

What is this mysterious tunic? And why does John describe it in such detail?

The most immediate explanation is that John was soberly unpacking a biblical prophecy. In the Greek text of Psalm 22, which John cites a verse later, the righteous sufferer has his clothes (plural) divided and lots are cast for his (singular) garment (v.19 LXX).

It is true that this passage illustrates the fulfilment of scripture. Yet such fulfilment does not explain why John has described the garment in the precise way he has. Nor does it explain what this garment may have evoked to his readers.

Ecclesiastical Unity

One of the oldest interpretations of the tunic was as a symbol of Church unity. See, for example, Cyprian of Carthage:

‘… So truly because Christ’s people cannot be torn apart, his tunic, ‘woven without seam,’ and holding fast together, has not become divided amongst its owners. The description ‘unable to be split (united, linked together),’ reveals the concord that holds together the unity of our people who have put on Christ. By the sign and seal of the tunic Christ has declared the unity of his Church.’ (De Unitate, Ch. 7.)

Despite centuries of interpreting the robe in this way, several modern exegetes have turned a critical eye towards this reading:

For example, Craig Blomberg follows Douglas Moo in asserting that “John makes nothing of this detail and neither should we.”¹

Meanwhile, Craig Keener and J. Michaels argue that the ecclesiastical interpretation falters on the ground that the tunic - the symbol of unity - is taken away from him.²

Metaphorical Madness

In reading the literature during my doctoral research, it struck me that those most inclined to disavow the tunic’s symbolic meaning are almost always American conservative evangelicals.

Why are these readers most inclined to divest the tunic of its symbolic meaning?

I suspect, in part, there is a concern among these scholars to see the tunic as a glimmer of the author’s “eyewitness memory.” To give it a firm symbolic meaning might pose a threat to the firm conviction that the Gospel is an eyewitness text.

But there is another concern which is more relatable: a fear that an allegorical interpretation is a pandora’s box, the opening of which would permit all manner of symbolic fancy to pervade our interpretation of the Gospel.

Leon Morris betrays this concern. He opines that the ecclesiastical interpretation is a "trifle fanciful.” And he immediately draws our attention to Cyril of Alexandria’s (symbolic) interpretation of the tunic as the Virgin Birth, which is rather fanciful.

Yet neither issue should concern us. There is no reason why we cannot maintain (with the majority of commentators) that the Gospel is sourced by an eyewitness and see such details as pregnant with symbolic meaning, if we are warranted to do so.

There is also no good reason why tenuous symbolic readings should preclude strong ones. Indeed, the very fact that the Virgin Birth is judged as a weak rendering of the seamless tunic implies a set of criteria by which it could be judged to be poor.

The only question, then, is whether there is a strong case to consider the seamless tunic as a symbol of the unity of the Church. Accepting that some symbolic readings can be weaker than others, is there any good symbolic reading of the tunic?

In the rest of this post, I shall argue that the reading is stronger than many think.

Re-Enchanting the Seamless Tunic

Three arguments stand out for reading the tunic as a symbol of Unity.³

First, Unity is a theme in the Gospel of John.

Just a few chapters before we are introduced to Jesus’ tunic, Jesus explicitly prays for the Unity of the Church. He asks that ‘they would be one, just as you and I a

re one,’ asking God to guarantee the unity of the Church and future believers.

This ties into a theme of Unity throughout the Gospel: Jesus has already claimed that there will be one flock and one shepherd (10:17); that he and the Father are one (10:30); that he would die so that he would gather all of the children of God who were scattered (11:52); that when he is ‘lifted up’ he would gather all to himself (12:32).