Towel
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
λέντιον names a linen towel, the kind of cloth a servant would wear or use for menial washing tasks. John 13:4-5 uses it twice: Jesus wraps it around his waist like a servant's apron, and he uses it to dry the disciples' feet after washing them.
Reader summary
Full entry for λέντιον (G3012) · Open the biblical lexicon
λέντιον names a linen towel, the kind of cloth a servant would wear or use for menial washing tasks. John 13:4-5 uses it twice: Jesus wraps it around his waist like a servant's apron, and he uses it to dry the disciples' feet after washing them.
The BSB source-word alignment has 2 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a towel (1), towel (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 13:4. Its strongest book concentrations include John (2).
λέντιον names a linen towel, the kind of cloth a servant would wear or use for menial washing tasks. John 13:4-5 uses it twice: Jesus wraps it around his waist like a servant's apron, and he uses it to dry the disciples' feet after washing them. The word's ordinariness is deliberate. John has just told readers that Jesus, knowing the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God (John 13:3), responds to that full authority not with a display of power but by taking up a servant's towel.
The garment Jesus lays aside and the towel he takes up form a visual argument: supreme authority expressing itself in the lowest household task. Teachers should let the towel's ordinariness carry its own weight rather than rushing past it to abstract lessons about humility in general.
John 13:4-5 is often taught as a lesson in humility in general, but the surrounding verses sharpen the point considerably. John does not describe Jesus setting aside authority to take up the towel; he describes Jesus taking up the towel because of his authority, fully aware of who he is and where he is going.
After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel that was around Him.
John 13:4-5 records Jesus wrapping a towel around his waist and using it to dry the disciples' feet after washing them.
Jesus knew that the Father had delivered all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was returning to God.
John 13:3 explicitly grounds this act in Jesus' full authority, 'knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands,' making the towel a deliberate expression of that authority rather than a lack of it.
But emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Philippians 2:6-7 describes Christ, 'existing in the form of God,' taking 'the form of a servant,' giving a wider New Testament theology of self-humbling authority that the towel in John 13 pictures in a single concrete scene.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. A linen cloth used for menial service, prominently symbolizing humble self-sacrifice in Christ's foot-washing
A linen cloth used for menial service, prominently symbolizing humble self-sacrifice in Christ's foot-washing
a linen cloth, towel: Jhn.13:4-5.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
2 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a towel, apron
Read versea towel, apron
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 2 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
John 13:4-5 is often taught as a lesson in humility in general, but the surrounding verses sharpen the point considerably. John does not describe Jesus setting aside authority to take up the towel; he describes Jesus taking up the towel because of his authority, fully aware of who he is and where he is going. The towel is not a temporary suspension of Jesus' status; it is a direct expression of it.
Preachers can use this detail to challenge any leadership model that treats service as beneath authority, since John presents the two, in Jesus, as inseparable. This word opens a teaching doorway on authority expressed through service: Jesus takes up the servant's towel not despite his full authority but because of it, giving leaders a concrete picture of humility that flows from strength rather than from a lack of it.
It equips teachers to challenge models of leadership that treat service as something authority outgrows. It corrects readings that treat the foot-washing as Jesus temporarily setting aside his status, missing John 13:3's explicit statement that the act flows directly from his full authority. Frame λέντιον as the concrete, ordinary symbol of authority expressing itself as service, not as evidence of authority being surrendered.
John.13.5
Frame λέντιον as the concrete, ordinary symbol of authority expressing itself as service, not as evidence of authority being surrendered. Linguistically, λέντιον should be allowed to name a linen towel without carrying claims the cited passages do not make.
The New Testament repeatedly describes Christ's authority expressed through servanthood rather than domination (Phil 2:6-7; Mark 10:45), and John 13:4-5's towel gives that pattern its most concrete, visual form, tying supreme authority to the lowest household task.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain