Jesus Had Short Hair
The Error of the Long-haired Jesus
Preachers, priests and theologians have themselves accepted a false type of Jesus that nowhere resembles the true Jesus who is described in the New Testament. The images of Jesus that Christians have in their churches, homes, Bibles, Sunday School or Sabbath School books are those which have the outward features of the chief pagan gods of the heathen world.
In the fourth century it became common for many Gentile peoples throughout the Roman Empire (who had long worshiped pagan gods and goddesses) to begin identifying their deities of old with the newly honored Jesus, Mary, and the “twelve apostles”. One particular deity that seemed to blend together the attributes of several gods into a unified portrayal of deity was the Egyptian god “Sarapis.” This god had been famous for 600 years in Egypt and now his worship was found all over the Roman Empire. He was equated with the Greek Zeus (the chief god over all other gods) along with Asclepius (the god of healing). Professor Everett Ferguson in his work titled "Backgrounds of Early Christianity" noted that the statues of Asclepius (the pagan god of healing) were images "that imitated Zeus and that his portraiture influenced artists in depicting both Sarapis [the Egyptian Zeus] and Christ" .
Remarkably, the pagan god Sarapis of the fourth century appeared very much like what Christians (from the time of Constantine onwards) began to depict as their “Jesus.” At that time the people began to abandon all of the early depictions of Christ made in the previous hundred years or so which showed ‘Jesus normally as young, beardless and with much shorter hair—not with long flowing feminine type of hair. But now, with Constantine, the people began to want “Jesus” to appear like the pagan gods, so they selected the model of Zeus after the Egyptian rendition of Sarapis (the Egyptian Zeus) to be their new “Jesus.” What they actually did was to change the name of “Zeus” (Sarapis) into “Jesus.” The people kept on worshiping Zeus (Sarapis) but they now called him “Jesus.”
The truth is, the real “Jesus” of the New Testament (who taught in the flesh among the Jews almost 2000 years ago) groomed himself by clipping his hair to keep it relatively short, and to prevent head lice which was very common at that time. The apostle Paul said it was a shame for a man to have long hair because the male is made in the image of God who is groomed with short hair (I Corinthians 11:3-16). It was a common characteristic of Jewish men to wear their hair in a close-cropped fashion. Eusebius copied the text of the Jewish historian Josephus in Against Apion I.22, para.173-4. In this section, Josephus was quoting an early Gentile author who gave some unique grooming styles of Jewish men. Josephus shows that the Jews were known, as Eusebius renders it, for “their close-cropped hair” (Preparation for the Gospel, IX.9, sect 412b).
Along with extensive writings from the period, experts also point to a frieze on Rome's Arch of Titus, erected after Jerusalem was captured in AD 70 to celebrate the victory, which shows Jewish men with short hair taken into captivity. And in the Jewish catacombs of first century Rome we see our first representations of Jesus. There he was depicted as a beardless shepherd.
There was a definite reason why Jewish men (especially in the time of Jesus) wore their hair short as a common custom. The people knew that the Aaronic priests had the role of being mediators between themselves and God. Sometimes the priests took the place of the people in petitioning God, while at other times the priests became a substitute for God in instructing the people. In the time of Jesus most of the Sadducees were priests while the majority of the remainder of the Jews were Pharisees. The Pharisees applied the Scripture that the whole nation of Israel were to be reckoned as priests (Exodus 19:6) and they invented some strict customs even for themselves and the common people that were actually designed only for priests. And what was a principal custom (indeed, it was a command from God) that characterized the priests because of their roles in being like God to the people and the rest of the world? God commanded all priests to have short hair! That’s right, the priests who administered in the first Tabernacle and later in the Temple at Jerusalem were required to have short hair, not long hair which women were accustomed to wear.
Such a command had been in effect since the time of Moses. Whereas the King James Version mistakenly translates Leviticus 10:6 as “uncover not your heads,” the Jewish authorities always knew that this should be rendered “Let the hair of your heads not grow long” (see Rashi on Leviticus 10:6; and it is so translated in The Jerusalem Bible, Koren ed.).
This command of God was given again in the time of Ezekiel. “They shall not shave their heads [that is, to be bald] or let their locks grow LONG, they shall only trim the hair of their heads” (Ezekiel 44:20 RSV).
