Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Garment That Made Them Gamble

According to John 19: 223 four Roman soldiers who witnessed Christ's death on the torture stake cast lots to see who would take the inner garment he had worn

 You might wonder why they would view his inner garment as such a prize. I mean inner garments were not unique. Natives of the Middle during that time often wore these under their clothes much as we would wear a sweat shirt today. They were not that unique.

Early tailors made from rectangular pieces of linen or wool that when finished reached to the wearer's knees after the clothes maker had sewn together two pieces of rectangular cloth along three sides and left holes for head and arms.

More expensive garments were made from one longer piece of cloth and folder in the middle with a hole left for the head. The sides then were hemmed up with holes for both arms on the sides according to the publication  Jesus and His World.  Still not that unusual.

But both the loom and the tunic produced on it were very unique -- at least in Palestine. The operator worked with an upright loom with two sets of of vertical threads -- one at the front of the loom and one at the rear.

Unlike other looms the operator making this style of garment alternated the shuttle on the machine which carried the weft threat alternatively between the two enabling the weaver to produce sa cylindrical garments -- with no seams.

This style of inner garment was very rare in Palestine of that time and would have been a prized possession -- something Roman soldiers saw as something worth casting lots for.  The rest of Jesus' clothes they apparently just divided  up. 

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