This shows that the priests of God (who represented God before the people) were utterly forbidden to have long hair. They had their hair trimmed short in order to do the divine administrations in the Temple because they were looked on by the common people among the Jews as substitutes for “God.” This was unlike some heathen priests, however, who wore long hair to mimic the gods they worshiped. But Jewish men followed the example of their priests and wore their hair short. After all, the ordinary men also wanted to be groomed like God was groomed and not like pagan gods, philosophers or alien priests.
Only when Jewish men were under a Nazarite vow (which normally lasted for 30 days, and rarely beyond 100 days—(see M’Clintock and Strong, Cyclopaedia, vol.VI, pp.881,882) or when in short periods of mourning (see early Jewish commentaries on Leviticus 10:6) did Jewish men refrain from going to a barber.
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord: He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. All the days that he separates himself unto the Lord he shall come at [touch] no dead body” (Num. 6:2-3, 6).
Christ drank wine (Matt. 11:19) and, on occasion, touched a dead body (Matt. 9:25). Had He been under a Nazarite vow, He would not have done either of these things. Those under this vow grew their hair long as a sign of humiliation. Also notice that when the time of the vow was over, the person under the vow was to shave his head (Num. 6:18)—ending this shameful period!
Indeed, for a Jewish male to have long hair signified his attitude of mourning and that he was in shame and humiliation. "Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God." (I Corinthians 11:14-16).
Nowhere in God’s Word are we told to be concerned with what Christ looked like as a human being. The only description we are given is this: “For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isa. 53:2). Jesus would have looked like any other Jewish man of His time. He would have been a normal, healthy, masculine-looking man. As a carpenter and a boat builder, He spent most of His life working outdoors (Mark 6:3). He did not look like an effeminate weakling—with long hair!
Most philosophers and most of the pagan gods were depicted with long hair. Dio Chrysostom, the practical philosopher who lived in the first century, told his readers that he and many other philosophers wore their hair long like the pagan Romans(Oration Thirty-Five, vol.III. pp.391, 401 Loeb ed.). Epictetus in his Discourses (Chapter 8) urged people not to adopt quickly the grooming habits of the professionals such as wearing the cloak, wearing long hair and beard of the philosophers. In Epictetus’ opinion only those who were true philosophers should adopt such grooming habits. Since Epictetus lived about 50 years after the apostle Paul, this is again proof that ordinary Greek men wore their hair short. But by the fourth century, Emperor Constantine's bishops began to teach that Jesus should be depicted like the heathen gods—with a beard and long hair!
What About Leviticus 19:27 and 21:5?
Still, some may ask about two passages in the book of Leviticus that seem to prohibit the cutting of one’s hair. They read, “You shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shall you mar the corners of your beard” (Lev. 19:27); and “They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh” (21:5).
A casual reading of these passages seems to imply that it is wrong to shave or cut one’s hair. However, this is not the case. Reading from the American Translation by Goodspeed helps one to understand the true meaning of these verses: “You must not shave around your temple, nor do away with the corners of your beard” and “They must not shave part of their heads bald, nor shave off the corners of their beards, nor make incisions in their bodies.” Recognize that this was instruction to the nation of Israel after they had come out of Egypt. For centuries, they had not known the true God or His ways. The only way of life they had been exposed to was the pagan culture of Egypt, with its multitude of false gods.
Notice this admonition in Jeremiah 10:2: “Thus says the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen.” The ancient Israelites had undoubtedly learned some of Egypt’s ways, necessitating that God instruct them in His ways.
It was a ceremonial custom of the Egyptians to cut and trim beards and hair into special shapes that would honor a particular pagan deity—often the sun god. The Egyptians of old cropped their dark locks very short. Or they shaved it precisely, leaving the remaining hair on the crown, forming a circle that surrounded the head (the halo has been borrowed from this practice), while they dressed their beards in a square form. Conversely, a round bald spot may have been shaved on the head.
Again, this practice was intended to honor a pagan god. Doing these things does not honor the true God. The Bible forbids this kind of worship.
Jesus Wore Britches Under His Robe
Great care was taken, in reverence God, to preserve decency, prevent immodesty, and to guard against laughter and levity.
Exodus 28
2 "Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor
42Make linen breeches as a covering for the body, reaching from the waist to the thigh. 43Aaron and his sons must wear them whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they will not incur guilt and die.
“This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants."
Matthew Henry (1662-1714 A.D.) was a Calvinist Biblical Commentator and Presbyterian Minister. In his book, "Complete Commentary", he said "The priest's garments typify the righteousness of Christ. If we appear not before God in that, we shall bear our iniquity, and die. Blessed is he, therefore, that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, Re 16:15. And blessed be God that we have a High Priest [Jesus], appointed of God, and set apart for his work; furnished for his high office by the glory of his Divine majesty, and the beauty of perfect holiness. Happy are we, if by the law spiritually understood, we see that such a High Priest became us; that we cannot draw near to a holy God, or be accepted, but by him.
Maimonides. Moses ben Maimon [known to English speaking audiences as Maimonides and Hebrew speaking as Rambam] (1138–1204) is the greatest Jewish philosopher of the medieval period and is still widely read today. In his Mishneh Torah, his 14-volume compendium of Jewish law, he talked about the linen breeches priests were required to wear. He said: "who also observes, that they had strings, but had no opening before or behind, but were drawn up round like a purse; they were a sort of drawers, and somewhat like our sailors' trousers".
Exodus 39:27-28(NIV)
27 For Aaron and his sons, they made tunics of fine linen—the work of a weaver— 28 and the turban of fine linen, the linen headbands and the undergarments of finely twisted linen.
Revelation 19:16 (Geneva Bible)
10And the Priest shall put on his linen garment, and shall put on his linen breeches upon his flesh, and take away the ashes when the fire hath consumed the burnt offering upon the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. 11After, he shall put off his garments, and put on other raiment, and carry the ashes forth without the host unto a clean place.
The priestly undergarments (Biblical Hebrew: מִכְנְסֵי־בָד mikhnsey-bad) were specially made linen breeches worn by the priests and the High Priest in ancient Israel. They reached from the waist to just below the knees and so were not visible, being entirely hidden by the priestly tunic.
According to the Talmud, the undergarments atone for the sin of sexual transgressions on the part of the Children of Israel. The linen undergarments symbolized the abolition of the distinction between the heavenly and the mortal part of man, as contrasted with the divine nature, which is absolutely holy and living. Because of this, it was common for even the poorest of men to wear breeches [undergarments] under their tunics.
Job was told in Job 38 and Job 40 to gird up his loins “like a man.” This is because a man could gird up his other garments and still be decent because he was wearing breeches underneath. A woman, on the other hand, could not gird up her loins “like a man” since she was not wearing knee length pants underneath (see Deuteronomy 22.5). Women, instead, wore linen slips (tunics) under their woolen robes (which reached her ankles) for feminine modesty. Women also wore a loincloth, the equivalent of today's female underpants. This was a long thin strip of cloth which was wound around the waist and then between the legs, with the end tucked in at the waist. Women probably wore some sort of binding around their breasts too.
"Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me." - Job 38:3
“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” – Deuteronomy 22:5
Women's outer apparel was distinguished from mans by its finer weave and more colorful materials, with the presence of a veil (Genesis 24:65). Women would prepare dyes of various colors: blue from wood, yellow from pomegranate, lilac from myrtle, etc. Even the poorest Jewish women used vegetable dyes to get a range of colors for her woolen clothes. The veil was an essential part of female dress. It was often thrown aside while working in the garden or the field, but on the appearance of a stranger, it is drawn over the face, as to conceal all but the eyes. In a bride it was a token of her reverence and subjection to her husband.
"For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a veil, and covered herself." - Genesis 24:65 (Geneva Bible)
Widows were apparently set apart by wearing special clothing, such as in Gen- 38.14, where Tamar put off her widow's garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim in an effort to appear like a prostitute when she seduced her father-in-law Judah. Upon leaving Judah, she took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes once more (Gen. 38.19).
These may be similar to garments worn by women who were in mourning for other reasons; 2 Sam. 21.10 records that Rizpah, Saul's concubine, prepared sackcloth for herself to wear in mourning after her sons were handed over to the Gibeonites. Although we cannot guess the color of a widow's garments, it seems that they were made of rougher material than was typically used to make clothing. (Women's Lives in Biblical Times, Jennie R. Ebeling, T & T Clark International, p.133)
Jewish men were required by their law (Numbers 15:37-41; Deut. 22:12) to put tassels (tzitzit or fringes) on the corners of their garments with a blue cord intertwined in them. This tradition is still followed by observant Jews during services, in the tasselled tzitzit knotted on the four corners of the tallit, a big fringed, four-cornered prayer shawl. The large tallit, usually made of wool, was worn only during morning prayer and in the afternoon and for all services on the Day of Atonement.
The blue dye for tzitzit was obtained from the Mediterranean sea snail (murex) from which the ancients (mainly the Phoenicians) obtained blue and purple dyes. Because the use of shellfish gave rise to certain difficulties, the Talmud (Menahot 38a) later taught that all fringes might be white. Every male garment originally had tzitzits and wearing them differentiated a zealous Jew from his neighbours. Later on, however, they were worn only on intimate garments or in the synagogue.
The Bible also tells how fine linen was wrapped around the head of the High Priest as a turban or mitre — the saniph or kidaris (Exodus 28:39). Ordinary men wore a kerchief over the head, held tight by a cord. When bareheaded, men wore a fillet (a narrow band of cloth or leather) to keep the sweat off their brow. A skull cap or turban was also typical. The peasant or soldier seems to have wound a simple strip of cloth around the head, leaving one fringed end to hang over the right ear.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
We have a good idea of clothing in New Testament times because of a discovery made in Israel in 1960. Bedouin tribesmen found many Hebrew artifacts in a cave near En-gedi on the Dead Sea, which were dated to the Bar Kokhba War in 132CE. The cave was in a rocky cliff-face.
It appears that during the Bar Kokhba War a group of 17 people, including six children, were trapped in the cave. They starved to death there, rather than surrender to the Roman soldiers who were camped immediately above the entrance to their cave. A range of textiles was found with their skeletons. There were women’s tunics, cloaks, and loincloths; a child’s linen shirt; and balls of unspun purple wool. There were also men's breeches, robes, a kerchief and a leather fillet.
And from that time period there are various statutes, obelisks, and illustrated vases depicting important Hebrews and their servants that still exist today. All of these help confirm what is talked about in the Bible.
Preachers, priests and theologians have themselves accepted a false type of Jesus that nowhere resembles the true Jesus who is described in the New Testament. The images of Jesus that Christians have in their churches, homes, Bibles, Sunday School or Sabbath School books are those which have the outward features of the chief pagan gods of the heathen world.
In the fourth century it became common for many Gentile peoples throughout the Roman Empire (who had long worshiped pagan gods and goddesses) to begin identifying their deities of old with the newly honored Jesus, Mary, and the “twelve apostles”. One particular deity that seemed to blend together the attributes of several gods into a unified portrayal of deity was the Egyptian god “Sarapis.” This god had been famous for 600 years in Egypt and now his worship was found all over the Roman Empire. He was equated with the Greek Zeus (the chief god over all other gods) along with Asclepius (the god of healing). Professor Everett Ferguson in his work titled "Backgrounds of Early Christianity" noted that the statues of Asclepius (the pagan god of healing) were images "that imitated Zeus and that his portraiture influenced artists in depicting both Sarapis [the Egyptian Zeus] and Christ" .
Remarkably, the pagan god Sarapis of the fourth century appeared very much like what Christians (from the time of Constantine onwards) began to depict as their “Jesus.” At that time the people began to abandon all of the early depictions of Christ made in the previous hundred years or so which showed ‘Jesus normally as young, beardless and with much shorter hair—not with long flowing feminine type of hair. But now, with Constantine, the people began to want “Jesus” to appear like the pagan gods, so they selected the model of Zeus after the Egyptian rendition of Sarapis (the Egyptian Zeus) to be their new “Jesus.” What they actually did was to change the name of “Zeus” (Sarapis) into “Jesus.” The people kept on worshiping Zeus (Sarapis) but they now called him “Jesus.”
The truth is, the real “Jesus” of the New Testament (who taught in the flesh among the Jews almost 2000 years ago) groomed himself by clipping his hair to keep it relatively short, and to prevent head lice which was very common at that time. The apostle Paul said it was a shame for a man to have long hair because the male is made in the image of God who is groomed with short hair (I Corinthians 11:3-16). It was a common characteristic of Jewish men to wear their hair in a close-cropped fashion. Eusebius copied the text of the Jewish historian Josephus in Against Apion I.22, para.173-4. In this section, Josephus was quoting an early Gentile author who gave some unique grooming styles of Jewish men. Josephus shows that the Jews were known, as Eusebius renders it, for “their close-cropped hair” (Preparation for the Gospel, IX.9, sect 412b).
Along with extensive writings from the period, experts also point to a frieze on Rome's Arch of Titus, erected after Jerusalem was captured in AD 70 to celebrate the victory, which shows Jewish men with short hair taken into captivity. And in the Jewish catacombs of first century Rome we see our first representations of Jesus. There he was depicted as a beardless shepherd.
There was a definite reason why Jewish men (especially in the time of Jesus) wore their hair short as a common custom. The people knew that the Aaronic priests had the role of being mediators between themselves and God. Sometimes the priests took the place of the people in petitioning God, while at other times the priests became a substitute for God in instructing the people. In the time of Jesus most of the Sadducees were priests while the majority of the remainder of the Jews were Pharisees. The Pharisees applied the Scripture that the whole nation of Israel were to be reckoned as priests (Exodus 19:6) and they invented some strict customs even for themselves and the common people that were actually designed only for priests. And what was a principal custom (indeed, it was a command from God) that characterized the priests because of their roles in being like God to the people and the rest of the world? God commanded all priests to have short hair! That’s right, the priests who administered in the first Tabernacle and later in the Temple at Jerusalem were required to have short hair, not long hair which women were accustomed to wear.
Such a command had been in effect since the time of Moses. Whereas the King James Version mistakenly translates Leviticus 10:6 as “uncover not your heads,” the Jewish authorities always knew that this should be rendered “Let the hair of your heads not grow long” (see Rashi on Leviticus 10:6; and it is so translated in The Jerusalem Bible, Koren ed.).
This command of God was given again in the time of Ezekiel. “They shall not shave their heads [that is, to be bald] or let their locks grow LONG, they shall only trim the hair of their heads” (Ezekiel 44:20 RSV).
This shows that the priests of God (who represented God before the people) were utterly forbidden to have long hair. They had their hair trimmed short in order to do the divine administrations in the Temple because they were looked on by the common people among the Jews as substitutes for “God.” This was unlike some heathen priests, however, who wore long hair to mimic the gods they worshiped. But Jewish men followed the example of their priests and wore their hair short. After all, the ordinary men also wanted to be groomed like God was groomed and not like pagan gods, philosophers or alien priests.
Only when Jewish men were under a Nazarite vow (which normally lasted for 30 days, and rarely beyond 100 days—(see M’Clintock and Strong, Cyclopaedia, vol.VI, pp.881,882) or when in short periods of mourning (see early Jewish commentaries on Leviticus 10:6) did Jewish men refrain from going to a barber.
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord: He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. All the days that he separates himself unto the Lord he shall come at [touch] no dead body” (Num. 6:2-3, 6).
Christ drank wine (Matt. 11:19) and, on occasion, touched a dead body (Matt. 9:25). Had He been under a Nazarite vow, He would not have done either of these things. Those under this vow grew their hair long as a sign of humiliation. Also notice that when the time of the vow was over, the person under the vow was to shave his head (Num. 6:18)—ending this shameful period!
Indeed, for a Jewish male to have long hair signified his attitude of mourning and that he was in shame and humiliation. "Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God." (I Corinthians 11:14-16).
Nowhere in God’s Word are we told to be concerned with what Christ looked like as a human being. The only description we are given is this: “For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isa. 53:2). Jesus would have looked like any other Jewish man of His time. He would have been a normal, healthy, masculine-looking man. As a carpenter and a boat builder, He spent most of His life working outdoors (Mark 6:3). He did not look like an effeminate weakling—with long hair!
Most philosophers and most of the pagan gods were depicted with long hair. Dio Chrysostom, the practical philosopher who lived in the first century, told his readers that he and many other philosophers wore their hair long like the pagan Romans(Oration Thirty-Five, vol.III. pp.391, 401 Loeb ed.). Epictetus in his Discourses (Chapter 8) urged people not to adopt quickly the grooming habits of the professionals such as wearing the cloak, wearing long hair and beard of the philosophers. In Epictetus’ opinion only those who were true philosophers should adopt such grooming habits. Since Epictetus lived about 50 years after the apostle Paul, this is again proof that ordinary Greek men wore their hair short. But by the fourth century, Emperor Constantine's bishops began to teach that Jesus should be depicted like the heathen gods—with a beard and long hair!
What About Leviticus 19:27 and 21:5?
Still, some may ask about two passages in the book of Leviticus that seem to prohibit the cutting of one’s hair. They read, “You shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shall you mar the corners of your beard” (Lev. 19:27); and “They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh” (21:5).
A casual reading of these passages seems to imply that it is wrong to shave or cut one’s hair. However, this is not the case. Reading from the American Translation by Goodspeed helps one to understand the true meaning of these verses: “You must not shave around your temple, nor do away with the corners of your beard” and “They must not shave part of their heads bald, nor shave off the corners of their beards, nor make incisions in their bodies.” Recognize that this was instruction to the nation of Israel after they had come out of Egypt. For centuries, they had not known the true God or His ways. The only way of life they had been exposed to was the pagan culture of Egypt, with its multitude of false gods.
Notice this admonition in Jeremiah 10:2: “Thus says the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen.” The ancient Israelites had undoubtedly learned some of Egypt’s ways, necessitating that God instruct them in His ways.
It was a ceremonial custom of the Egyptians to cut and trim beards and hair into special shapes that would honor a particular pagan deity—often the sun god. The Egyptians of old cropped their dark locks very short. Or they shaved it precisely, leaving the remaining hair on the crown, forming a circle that surrounded the head (the halo has been borrowed from this practice), while they dressed their beards in a square form. Conversely, a round bald spot may have been shaved on the head.
Again, this practice was intended to honor a pagan god. Doing these things does not honor the true God. The Bible forbids this kind of worship.
Jesus Wore Britches Under His Robe
Great care was taken, in reverence God, to preserve decency, prevent immodesty, and to guard against laughter and levity.
Exodus 28
2 "Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor
42Make linen breeches as a covering for the body, reaching from the waist to the thigh. 43Aaron and his sons must wear them whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they will not incur guilt and die.
“This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants."
Matthew Henry (1662-1714 A.D.) was a Calvinist Biblical Commentator and Presbyterian Minister. In his book, "Complete Commentary", he said "The priest's garments typify the righteousness of Christ. If we appear not before God in that, we shall bear our iniquity, and die. Blessed is he, therefore, that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, Re 16:15. And blessed be God that we have a High Priest [Jesus], appointed of God, and set apart for his work; furnished for his high office by the glory of his Divine majesty, and the beauty of perfect holiness. Happy are we, if by the law spiritually understood, we see that such a High Priest became us; that we cannot draw near to a holy God, or be accepted, but by him.
Maimonides. Moses ben Maimon [known to English speaking audiences as Maimonides and Hebrew speaking as Rambam] (1138–1204) is the greatest Jewish philosopher of the medieval period and is still widely read today. In his Mishneh Torah, his 14-volume compendium of Jewish law, he talked about the linen breeches priests were required to wear. He said: "who also observes, that they had strings, but had no opening before or behind, but were drawn up round like a purse; they were a sort of drawers, and somewhat like our sailors' trousers".
Exodus 39:27-28(NIV)
27 For Aaron and his sons, they made tunics of fine linen—the work of a weaver— 28 and the turban of fine linen, the linen headbands and the undergarments of finely twisted linen.
Revelation 19:16 (Geneva Bible)
10And the Priest shall put on his linen garment, and shall put on his linen breeches upon his flesh, and take away the ashes when the fire hath consumed the burnt offering upon the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. 11After, he shall put off his garments, and put on other raiment, and carry the ashes forth without the host unto a clean place.
The priestly undergarments (Biblical Hebrew: מִכְנְסֵי־בָד mikhnsey-bad) were specially made linen breeches worn by the priests and the High Priest in ancient Israel. They reached from the waist to just below the knees and so were not visible, being entirely hidden by the priestly tunic.
According to the Talmud, the undergarments atone for the sin of sexual transgressions on the part of the Children of Israel. The linen undergarments symbolized the abolition of the distinction between the heavenly and the mortal part of man, as contrasted with the divine nature, which is absolutely holy and living. Because of this, it was common for even the poorest of men to wear breeches [undergarments] under their tunics.
Job was told in Job 38 and Job 40 to gird up his loins “like a man.” This is because a man could gird up his other garments and still be decent because he was wearing breeches underneath. A woman, on the other hand, could not gird up her loins “like a man” since she was not wearing knee length pants underneath (see Deuteronomy 22.5). Women, instead, wore linen slips (tunics) under their woolen robes (which reached her ankles) for feminine modesty. Women also wore a loincloth, the equivalent of today's female underpants. This was a long thin strip of cloth which was wound around the waist and then between the legs, with the end tucked in at the waist. Women probably wore some sort of binding around their breasts too.
"Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me." - Job 38:3
“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” – Deuteronomy 22:5
Women's outer apparel was distinguished from mans by its finer weave and more colorful materials, with the presence of a veil (Genesis 24:65). Women would prepare dyes of various colors: blue from wood, yellow from pomegranate, lilac from myrtle, etc. Even the poorest Jewish women used vegetable dyes to get a range of colors for her woolen clothes. The veil was an essential part of female dress. It was often thrown aside while working in the garden or the field, but on the appearance of a stranger, it is drawn over the face, as to conceal all but the eyes. In a bride it was a token of her reverence and subjection to her husband.
"For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a veil, and covered herself." - Genesis 24:65 (Geneva Bible)
Widows were apparently set apart by wearing special clothing, such as in Gen- 38.14, where Tamar put off her widow's garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim in an effort to appear like a prostitute when she seduced her father-in-law Judah. Upon leaving Judah, she took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes once more (Gen. 38.19).
These may be similar to garments worn by women who were in mourning for other reasons; 2 Sam. 21.10 records that Rizpah, Saul's concubine, prepared sackcloth for herself to wear in mourning after her sons were handed over to the Gibeonites. Although we cannot guess the color of a widow's garments, it seems that they were made of rougher material than was typically used to make clothing. (Women's Lives in Biblical Times, Jennie R. Ebeling, T & T Clark International, p.133)
Jewish men were required by their law (Numbers 15:37-41; Deut. 22:12) to put tassels (tzitzit or fringes) on the corners of their garments with a blue cord intertwined in them. This tradition is still followed by observant Jews during services, in the tasselled tzitzit knotted on the four corners of the tallit, a big fringed, four-cornered prayer shawl. The large tallit, usually made of wool, was worn only during morning prayer and in the afternoon and for all services on the Day of Atonement.
The blue dye for tzitzit was obtained from the Mediterranean sea snail (murex) from which the ancients (mainly the Phoenicians) obtained blue and purple dyes. Because the use of shellfish gave rise to certain difficulties, the Talmud (Menahot 38a) later taught that all fringes might be white. Every male garment originally had tzitzits and wearing them differentiated a zealous Jew from his neighbours. Later on, however, they were worn only on intimate garments or in the synagogue.
The Bible also tells how fine linen was wrapped around the head of the High Priest as a turban or mitre — the saniph or kidaris (Exodus 28:39). Ordinary men wore a kerchief over the head, held tight by a cord. When bareheaded, men wore a fillet (a narrow band of cloth or leather) to keep the sweat off their brow. A skull cap or turban was also typical. The peasant or soldier seems to have wound a simple strip of cloth around the head, leaving one fringed end to hang over the right ear.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
We have a good idea of clothing in New Testament times because of a discovery made in Israel in 1960. Bedouin tribesmen found many Hebrew artifacts in a cave near En-gedi on the Dead Sea, which were dated to the Bar Kokhba War in 132CE. The cave was in a rocky cliff-face.
It appears that during the Bar Kokhba War a group of 17 people, including six children, were trapped in the cave. They starved to death there, rather than surrender to the Roman soldiers who were camped immediately above the entrance to their cave. A range of textiles was found with their skeletons. There were women’s tunics, cloaks, and loincloths; a child’s linen shirt; and balls of unspun purple wool. There were also men's breeches, robes, a kerchief and a leather fillet.
And from that time period there are various statutes, obelisks, and illustrated vases depicting important Hebrews and their servants that still exist today. All of these help confirm what is talked about in the Bible.